Literacy Speaks Volumes

Planning Your Story Professional writers plan their stories before they actually begin drafting. This is part of the prewriting stage of the writing process. Of course, writers still make changes along the way. Planning your story sounds boring, but it will make the drafting much easier. Imagining Characters If you want readers to pay attention to your story, your characters should seem alive. The best way to create alive characters is to describe them with sharp, specific details. You can make up details: a lavender kitten with one orange eye and one purple eye. Or you can borrow details from real people: a Civil War general who has your grandfather's twinkling green eyes. The following questions will help you imagine your characters and make them more solid. What does your character look like? What is your character's name? How would you describe the character's personality? What does the character love and hate? What does the character ...

Installment 2 is a companion to the following: Literacy Speaks Volumes: Writing Creatively Installment 1 : Imagining Other Worlds You probably like to go to the movies. Most people do. It's a chance to escape, just for a little while, to ... Ways to Write Creatively Write a television script about a child prodigy who longs for a normal life. Write a story about a Seminole girl who saves a panther cub in the Floriday Everglades. Write a song about a beautiful girl with long hair and sparkling eyes. Write a description of New York City in the year 4000. Write a poem comparing envy to a wasp's sting. Write a novel comparing the life of a big-city girl with that of a small-town boy. Write a poem about the amount of billboards that have been erected along a scenic highway. Write a play about how pride can drive away good friends. As you write, keep the following in mind:  A good piece of writing entertains the reader. A good piece of writing so...

Imagining Other Worlds You probably like to go to the movies. Most people do. It's a chance to escape, just for a little while, to other worlds. Movies allow our imaginations to run wild. Anything can happen. And, best of all, things usually come out okay in the end. Writers use their imagination to write movie scripts, novels, stories, plays, poems, and even comic strips. They tickle our own imagination by creating, and having us believe in, people and places that never were and never will be. They make us burst with excitement, fear, unreal expectations, and fun. Have you ever used your imagination to make up a story for a little child? Read the following myth to see how writers use their imagination to explain the world around them. This type of myth is called a creation story. Once upon a time, there were five wolf brothers who always traveled together to find meat. They would always share their meat with Coyote. One evening, Coyote saw the wolf brothers lo...

Standard English Standard English refers to whatever folks accept as a national norm in any English-speaking country. It includes grammar, vocabulary, and spelling. In the United States, it is called General American English. General American English is a form of American English. American English is what most Americans speak. Linguists debate the precise definition of General American English as it is still evolving. Scholars use the term as classification only. American English is a set of dialects of the English Language Natives in the United States. English is the common language of the United States Government. The use of English in the United States is a result of British Colonization. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the 17th century. Further migrations followed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since then, American English has been influenced by the languages of West Africa, the Native American population, German, Dutch, Irish,...

Well, I'm trying to stay busy, but it is so hard sometimes. Sometimes I think that I really would like to be a stay-at-home mom and work from my computer, but I'm not sure that I would stay focused. Summertime should be a time when I could get a gazillion educational and art projects completed, but I can't seem to stay focused or on task. Summertime calls me. I try to have a schedule; I make a to-do list; I have a list of Bright Ideas that I want to get accomplished, but I seem to run out of time before I actually get them finished. I'm not doing horribly, but it does make me wonder if I spend too much time doing meaningless chores. What do you do to stay motivated in the summertime? Melissa Reese Etheridge

Today was the first day back after our winter holidays. It wasn't too taxing~while I had developed lesson plans for these two days back, we didn't get to them. I spent part of each class period reviewing some old/new policies and rules. Don't we all seem to forget so soon what we have to do or what we shouldn't do? After the review, we had our annual Spelling Bee. After twenty-two years with seventh-graders, I'm still amazed at the spelling skills (or lack thereof) of thirteen-year-olds. The ones who can barely keep their grades in the black are some of the ones who can spell the best. Why is that? Spelling is a skill that does take knowledge of our language~so why doesn't that transfer into other areas of my curriculum? Speaking of curriculum~count down to standardized testing (sort of). I've been looking at the performance indicators and trying to determine which ones need to be taught in depth and which ones can be barely brushed upon. The stude...