This Week’s Anton Lesson Plan
Regardless of how much technology may change the way the world communicates, writing is always the baseline in which we communicate whether it’s through an email, tweet, text or a letter that’s being composed on paper. Writing is also a crucial component that comes into play regardless of the subject you’re studying—English, science, math or history.
Beyond the basic grammatical building blocks that involve punctuation, active versus passive voice and stringing together words into sentences which are then strung into paragraphs, writing also involves not only conveying your message across in a legible flow, but being adept at reading comprehension to understand what’s being asked of you in an assignment. The following are exercises students can do to become better writers while using different approaches to their craft.
• Imagine you are the main character in the novel you are currently reading. As the character, place a classified ad, write a letter to the editor and write a news story. All should reflect the character’s point of view or bias.
• Find newspaper pictures that illustrate moods. Clip them out of the newspaper and write a free verse poem, haiku or cinquain about each. You could also use the picture as a basis for a short story.
• Choose an editorial and clip it out of the newspaper. Take a piece of paper and divide it into two columns, labeling one “fact” and the other “opinion.” List the information from the editorial into the appropriate columns and then compare yours with that of another student. Explain the differences between the two.
