Bruce Hale has made the long journey from struggling artist to bestselling author.  He has published over 20 books and spoken to groups across the U.S. and Canada, including the prestigious Maui Writers Conference. His Underwhere series includes Prince of Underwhere and Pirates of Underwhere. His Chet Gecko Mysteries series includes: The Chameleon Wore Chartreuse, The Big Nap, The Malted Falcon, Hiss Me Deadly, and others. Visit http://www.brucehale.com/ to read more about Bruce, his books, his school visits, and have a little fun!

Introduction

We are all storytellers. And story is all around us. After all, what is a TV show or a movie? What is a book? What do you tell your parents when they ask, “How was your day, dear?” You guessed it - a story. (more…)

Target Grade Level: All levels
Keys Concepts: Writing Process, prewriting, drafting, revising, editing
Contributed by: Stephanie Binckes. Stephanie Binckes is a former high school English and ELD teacher. As a fellow of the California Writing Project, she has worked as a writing coach and mentor throughout her state. She wrote this article to help teachers re-envision MY Access!® as a powerful tool that can be used to support students throughout the composition process.

 I vividly remember the first essay, a literary response prompt about The Miracle Worker, I assigned as a new teacher. As a class, we’d both read and watched the play, discussed it extensively, and completed hands-on projects; I didn’t think one small essay would be a problem. I blithely handed out the assignment, told my students to write, and collected their work on the due date. It was that simple-until I actually began to read their writing.

(more…)

Target Grade Levels: All
Key Concepts: Writing process, narrative writing, MY Tutor feedback, Revision

Stephanie Binckes is a former high school English and ELD teacher. As a fellow of the California Writing Project, she has worked as a writing coach and mentor throughout her state. She wrote this article to help teachers re-envision MY Access! as a powerful tool that can be used to support students throughout the composition process.    

    One of the most common concerns I hear from teachers who use MY Access!® is that MY Tutor feedback is too general to be helpful for students.  MY Tutor was never designed to replace teaching of writing skills, but it does support and reinforce effective writing instruction.  By modeling with whole-class guided instruction, teachers can enable their students to use MY Tutor independently. Below, you will find a model lesson that demonstrates how to use MY Tutor feedback to teach students a specific skill: writing a detailed setting in a narrative piece. (more…)

Tailoring a Narrative IntelliMetric™ Prompt: A Customized MY Access! ® Lesson on Daniel Keyes’ “Flowers for Algernon.”

Target Grade Level: Middle School
Time: 2-3 class periods
Keys Concepts: Narrative writing, Writing Process, Point of View, Character Analysis, Prompt Customization.

Contributed by: Stephanie Dixon. Stephanie Dixon is a former 8th grade English teacher, user of MY Access!, and TOSA (teacher on special assignment) support provider for teachers using MY Access! within her district. She used the following lesson with her students and was extremely pleased with their deep, insightful, and polished responses. She hopes that this lesson will connect with your students in the same way that it did with hers.

“Flowers for Algernon,” by Daniel Keyes, is a novella that is commonly taught in middle school English classrooms across the country. The story is creatively written as a series of journal entries composed by the main character, Charlie Gordon, who undergoes experimental surgery in an attempt to increase his extremely low IQ. As the story progresses and Charlie’s intelligence grows, he begins to accomplish tasks that were impossible for him to complete prior to his surgery. Perhaps for the first time in his life, Charlie experiences moments where he feels proud of himself. (more…)