Writing

Resource for Teaching Students How to Write a Rant Poem

Rant poems come in all shapes and sizes, but they are most commonly defined as free-verse prose poems written about a particular subject.

Some tips for teaching students the structure of writing a rant poem are:

1. Help students find a subject that provokes/annoys/frustrates them

2. Brainstorm a list of reasons why the subject provokes/annoys/frustrates them  

3. Help students develop a tone they want their poem to convey

4. Start to write the rant poem by putting sentences together in chronological order.

5. Get students to break lines in their poem where it is appropriate

6. End the rant with a concluding sentence

Teachers can incorporate rant poems into the writing strand. Writing poems helps students to gain knowledge about poetry, recognize that their experiences and perceptions have value as well as allowing them to express themselves.

Writing a poem is a way to teach vocabulary and sentence structure while fostering individuality and creative thinking.

An activity that I will use in my classroom is a “fill in the blank” poem for the students to fill out. I have attached links to some examples:

- https://www.education.com/worksheet/article/narrative-poetry/

- https://www.familyeducation.com/printables/fill-blank-verse-kids

Below is a link to TedTalk that discuses how to write a poem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BUYzMypi8 

Resource for Teaching Students How to Revise Their Work

“Guide on the Side: Collaboratively Writing and Revising with Students” by Pytash, Testam, Geise and Kovalchick (2017) explores the benefits of educators writing alongside their students. This is important because it provides students with the opportunity to observe the writing and revision process. Revision is a necessary aspect in the writing process, yet the teaching aspect of it often gets overlooked. It is important for educators to note that revision is more than just editing. Editing involves reviewing spelling, sentence structure and sentence fluency whereas teaching revision involves explaining thinking about reasoning and ideas to the students.

I can think of many examples of how teachers can incorporate revision into their teaching! For example, as the teacher, you could write a paragraph with some details missing and have areas that could be expanded upon. Then read the paragraph aloud with the whole class. After this, as a class, collaboratively work together to revise the paragraph. Guiding questions that could be asked are:

- What are some descriptive words that I can add?

- Where can I include more personal details?

- Where can I provide more detail or go into more depth?

- What parts can I remove?

Resource for Teaching Students about Paragraph Structure

A resource that educators can use to teach their students about paragraph structure is the “paragraph hamburger”. The “paragraph hamburger” is a writing organizer that visually outlines the key components of a paragraph. Topic sentence, detail sentences, and a closing sentence are the main elements of a good paragraph, and each one forms a different "piece" of the hamburger.

Why use a paragraph hamburger organizer?

-       It helps students organize their ideas into a cohesive paragraph.

-       It helps show the organization or structure of concepts/ideas.

-       It demonstrates in a concrete way how information is related.

How to use paragraph hamburger

1. Discuss the three main components of a paragraph or story.

-       The introduction (top bun)

-       The internal or supporting information (the filling)

-       The conclusion (bottom bun)

2. Ask students to write a topic sentence that clearly indicates what the whole paragraph is going to be about.

3. Have students compose several supporting sentences that give more information about the topic.

4. Instruct students on ways to write a concluding sentence that restates the topic sentence.