When I listed to 10-year-0ld author Oummu Kabba talk about her work, the sentence that struck me was near the end of the interview. Oummu described why she loved writing, saying, “When I write I feel like I’m in control of the whole world. . . I like having that power over my characters. . … Continue reading
I always seem to think about scary-story writing at Halloween time—when it is too late for many teachers to get it into their planning. If you want some tips for writing traditional spooky stories, see the link above. But, early for a change, let me also introduce another variation of the genre: two-sentence horror stories. … Continue reading
I love a book that sets me laughing in the aisles of a bookstore. Recently, I had that experience with Jay Sacher’s The Amazing Story Generator: Creates Thousands of Writing Prompts. The story generator’s pages are divided in thirds, to be mixed and matched at will. The top third sets up a situation like “Upon … Continue reading
I love the stream of imagination that comes out of Google. Recently I came across yet another great classroom resource: Google Story Builder. The original Google Story Builder allowed users to create a story as a series of Google searches. This version allows us to create a video conversation among characters as if they were … Continue reading
I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the last few weeks exploring the web looking for writings on creativity and students with special needs. Guess what? Not much there. I can find examples of art activities to do with students with disabilities, which is fine, but the arts are only one area in which … Continue reading
