April is National Poetry Month!

This April marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Over the years, National Poetry Month has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.

The Academy of American Poets offers some great suggestions for helping teachers and individuals get involved with celebrating National Poetry Month.

30 ways to celebrate national poetry month

1. Order a free National Poetry Month poster and display it at work or school.
2. Sign up for Poem-a-Day and read a poem each morning.
3. Sign up for Teach This Poem, a weekly series for teachers.
4. Memorize a poem.
5. Create an anthology of your favorite poems on Poets.org.
6. Encourage a young person to participate in the Dear Poet project.
7. Buy a book of poetry from your local bookstore.
8. Review these concrete examples of how poetry matters in the United States today.
9. Learn more about poets and poetry events in your state.
10. Ask your governor or mayor for a proclamation in support of National Poetry Month.
11. Attend a poetry reading at a local university, bookstore, cafe, or library.
12. Read a poem at an open mic. It’s a great way to meet other writers in your area and find out about your local poetry writing community.
13. Start a poetry reading group.
14. Write an exquisite corpse poem with friends.
15. Chalk a poem on the sidewalk.
16. Deepen your daily experience by reading Edward Hirsch’s essay “How to Read a Poem.”
17. Ask the United States Post Office to issue more stamps celebrating poets.
18. Recreate a poet’s favorite food or drink by following his or her recipe.
19. Read about different poetic forms.
20. Read about poems titled “poem.”
21. Celebrate National Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 21, 2016. The idea is simple: select a poem you love, carry it with you, then share it with coworkers, family, and friends.
22. Subscribe to American Poets magazine or a small press poetry journal.
23. Watch Rachel Eliza Griffiths’s P.O.P (Poets on Poetry) videos.
24. Watch or read Carolyn Forche’s talk “Not Persuasion, But Transport: The Poetry of Witness.”
25. Read or listen to Mark Doty’s talk “Tide of Voices: Why Poetry Matters Now.”
26. Read Allen Ginsberg’s classic essay about Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
27. Watch a poetry movie.
28. Sign up for a poetry class or workshop.
29. Get ready for Mother’s Day by making a card featuring a line of poetry.
30. Read the first chapter of Muriel Rukeyer’s inspiring book The Life of Poetry.

Be sure to visit the Pepper Resource Center to find great ideas and resources on poetry! As a teacher, think about how you can incorporate poetry into your classroom in April. We would love to hear some of your ideas.

New Writing Course: Argument Writing for High School

Argument Writing for High School was released on August 3, 2015, along with 3 other new Writing Courses from Pepper.

This course focuses on teaching high school students to write persuasive arguments. Participants will learn to deconstruct, analyze, research, and write an argument essay that meets standards and expectations for high school (grades 9–12).

Teachers will also be taken through all stages of the writing process, from learning the elements of an argument writing essay to analyzing sample texts, choosing fruitful topics, completing writing activities, considering their audience, gathering research, revising and editing their work. All of these stages are designed to help participants formulate their own strategies for teaching argument essay writing. A template is provided that walks users through exploring a potential topic for writing and helps them evaluate if this is a topic they want to pursue. Click image to enlarge view:

The course requires 6 hours of work online with an additional 4 hours offline. You can get more information and a full course outline by clicking here.

These courses were authored by content experts from Accelerated Literacy Learning.

Check out this course and our other offerings in Math, English/Language Arts, and Special Ed, by visiting Pepper!

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New Writing Course: Informed Opinion Letters for Grades K-2

Pepper released 4 new Writing Courses on August 3, 2015:

• Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing (Grades K-2)
• Introduction to Narrative Writing (Grades 3-5)
• Informed Opinion Letters for Teachers (Grades K-2)
• Argument Writing for High School

These courses were authored by content experts from Accelerated Literacy Learning and are an addition to our current Pepper course, Argument Writing for Middle School.

The course, Informed Opinion Letters for Grades K-2, will provide you with all of the background knowledge, experiences, and resources necessary to conduct an informed opinion letter unit of study with young children. Teachers will work through the process of creating and editing their own piece of writing, which will allow them to teach by example. Participants will experience short videos, quizzes, reflection journals, and opinion polls to build their knowledge and prepare them to teach the writing of opinion letters.

Topics that will be covered include:

• Creating a Rationale for Informed Opinion Letter Writing
• Generating Opinions in a Variety of Ways
• Letters as a Writing Genre
• Linking Opinions to Strong Research
• Revision
• Celebrating and Reflecting

The course requires 6 hours of work online with an additional 4 hours offline. You can get more information and a full course outline by clicking here.

Check out this course and our other offerings in Math, English/Language Arts, and Special Ed, by visiting Pepper!

Sign up to receive "The Big Idea" directly to your email each time it's updated. To do this, simply add your email under "Follow PepperPCG Posts by E-mail!" to the right.

New Writing Course: Structured Narrative Writing for Grades 3-5

Pepper released 4 new Writing Courses on August 3, 2015:

• Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing (Grades K-2)
• Introduction to Narrative Writing (Grades 3-5)
• Informed Opinion Letters for Teachers (Grades K-2)
• Argument Writing for High School

These courses were authored by content experts from Accelerated Literacy Learning and are an addition to our current Pepper course, Argument Writing for Middle School.

Introduction to Narrative Writing for Grades 3-5 will allow teachers to move through the stages of the writing process while crafting their own personal narrative. Teachers will also have the opportunity to study text from different authors. One way to study a piece of writing is to notice author’s craft, or the techniques an author uses to make writing effective. To do this, participants will learn to use picture books to glean ideas for narratives as well as how to revise and edit their own writing.

In this course, teachers will learn to take students through the writing process, help them make good choices about topics, write for an audience, and reflect on their writing. The course requires approximately 6 hours of work. You can get more information and a full course outline by clicking here. 

Check out this course and our other offerings in Math, English/Language Arts, and Special Ed by visiting Pepper!

Sign up to receive "The Big Idea" directly to your email each time it's updated. To do this, simply add your email under "Follow PepperPCG Posts by E-mail!" to the right.

New Writing Course: Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing

Pepper is releasing 4 new Writing Courses on August 3, 2015:

• Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing (Grades K-2)
• Introduction to Narrative Writing (Grades 3-5)
• Informed Opinion Letters for Teachers (Grades K-2)
• Argument Writing for High School

We will look at these courses over the next few blog posts. These courses were authored by staff from Accelerated Literacy Learning and are an addition to our current Pepper course, Argument Writing for Middle School.

The first is “Introduction to Structured Narrative Writing” for grades K-2. Broadly speaking, narrative writing is story writing, where the story includes a main character and an activity or experience, commonly called “the plot”. Narratives are characterized by having a defined beginning, middle, and end. 

In this course, participants will actively engage in the writing process by creating their own personal narrative. Additionally, there are opportunity to study mentor texts, reflect on learning, and relate experiences to lessons. The course requires 6 hours of work online with additional 4 hours offline. You can get more information and a full course outline by clicking here.

Check out this course and our other offerings in Math, English/Language Arts, and Special Ed, by visiting Pepper!

Sign up to receive "The Big Idea" directly to your email each time it's updated. To do this, simply add your email under "Follow PepperPCG Posts by E-mail!" to the right.

The Teaching of Writing

The teaching of writing has changed over the years, partly due to the vast advancements in technology. We have moved from quill and parchment to blogs and texting. These changes definitely impact how teachers address the teaching of writing in the classroom. NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) has published their Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing as a guideline for educators. These beliefs include the following position statements:

• Everyone has the capacity to write, writing can be taught, and teachers can help students become better writers. 
• People learn to write by writing.
• Writing is a process.
• Writing is a tool for thinking.
• Writing grows out of many different purposes.
• Conventions of finished and edited texts are important to readers and therefore to writers.
• Writing and reading are related.
• Writing has a complex relationship to talk.
• Literate practices are embedded in complicated social relationships.
• Composing occurs in different modalities and technologies.
• Assessment of writing involves complex, informed, human judgement. 

You can read more about each of these position statements by visiting the NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing.

Teaching Writing can be challenging to teachers as they try to help students understand the above statements. Pepper has one Writing Course available now, Argument Writing for Middle School, and 3 new Writing Courses available beginning August 3. These courses focus on teaching narrative writing for K-5. You can read a more detailed description of each course in the Pepper Course Catalog.  We will look at each of these courses in future blogs. Be sure to check out all of our Pepper Courses!

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Ways to Inspire Better Writing

We all know that practical application of skills engages students best. When they are putting skills into practice in everyday activities, they will remember them better and excel. Sean Hackney offers two great ways to help your students improve their writing skills by practicing, yet without feeling like it's more work. Hackney doesn't believe more writing is the answer. Instead, through the use of technology (blogging) and collaborating with peers, students can practice and hone their writing skills.

Take just a few minutes to read his latest article, "Field Notes: Writing as Conversation" at ASCD Express.

FREE WestEd Webinar: Reading and Writing, Common Core Style!

One of the areas on which the goals of Common Core are focused is building literacy--not only in traditional ways via ELA education, but also across the curriculum. Reading and writing, and the skills that are part of reading and writing, have an enormous role to play as students learn to engage with a variety of texts, topics, ideas, and problems.

This WestEd webinar takes a closer look at Common Core Reading Anchor Standard 1, and attempts to connect it to evidence-based interpretation in other subjects and areas as well. This is a great opportunity to gain a better, clearer understanding of how the CCSS can help students develop literacy and put interpretive skills to work across disciplines.

TAKE A LOOK HERE for the webinar (approximately 34 minutes), and be sure to CLICK ON THE FOLDER to download supporting PDFs and other materials!