Sent with IFTTT

Thank you for all the fab feedback on Slow Writing. Most of the recognistion really belongs to David Didau and David Riley. I am just the maven that stole the idea from one David and gave it to the other. Now we need a few more. Here is what we have so far;

“must be just one word.”,”must end with an exclamation mark!”,”must contain alliteration.”,”must contain an assertion (opinion presented as a fact).”,”must contain a rule of three.”,”must contain an embedded subordinate clause.”,”must start with the word ‘Although’ / When / As.”,”must contain a colon.”,”must start with a connective.”,”must contain a metaphor.”,”must contain a statistic.”,”must be written in the passive voice.”,”must be 15 words in length.”,”must contain brackets.”,”must focus on the sense of smell/taste/touch/hearing.”,”must be sarcastic.”,”must start with a present participle.”,”must contain only three words.”, “must contain a semi-colon.”,”must be a rhetorical question.”,”will start with an adverb.”, “must contain a simile.”, “must start with an imperative verb.”, “must use repetition for emphasis.”, “must contain emotive language.”

@kristianstill parenthetic commas; one word sentence; start with 2 adjectives (Hot & tired...); powerful verb (no adverb); fronted adverbial

about 22 hours ago via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@Lallysticks

Shanti Lall

Any more ideas woudl be appreciated.

Next @Laura_Suths would like personalised or language specific tasks prompts. We will try and get to it soon Laura but for now its the end of a long and busy day.

This is brilliant but could we make one that could be entirely personalised. For example, one to be used when teaching persuasive writing?

@GreatestQuotes:

“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” – Charles F. Kettering

http://twitter.com/GreatestQuotes/status/203003307650854912

Sent with IFTTT

It started with David Didau’s (@learningspy) blog post. BIF! Then onto David Riley (@David_Triptico), Triptico creator and education app designer.  BAM! (The man’s talent are for hire BTW.) Then it was back to my Year 8 ‘Creative Writing’ class for testing this morning and POW! With a thumbs up and a green light, from both the students and the my own humble opinion, the Slow Writing app is now online and available for you to use and contribute to.

http://www.triptico.co.uk/slowWriting.html

As David Riley says….

Feel free to share it with others if you like the resource and feel that it could be helpful. Any updates/changes/additions etc let me know and I will try my best to sort them.

Here are David Didau opening slow writing prompts:

• This sentence must be just one word
• This sentence must end with an exclamation mark
• This sentence must contain alliteration
• This sentence must contain an assertion (an opinion presented as a fact)
• This sentence must contain a rule of three
• This sentence must contain an embedded subordinate clause
• This sentence must start with the word ‘Although’ / When / As
• This sentence must contain a colon
• This sentence must start with a connective
• This sentence must contain a metaphor
• This sentence must contain a statistic
• This sentence must be written in the passive voice
• This sentence must be 15 words in length
• This sentence must contain brackets
• This sentence must focus on the sense of smell/taste/touch/hearing
• This sentence must be sarcastic

And as this David says…

These are all the ones I’ve used but I’m sure I can think of others.

Cheers, David

Any suggestions, are most welcome. Leave a comment, Tweet them or send them direct to either David, I we will hopefully grow the app. And while you are at it, do look over the Triptico suite. As I have said many times, the most design friendly, attractive teacher resources available for FREE.

Rev it up, upgrade your memory. The key to remembering things is to make them memorable. According to Nelson Dellis, USA Memory Champion, turn abstract words into images that are gross, funny, or absurd. This short video will defintiely help some of your students.

As an experienced practitioner, yet inexperienced English teacher, I have and continue to working hard to learn my refining my craft. The English Twitterati are a constant source of ‘tried and tested’ methods, strategies and ideas as well as encouragement when I strike out on my own.

This week we began with our Year 7a3 Creative Writing assessment piece. The structure and planning is for the first time being delivered via mindmapping webware ‘Popplet’ with the creative writing formula inspired by David Didau (@learningspy) slow writing processes. Combining the two methods, one untested with one tried and tested I hope will make a different to the students attainment.

Here’s how it works.

Spooky music is playing as the students entered the room. I asked the students to log on, access the site, create an account and follow the fab introductory instructions. I then gave then gave them a further 15 minutes to recreate the wireframe or scaffold as set out in Popplet and on display on the whiteboard and find a visual stimulus of a haunted house. Now, I know Google Images can be unreliable at times on school networks so I did create a folder of 10 Haunted House images on the network. 30 minutes, no excuses, wireframe and image. 30 minutes into the lesson and everyone was up to speed, some had gone onto to find a character and problem image. From here we used the wireframe to develop the students setting, drawing on the five senses ‘Sherbet Lemon’ unit of work.

Next we looked at the character and I asked the students to find a suitable image. It was pleasing to see students select a wide range of leading characters. The final task on the day was to write the opening two lines of the story. Introducing the setting and how did the character(s) were position at the haunted house at the start of the writing piece.

Lesson 2 was used to complete the plan, again with popplet. Students shared and developed their ideas on the lead character, the beast (now also extended to demon, spirit, or ghost). The solution, and finally ending. The resource can then be printed and shared as a writing stimulus for all students.

Slow Writing

With a thorough plan in place, I had hoped to use David Didau (@learningspy) slow writing process. However, I may need to rethink the final step. This morning I used the ‘Slow Writing’ Triptico App with a top set Year 7b1 class for a fortnightly single skills class. The Prezi is here. I was very impressed by the care and attention the technique enforced. Indeed so were the students, that surprised me a little, who where very proud indeed of their finished writing. That said, the sentence tasks challenge is quite broad, ranging from write a 15 word sentence to embedded suboardinate clause or the sentence must contain an assertion presented at a fact. These tasks presented a real challenge for 7b1, and one would therefore conclude would present an even more significant challenge for 7a3.

The question is, do we ask David Riley for a way to manage the difficulty level or do we support our less able learners?

Without question I agree with David Didau,

Generally speaking, students find it straightforward to write what they want but it’s much harder for them to think about how they’re going to write it. This process forces them to concentrate on the how instead of the what.