Here are nineteen of my best writing lessons and prompts.
Since 2001, I have been working with the Northern Nevada Writing Project on a marvelous project: the creation of the WritingFix website.
I have conducted dozens of lesson-building workshops, where participants propose new lessons to be housed on the website. For each workshop, I have created a new lesson alongside the class participants.
Below, find links to nineteen of my favorite lessons that can be accessed freely at WritingFix. |
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My Absolute Favorite Lesson to Teach:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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A Lesson inspired by a Perfect Picture Book for Writers:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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Focus Trait: Voice
Support Trait: Idea Development
Mentor Text: Caves by Stephen Kramer
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: The writer creates an original 2-part setting description, beginning the description by focusing on things that are NOT present, instead of on things that are.
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Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Word Choice
Mentor Text: Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street by Roni Schotter
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Using the writing advice the main character receives in Roni Schotter's picture book, the writer plans a "snapshot" scene that interestingly describes a person, place, and thing.
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My First "Purposeful Paragraph" Writing Lesson:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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My Best "Write with your Funny Bone" Lesson:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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Focus Trait: Organization
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency
Mentor Text: Any of the Choose Your Own Adventure Books by R. A. Montgomery
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Using the premise of the CYOA books, writers create their own adventure story, complete with a heroic adventurer. Instead of teaching that paragraphs are a formula, this writing assignment teaches that paragraphs are planned with purpose.
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Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Voice
Mentor Text: Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Student writers imagine an abstraction (like a fraction) or an animal (like an amoeba) can keep a 10-day diary, and then, inspired by Doreen Cronin's sense of humor, they convey facts and humor about their diary keeper.
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My Best "Punctuation in Context" Lesson:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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My First Chapter Book-Inspired Lesson:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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Focus Trait: Conventions
Support Trait: Word Choice
Mentor Text: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Students create a parody of Dickens' opening to A Tale of Two Cities, complete with its long series of comma splices; then, after a lesson on conjunctions, students correct their comma splices while revising their words.
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Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Organization
Mentor Text: Wringer by Jerry Spinelli
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Students imagine a scenario where a character hears numbers being counted up or down out loud, then prepare a scene where the world is slowed down and details are shared between the counted numbers.
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A Lesson Inspired by my favorite YA Novel:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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A Lesson I Most Wish my Teachers had Assigned Me:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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Focus Trait: Voice
Support Trait: Organization
Mentor Text: Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Inspired by Because of Winn Dixie's two ten-item lists, students create an original decalogue from an original character's point-of-view; then, they create a story where one character shares his/her decalogue with another character.
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Focus Trait: Conventions
Support Trait: Word Choice
Mentor Text: Any of the Tom Swift Adventure Series by Victor Appleton II
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Inspired by the "Tom Swiftie" jokes that emerged from Victor Appleton's dialogue-writing style, this writing prompt challenges students to create original Tom Swiftie puns, then work with partners to be sure their sentences are punctuated flawlessly. |
My First I-Pod Inspired Writing Lesson:
(Click on the title or the album thumbnail to access the lesson)
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Another Lesson I Wish my Teachers had Assigned Me:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Word Choice
Mentor Text: Jim Croce's song "I've Got a Name"
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Inspired by the mythological tales of Theseus and Orpheus, and by Jim Croce's song, students create a poem about themselves, imagining what items they will carry with them when their own heroic quests into life begin.
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Focus Trait: Voice
Support Trait: Conventions
Mentor Text: The Web Files by Margie Palatini
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Inspired by Margie Palatini's delightful parody of the television show Dragnet, this lesson asks students to channel the voice of Jack Webb's Joe Friday as a narrator for an original mystery story.
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My Second I-Pod Inspired Writing Lesson:
(Click on the title or the picture thumbnail to access the lesson)
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My Best Sentence Fluency Mini Lesson:
(Click on the title or the book thumbnail to access the lesson)
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Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Word Choice
Mentor Text: Pat Benatar's song "Love is a Battlefield "
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Inspired by the intriguing metaphor found in this classic song from the eighties, this lesson challenges student writers to create a unique metaphor for love, and then model a poem about the new metaphors that resembles the original song. |
Focus Trait: Sentence Fluency
Support Trait: Organization
Mentor Text: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Inspired by the rhythmic sentences of picture book author extra-ordinaire Jane Yolen, this prompt has students plan, then create a descriptive paragraph that balances showing and telling together while maintaining sentences that flow together. |
My First Same-Theme/Different-Story Lesson
(Click on the title or the picture thumbnail to access the lesson)
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My Second Same-Theme/Different-Story Lesson
(Click on the title or the picture thumbnail to access the lesson)
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Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Organization
Mentor Text: Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Moore
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: One of my favorite assignments for my students was to have them analyze a story with multiple themes. I would, then, have them choose a favorite theme from our class list and create an original story that would teach the exact same theme with different characters, setting, and plot. Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Moore is a book that has multiple themes that can be easily discovered by student writers. |
Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Organization
Mentor Text: Fox by Margaret Wild
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: One of my favorite assignments for my students was to have them analyze a story with multiple themes. I would, then, have them choose a favorite theme from our class list and create an original story that would teach the exact same theme with different characters, setting, and plot. Fox by Margaret Wild is a book that has multiple themes that can be easily discovered by student writers. |
My Two Tributes to poet E. A. Robinson
(Click on a lesson title to access either lesson) |
My Tribute to poet Wallace Stevens
(Click on the image or the lesson title to access this lesson)
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 Focus Trait for both lessons: Idea Development
Mentor Text: E. A Robinson's poems about two of his Tillbury Town residents, "Reuben Bright" and "Richard Cory"
Summary: Even though E. A. Robinson's poem "Richard Cory" is the more famous, but his poem about the butcher, "Reuben Bright," always inspired my students so much more. Both lessons are good, but start with Reuben Bright. It's one of the best poetry-inspired lessons I've ever come up with. Enjoy. |
Focus Trait: Idea Development
Support Trait: Sentence Fluency
Mentor Text: "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens
 Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: While E. A. Robinson's poems are often easy to interpret, Wallace Stevens' poems take a bit more work. His "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" remains one that I come back to, and find within it new interpretations regularly. This assignment has students--without fully being able to intrepret the cryptic poem--imitate its style with topics other than blackbirds |
My Tribute to my Father's Favorite Steinbeck
(Click on a lesson title of book cover to access this lesson)
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Do you Love Oxymorons Like I Do?
(Click on a lesson title of book cover to access this lesson)
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Focus Trait: Organization
Support Trait: Idea Development
Mentor Text: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: Inspired by Doc's ordering of a beer milkshake in chapter 17, students plan and write an organized story about tasting something with drastically opposite qualities. |
 Focus Trait: Word Choice
Click on the image to access the lesson on-line at the WritingFix website.
Summary: When I was still dating my future wife, Dena, we sat at dinner during a conference with our friend Phil Harriman. Talked turned to funny oxymorons we had heard. We started brainstorming what an oxymoron-making machine would look like. The result of that dinner conversation is the Serendipitous Oxymoron Maker at the WritingFix website. Click the buttons to find a phrase that might serve as a title for a poem or as an interesting phrase in a description. |
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