Developing Writers: One Book at a Time

Featured

Long Writing

The Warmth of Other Suns

Traditions

This essay asks students to deeply engage in the idea of tradition--theirs and those practiced in The Warmth of Other Suns. Image courtesy of Ana &…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

3 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

Long Writing

The Warmth of Other Suns

Us, Them, Ourselves

This essay asks students to delve deeply into the characters of The Warmth of Other Suns through several layers of character compare/contrast. Once we see the…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

3 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

Short Writing

The Warmth of Other Suns

Your Great Migration

This is the first assignment in the semester of reading The Warmth of Other Suns. Students are asked to reflect on the migrations of their own…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

4 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

Long Writing

33 Revolutions per Minute

Connecting to Current Events: 33 Revolutions per Minute

This paper asks students to create an informative essay about a protest-worthy event or topic in contemporary society. As a class, we brainstorm topics in…

Individuals

Graded

5 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

33 Revolutions per Minute

Close Textual Analysis of a Song: 33 Revolutions per Minute

This assignment asks students to engage in direct textual analysis for one of the songs from the book. I start this unit by talking about…

Individuals

Graded

8 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

33 Revolutions per Minute

Adding Personal Reflection to 33 Revolutions per Minute

I use this assignment as Paper 2 after assigning an exercise on summary, paraphrase, and direct citation. This paper asks students to build upon those…

3-4 weeks

Individuals

Graded

6 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

33 Revolutions per Minute

Incorporating Outside Sources

For 33 Revolutions per Minute, I want students to have the ability and confidence to use context and direct quotes from the book throughout the entire…

1-2 weeks

Individuals

Graded

7 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

In-Class

Writing Skill

Paramedic Method

Image Source: CC by Chris Yarzab. Applying Richard Lanham's editing & proofreading technique requires students to examine 2 seemingly innocuous sets of words in their writing:…

2 Class Periods

Individuals

Graded

6 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

Long Writing

Everything Bad is Good for You

Exploring Internet Interfaces (EBIGFY)

In the chapter on internet interfaces in Everything Bad is Good for You, Johnson posits that we learn how to navigate web applications through trial…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

7 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

Everything Bad is Good for You

Television Complexity (EBIGFY)

In the chapter on television in Everything Bad is Good for You, Johnson argues that television has grown increasing complex over the past few decades and…

3-4 weeks

Individuals

Graded

10 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

Everything Bad is Good for You

Games, Learning, and Life Lessons (EBIGFY)

This paper builds on students' abilities to summarize what they've read by asking them to focus on specific terminology from the reading and follow that…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

9 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

Everything Bad is Good for You

Summary Assignment (EBIGFY)

One of the primary skills necessary for students writing about external texts is the ability to summarize and distinguish between summary and other forms of…

1-2 weeks

Individuals

Graded

7 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

Outliers

Success in Pop Culture

Chapters 6-8 of Outliers explores the link between cultural legacies and success at length, making the argument that people are influenced by their cultural heritage…

3-4 weeks

Individuals

Graded

5 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

Brown Girl Dreaming

Letter: Young People’s Literature

Image Source. This is usually the penultimate or final assignment of a class focused on Brown Girl Dreaming. (See Brown Girl Dreaming sample syllabus here.)…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

6 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

Long Writing

Brown Girl Dreaming

Reflection Essay: Audience 3 Ways

Image Source. This assignment for Brown Girl Dreaming asks students to consider their relationship to a text in 3 different ways: as reader, listener, and…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

7 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

Long Writing

Money Changes Everything

Financial Aid Appeal Letter

Image Source. This assignment asks students to consider money in a very personal way: as recipients of financial aid. The class discusses why financial aid…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

8 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

In-Class

Writing Skill

Discussion Activity: Professionalism and Grammar

Philosophically, I believe that there is no such thing as “bad” grammar and that we all use different versions of grammar dependent upon context, past…

1 class

Groups

Not Graded

6 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Short Writing

Brown Girl Dreaming

Reading A Poem: 20 Strategies (Short Assignment Series)

Reading a Poem: 20 Strategies This article from The Atlantic inspired a host of short writing assignments in a class focused on Brown Girl Dreaming.…

Varies

Whole Class

Graded

6 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

Long Writing

Outliers

What is Success?

This is the first paper I assign in a course based around Outliers. It asks the students to reflect on prior knowledge about the course…

2-3 weeks

Individuals

Graded

10 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

In-Class

Outliers

Letter to a Prodigy’s Parents

Chapter 2 of Outliers introduces students to the 10,000-hour rule, the concept that it takes 10,000 hours of practice (or about 10 years of full-time…

3-4 weeks

Individuals

Graded

11 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

Featured

Long Writing

Money Changes Everything

The Cost of Unpaid Labor Essay

In the collection Money Changes Everything, students encounter questions about how money changes us. We read about the unpaid work of motherhood in Ann Crittenden's essay,…

3-4 weeks

Individuals

Graded

7 steps

Melody Gee

Featured

In-Class

Writing Skill

Group Grammar Worksheet

In this in-class activity, student do a traditional grammar worksheet with a twist. They work collaboratively to complete the assignment with bonus points added for…

One Class Period

Whole Class

Graded

4 steps

M Parrinello-Cason

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