Six days to the writing test! And I have the heebie jeebies! Although this is my 15th year of teaching, this is the first year that my students will have to take a standardized writing test. I love writing and I love to teach writing….just not in 50 minutes with reading and grammar as well! *pausing for a panic attack*.
I am lucky that many of these students are already strong writers in most of the writing rubric areas (content/development and organization), and I’m not even going to touch conventions…..so we are spending the bulk of our time working on voice.
In VOICE, we focus on the following areas:
- vivid vocabulary
- varied sentence structure
- quotes
- humor
- figurative language
The students are really blossoming! It’s funny, but my Honor students are still very reserved (and I have SIX days to fix that!), while my other students are taking dramatic risks! 🙂 One of my students called his blueberry muffins “awesomeness in a cup”! Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!
And now for the freebie! I’m linking up with TBA for Freebie Friday (and yes, I know it’s Sunday doggone it!)
Here is a powerpoint that we used to help students beef up their vocabulary. They did an AWESOME job! I’m attaching the powerpoint and the handout that goes with it.
Toodles!
