A story with all action and not enough reflection sounds childish and lacks depth. But a story that is all reflective thoughts and emotions can bore a reader and run the risk of not teling a story at all. Today’s mini move will help us think about the see-sawing effect of balancing actions with thoughts and emotions so that our story has the perfect amount of both!

Often the difference between a drab, lifeless personal narrative and an engaging, lively one is the use of concrete details. In this video, we will learn about how concrete details help us take the guesswork out of reading our narrative while showing our unique voice and perspective.

Writing complete sentences is harder than you might think, and it’s a fundamental writing skill that’s worthy of review. In this video, you’ll learn about what makes a complete sentence, tips for making sure your sentences are complete, and circumstances in which writers break this rule effectively.

The Fourth State of Matter by Jo Ann Beard is a personal essay/history about a day in the author's life that changed her forever.

 This speech therapy lesson focuses on building a personal narrative of something that is special about the student themselves, in order to help students build expressive language skills and vocabulary skills, as well as create a personal digital storytelling video to showcase to others. Students will complete a digital story using their school chromebook devices. The face-to-face instructions/lesson of vocabulary and sentence starter examples will take two 25-minute speech therapy sessions. The students will be given time to work on their projects during a third and fourth 25-minute speech therapy session. An additional session will be reserved for students to share their projects in a small group. This lesson plan is designed for middle school to high school grade levels. 

Newly minted writer Kathi Wellington enlivens a "Milestones" segment with her vivid stories of being a female steelworker; "Math Behind the Arts" visits origami artist June Sakamoto for a lesson on basic geometry; a TV411 special invites parents and children to interpret art and symbolism at a Philadelphia museum; "On Words Behind the Poetry," Broadway performers from Russell Simmon's Def Poetry Jam demonstrate how writing poetry can be hot and cool.

Let’s learn about importing existing courses from Google Classroom, Canvas, or Office365 to Scrible or create a new Scrible class!

There are many ways to use a tool like Scrible in your classroom. Let’s explore some options for using Scrible in our classrooms!

Let’s explore how to create a library of sources to use in our research projects! Join UEN’s Scrible MOOC course today at UEN’s Course Catalog.

Beginning any piece of writing is a challenge, but it is particularly harrowing to begin a personal essay. Many writers use the same strategy: a scene drop. In this video, we’ll look at three mentor texts in which writers use the strategy of dropping readers directly into the thick of the story with pairs of actions. It’s a no-fail way to engage your reader and kick off your personal statement.