Rozlyn Linder's Blog

February 25, 2016

Adjectives in Front: Varying Sentence Styles

This is one of my favorite charts to create with students. I have made variations of this chart with students in grades second through eleventh. This simple way to add sentence variety is fun and easy to do. Introducing this Chart: I began by writing five actual sentences taken from the introductory paragraphs of argument papers that a group... Read more
1 like ·   •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 25, 2016 11:32

February 19, 2016

Transitions Beyond First, Next, and Then

Students are regularly taught that writers use transitions to move to different ideas with a piece of writing. Unfortunately, many students think that sequence words followed by a comma are the only types of transitions that exist. This often results in a very limited use of transitions and an overuse of sequential transitions. Students of all ages can benefit from... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 19, 2016 11:30

February 12, 2016

Establishing Context Beyond Ordinary Hooks

This is a great chart to help stretch out introductions. When students prepare to argue a point, they commonly create thesis statements that name their points in one sentence. When students do this, they end up with nothing much left to write in their introduction. We encourage them to provide context, background, or hook their readers in this space. While... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 12, 2016 11:28

February 9, 2016

Argument Bookmarks

This chart was created when working with eighth graders. Students were preparing to take a state exam and needed to respond to an isolated writing prompt. Many of the students had great points to support their claims, but lacked organization and elaboration. Why a Bookmark? This chart is called a bookmark because after instruction I always type up smaller versions... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 09, 2016 22:08

February 8, 2016

Describing Settings and Characters

This checklist was created with fifth graders working on realistic fiction pieces. We were fleshing out our character and setting descriptions, but students were only sticking with basics like physical appearance what they could see on the outside. I wanted them to go deeper and really think about how many different elements made up a character or a setting. I... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on February 08, 2016 11:23

September 19, 2015

Analyzing Literary Devices

A common method of analysis is to read a piece of literature or informational text as a writer. This means that students analyze the author’s craft. One of the most accessible ways to do this is examine how different authors use literary devices. At the beginning of our unit, I created this chart with a group of seventh graders. I... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 19, 2015 09:48

September 13, 2015

Recipe for a Literary Analysis Topic Sentence

This chart was created to help students form a topic sentence for analysis. This chart was created with literature in mine, but could be modified to work with informational text as well. The fourth graders (the first grade that has this standard) that worked on this chart had never analyzed written to analyze literature. Most of their writing about books... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 13, 2015 09:43

September 10, 2015

Get Kids Thinking About Ways to Describe!

Students seem to understand that narratives warrant rich, vivid, sensory language. Likewise, students recognize the argumentative nature of opinion writing and associate that with strong details and illustrative examples. When it comes to informative/ explanatory writing, students suddenly seem compelled to write in a sterile fashion. For some reason, the shift to informational writing results in papers filled with lots... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 10, 2015 07:05

September 7, 2015

No more THE END…Teaching Narrative Endings

This chart was created with sixth graders. Students had written personal narratives during the week. Most of the students had written full stories, but typically just ended the narrative with the last event or big moment. While many of the stories had great arcs, they endings felt more like a letdown. They needed to tie the stories up in a... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 07, 2015 07:39

September 4, 2015

Teaching Elaboration!

If you ask a student how they elaborate and add more details to their writing, most students will be limited in what that actually means. They know what you want, but struggle with the strategies to make this happen. This chart was created with seventh grade students working on informational and argument writing, but is appropriate for all grade levels.... Read more
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on September 04, 2015 07:24