Your holidays through poetry

Are you a reluctant writer? Or do you love the power of words?
Here is a starter to help you write more expressively about your holidays... And as a bonus, you need less words too ;-)

New Zealand has several famous writers and poets. James K. Baxter is one of them. He writes thus:


"The town was usual enough; it had
A creek, a bridge, a beach, a sky
Over it, and even a small tin church
I never went to. My brother, my cousins and I
Did what boys do - dozed in the hot
Schoolroom, made bows and arrows, dodged the mad
Boatbuilder, crept like rabbits through the black
Under-runners with a weak torch,
Burnt dry rushes, wrestled or swam
Doing nothing important"

- James K. Baxter


Re-write the poem, filling in your own details, using strong verbs, interesting nouns, and appealing adjectives, yet maintaining the same rhythm. Post it on your own blog or as a comment here.

writing inspiration

this is an interesting site that i found via a fellow twitterer...

ipods can be used to help inspire writing too....

Story "hooks"

What is the "hook" in a story?
please share your ideas to help your classmates understand what is meant by the term
:-)

speed writing

free association, speed writing is a way to warm up your brain for further more disciplined writing. sometimes people get stuck finding it difficult to start writing. what we did in class was an exercise, much like warming up before you enter a race.
not all of you would have enjoyed it at first, but could you make comments on how it was for you as a learning experience. i could tell that many of you enjoyed it. was it useful?
[this is where you can give feedback on what you do in class - have your say, share ideas, be interesting and constructive please]
:-)

[and yes, i know i am not using capitals - whoops]

literacy planning online

The net is a rich source of well designed lessons, units, ideas, etc.
Why reinvent the wheel?
These plans are all from "readwritethink.org" - a great site for resources and ideas.

Action Is Character: Exploring Character Traits with Adjectives:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=175

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=116

Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in Electronic Messages:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=159

Audio Broadcasts and Podcasts: Oral Storytelling and Dramatization:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=901

Become a Character: Adjectives, Character Traits, and Perspective:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=168

Defining Literacy in a Digital World:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=915

Designing Effective Poster Presentations:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1076

Book Reviews, Annotation, and Web Technology:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=137

Character Clash: A Mini-Lesson on Paragraphing and Dialogue:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=117

Choose Your Own Adventure: A Hypertext Writing Experience:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=128

Choosing, Chatting, and Collecting: Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=296

Collaborating, Writing, Linking: Using Wikis to Tell Stories Online:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1087

Empowered Fiction Writers: Generating and Organizing Ideas for Story Writing:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1025

Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1062

Guided Comprehension in Action: Teaching Summarizing With the Bio-Cube:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1028

Literature Circle Roles Reframed: Reading as a Film Crew:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=877

More than One Way to Create Vivid Verbs:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1008

Peer Review: Narrative:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=122

[For any educators out there, do you have ideas for online publishing of shared planning?]