Hey English teacher friends! This year in Creative Writing, I started a daily sentence study warm-up that I called Word Lab. It was the most beneficial 10 minutes of our class, hands down, and I want to share all of the resources I created with you! [thread!]
I curated a list of 50 sentences from a wide range of genres, passages that would get students thinking about style & craft & grammatical moves in authentic ways.
We followed three simple steps: [1] transcribe the passage in their digital notebooks; [2] analyze the techniques they noticed; and [3] imitate those techniques in their own original sentences (& of course, share!)
[I really could not go any further without giving explicit thanks to @RebekahODell1 & @pennykittle for the inspiration - some of these sentence study excerpts come from their brilliant minds!]
I know we've all been working so hard this year and feeling so burned out, so as I was archiving all my resources from this school year, I thought I would compile all 50 Word Labs in one convenient document in case you want to implement something similar next year.
Here's a link to the PDF! 2021-2022 Word Lab Archive: drive.google.com/file/d/1RIqaLs…
[Note that I used these with high school students, primarily upperclassmen - some passages may work with younger writers, but you'll definitely want to preview them for content.]
Feel free to reply or DM me if you're thinking about implementing Word Lab/sentence study, either in English or Creative Writing - always happy to provide ideas & encouragement! #highschoolenglish #teaching #sentencestudy #mentortexts
What an amazing community of teachers gathered here! So inspiring! It occurred to me this morning that some of you might prefer the Word Lab Archive as a Google Doc so it's more easily editable. Here it is! [The link should prompt you to make a copy] --> docs.google.com/document/d/1GT…
Hi everyone! I wanted to follow up with a couple more helpful resources. Many of you were asking how I present the Word Labs to students, so here's a link to my Canva slideshow for Quarter 1: canva.com/design/DAEksoy…
It includes guidelines, a list of "Reading Like a Writer" techniques, two sample entries I wrote to model the process for students, and all the passages from the archive. You should be able to download or use the template, even if you're not a Canva fangirl like I am 😉
I also got quite a few requests for students samples, so ask and you shall receive! Here's an excerpt from one of my amazing writer's digital notebooks, with all of her Word Lab entries from Quarter 1 [it should prompt you to make a copy!] --> docs.google.com/presentation/d…
If you have any other questions or want to talk through ideas, don't hesitate to reach out. Have a lovely Sunday!
Dropping a couple more resources here on the original thread so they're easier for people to find & not buried below --> Word Lab slideshow: canva.com/design/DAEksoy…
Word Lab student samples! [the link will prompt you to make a copy] --> docs.google.com/presentation/d…
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