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Writing Tips & Lessons

I'm constantly developing new lessons for my College Writing and/or my Creative Writing classes. I'll post and explain some of my favorite writing tips and lessons here.

Phobia Story with Jamboard

Laurel Osterkamp · November 28, 2020

I did this Jamboard as an example for my students, for a Creative Writing assignment. I have been working on creating new assignments that will engage them via distance learning. This one is done in steps. The first step is to chose a phobia and do some research. As my example, I chose alektorophobia, which is an intense fear of chickens. The second step is to create a jam board, with post-its about the phobia, and ideas for a protagonist who suffers from it, along with their ideas for setting, …

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Write about Fear

Laurel Osterkamp · October 10, 2020

I thought this would be fun for Halloween. If you're a teacher and planning to use this for your class, you'll obviously need to press pause throughout, and give students writing time. Hope it works well! …

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Best Friend Poem using Similes

Laurel Osterkamp · September 26, 2020

I created this as another way to warm up my students in Creative Writing class. I think it will be fun. Who doesn't like writing about their best friend? Who doesn't love a good simile? …

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Five Object Poem

Laurel Osterkamp · September 19, 2020

This warm up idea came from the Creative Writing: Daily Warm-Ups, Level II. Years ago I made a slide show with my objects and examples, but I thought I'd update it into a video for distance learning. While my Creative Writing class is studying poetry, I find it fun to start class with a concrete task about something so abstract. …

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Personify Me Poem

Laurel Osterkamp · August 26, 2020

Personification is my favorite type of figurative language. There is just so much you can do with it, to create atmosphere or emotion. When I'm writing description, my first go-to strategy for "showing versus telling" is to use personification. I'm not much of a poet, but when I'm teaching my poetry unit to my creative writing students, I find that experimenting with writing sample poems for them helps me develop my prose writing skills as well. And, personification is always my favorite …

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