By Danny Iny
"Today I’m going to share that secret with you. The secret to prolifically creating excellent content isn’t inspiration or brilliance — it’s found in structure, planning, and research."
Six helpful tips from an accomplished blogger. -JL
Scriveners' Trappings
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Aids and resources for creators and teachers of writing, interactive fiction, digital stories, and transmedia
Curated by
Jim Lerman
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This is a compilation of writing competitions for children and undergraduates from an organization in the UK. Most of the contents are open to international participants. -JL 
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By Elissa Gootman
"Over the past five years, print-on-demand technology and a growing number of self-publishing companies whose books can be sold online have inspired writers of all ages to bypass the traditional gatekeeping system for determining who could call himself a “published author.”
"They include hundreds of children and teenagers who are self-publishing books each year — a growing corner of the book world that raises as many questions about parenting as publishing.
"The mothers and fathers who foot the bill say they are simply trying to encourage their children, in the same way that other parents buy gear for a promising lacrosse player or ship a Broadway aspirant off to theater camp.
"But others see the blurring of the line between publishing and self-publishing as a lost opportunity to teach children about adversity and perseverance.
"The young authors themselves, raised in an era of blogging and equal-opportunity Twitter feeds, take the notion of self-publishing in stride."
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Your memory changes every time you tell a story. By Nate Kornell, Ph.D....
"A recent New York Times series revealed a lot about Apple's manufacturing process in China. Although the articles were fascinating, they weren't full of drama or poignant moments. They weren't stories. This American Life ran the opposite sort of story. Mike Daisey, a storyteller adopting the guise of a journalist, told about his own investigation of Apple. His story was chock full of dramatic moments. It was also full of lies. To their credit, This American Life put together an amazing show chronicling in graphic detail what went wrong." Via Gina Stepp
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By Trent M. Kays
"As you move through your college years, you’ll be expected to write more and more. Here are some pointers I’ve found useful and my students seem to find useful: 1. Write every day 2. Take your time 3. Quality is always better than quantity 4. Ask for help 5. Practice proofreading.
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Via The Committed Sardine By Michelle Manchir
Description by Ian Jukes "Check out how Twitter, mobile tech, and other social media is engaging and helping 1st-grade students at Abraham Lincoln Elementary in Glen Ellyn learn foundational literacy and typing skills in this Chicago Tribune article. In addition, through blogging and video sharing, these kids are also practicing valuable digital citizenship skills as they learn about our lives online."
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"Reading instruction was once centered firmly on helping new readers decode information. But an increase in the quantity of content now available to readers -- presented in many different formats and coming from many different sources -- and the mandates of the Common Core State Standards are changing that. The focus of reading instruction is shifting, with educators placing new emphasis on ensuring students can evaluate and analyze content and understand complex texts, especially in the higher grades.
"Every child deserves the opportunity to develop strong reading skills, and achieving that goal requires we build into our practice instructional experiences that have been proven to work. This report looks at what can be done to help students become independent, thoughtful readers. After all, reading is the core skill, the one that leads to other skills."
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"A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge has come up with an innovation that can “unprint” something.
"By using long and ultrashort pulsed lasers, the technology can remove laser-printed content, leaving the paper clean and undamaged. The paper can easily be reused and printed on again."
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Article by Shannon Doyne and Holly Epstein Ojalvo
Description by ASCD SmartBrief
"This lesson plan is focused on the art of writing memorable sentences, and how descriptive language has been found to stimulate cognitive function. The writers of this blog post say students first should study their favorite sentences, discussing the qualities that make them great. They should then work in groups to paraphrase the sentences, comparing their new creations to the originals and discussing their own cognitive responses to each."
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Exeter (NH) high school teacher Kristina Peterson reflects on how to make writing a meaningful experience for her freshmen. A warm and thoughtful piece, with good advice. -JL
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"To write is to paint a picture in words. It can be pleasure, pain and frustration, and surprise when it works well. Writers have the power to create and transform things; they can inform, enrage, move, persuade, or seduce us by the written word. The following resources provide opportunities for your students to meet a range of writers. They can find out more about some popular authors and discover some new ones, and the references will assist you to develop writers of the future." Via Louise Robinson-Lay
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By B. Curran
"In honor of Reading Month, we’d like to share some of our favorite literacy-related blogs. These blogs are the source of a tremendous amount of inspiration for those of us charged with teaching reading and writing. I’ve got a whole folder in my Google Reader just for literacy blogs. And it’s pretty much guaranteed that when I sit down to check it each morning, I’ll find several great posts. (Be sure to follow us on twitter and Pinterest because we love sharing them!)"
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Karen Barnstable gives clear description of 3 effective strategies for getting students to discuss important and personally meaningful topics -- setting the stage for numerous language arts activities...especially writing. -JL
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by Trish Nicholson
UK writing competitions for adult writers. Most welcome international writers. -JL
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By Med Kharbach
"Creative writing is an important element in students overall learning experience. It is also a part of our professional development as educators and teachers. Creativity, be it in writing or in any other project, does not come from the void and we are not born creative minds. I believe there are mechanisms for developing creativity and fostering imagination. There are what is called creativity triggers or prompts that can help our students improve their creative writing by providing them with challenging story starters. Below is three awesome tools that can help you do that."
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Every one of them is self-pubbed. In fact, there are only three legacy authors in the Top 30. I count only ten legacy pubbed in the Top 100, and most are brand names. Via olsen jay nelson, Gina Stepp
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Judy Greller's award-winning blog with resources galore in numerous areas. This page contains a wonderful collection of links to sites related to Digital Storytelling. -JL Via Ms. Hall, lharvey, Louise Robinson-Lay
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By S. Snyder Via The Committed Sardine
"The title of this essay is "How to Ask a Smart Question" and I have tried to lay out some general guidelines and pitfalls to avoid when you pose questions to gain a greater understanding. I wish I could tell you that asking such questions comes easily; it doesn't. Rather, it's an intellectual habit or a disciplined way of thinking that you can only learn by doing. After all, an expert can give you pointers on shooting a free throw or hitting a golf ball, but you only get good at it with practice."
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"Come to the AERO CONFERENCE August 1-5, Portland, Oregon!
"In line with the conference theme, “Finding the Catalyst for the Education Revolution,” Sir Ken Robinson will share his thoughts on shifting the paradigm that many education systems still manifest around the world.
"We look forward to sharing more about his presentation soon.
"If you haven’t registered yet, you can still get our early bird rate of $250… but this won’t last long! Learn more about the conference and our other keynoters here. Read through our growing list of conference presentations here."
AERO is an international organization, headquartered in the U.S., committed to advancing the Education Revolution by supporting work around the world related to issues of alternative education at the intersection of culture, power, and learning
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"Everyone procrastinates. We put things off because we don't want to do them, or because we have too many other things on our plates. Putting things off—big or small—is part of being human. If you are reading this handout, however, it is likely that your procrastination is troubling you. You suspect that you could be a much better writer if only you didn't put off writing projects until the last minute. You find that just when you have really gotten going on a paper, it's time to turn it in; so, you never really have time to revise or proofread carefully. You love the rush of adrenalin you get when you finish a paper ten minutes before it's due, but you (and your body) are getting tired of pulling all-nighters. You feel okay about procrastinating while in college, but you worry that this habit will follow you into your working life."
Jennifer's curator insight,
May 13, 2016 2:35 PM
I chose this article because I am that students who procrastinate on writing assignments. According to this article, I am the more “skilled procrastinator” because I use the excuse that I have to clean everything before I do my work. The author says, that it is a “trap” because I wasted my whole time cleaning, not leaving any time for my assignments. I always wondered why I have to clean before I do work. Now I know that I was using cleaning as an excuse to not do my work and to make me feel better that at least I used my time on cleaning than being on my phone but in reality it wasn't being helpful to me because I still wasted my homework time. The author provides sections that explains why students procrastinate and different ways to overcome procrastination. In one of the sections, the author explains that a student should set a time limit but do not over do the time limit, the example the author uses, “ ‘Must work on Hemingway essay all weekend’ ” this doesn't motivate a student so the author suggest to set a time limit for an hour or two and if the student still wants to continue writing, then do so. There are many other sections that I found very useful. I believe the author’s audience is for students who procrastinate in writing and for those who hate writing.
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"Welcome to the Authors Who Skype with Classes & Book Clubs List! I’m Kate Messner, the children’s author and middle school teacher who maintains this site. I started it because I’ve found that virtual author visits are a great way to connect authors and readers, and I realize that many schools facing budget troubles don’t have the option of paid author visits. With that in mind, this is a list of authors who offer free 20-minute Q and A sessions with classes and book clubs that have finished reading one of their books."
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Elizabeth Peterson writes about an interdisciplinary unit she conducted combining science study of Land and Water with blues songs about life on the Mississippi River - extracting rich narratives from the songs' lyrics. Pictures and music included. -JL
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Palo Alto HS senior Luaren Wong discusses why over-reliance on the 5-paragraph essay in writing classes can be detrimental. Very well done. -JL
"Put simply, complete emphasis on traditional, expository writing is unacceptable because even seniors in the highest English lane in one of the highest-ranked, highest-achieving schools in the country are left unprepared. We are unprepared for a future where writing more often than not consists of quick reports and write-ups, persuasive pitches and creative presentations -- in other words, a world that does not require an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. In a society whose roots are increasingly in innovation and imagination, and where those making an impact now are those thinking far outside the box, it makes no sense to keep us inside it."
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By Vitaly Friedman
"Of course, effective writing requires a good command of the language in which you write or want to write. Once you have that command, you need to learn some tips and tricks so that you can have an edge over others in this hard-to-succeed world of writers. There are some gifted writers, granted. But gifted writers also need to polish their skills frequently in order to stay ahead of competition and earn their livelihood.
"We collected over 50 useful and practical tools and resources that will help you to improve your writing skills. You will find copywriting blogs, dictionaries, references, teaching classes, articles, tools as well as related articles from other blogs. Something is missing? Please let us know in the comments to this post!"
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A list written by 90 year-old Regina Brett in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. These brief statements make great writing prompts for either fiction or non-fiction. -JL
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