User's Manual
260
NEO
User Manual
W RITE ON ! LESSONS FOR NEO
Write On! Lesson Categories and Teaching Supplements
. . . . .
Middle School Exercises
This table gives you an overview of the categories and themes available at the
middle school level. For detailed information about each writing exercise,
consult the MiddleSchoolSupplements.pdf teaching supplement file.
2_Middle School
Poetry and
Building
Word Power
Chants to
Limericks
Files for Chants to Limericks present classical and innovative
poetry patterns, puzzles, and forms to introduce common
elements found in poetry. Some of these are chant, repetition,
rhyme, rhythm, figurative language, theme, and meaning.
Although files can be used in any order, there is a logical
progression from the basic, instinctive chant form of the first
lesson to the more highly intuitive form of the final lesson.
Students may work alone on all activities, but sharing with
writing groups and class publishing is encouraged.
Haiku to Free
Verse
Activities in Haiku to Free Verse have students experiment
with poetic devices such as simile and metaphor and the
poetic forms of haiku and free verse. Content ranges from
themes about the everyday world to being playful and also to
the serious and personal. Although files can be used in any
order, there is a logical progression from poetic devices used
in the first lesson to the free verse form of the final lessons.
Students may work alone on all activities, but sharing with
writing groups and class publishing is encouraged.
Someone
Won
Using sample poems and homophone lists, students create
their own homophone poems through individual and
collaborative writing.
The Me
Activities II
Students explore the various elements encompassing
autobiographical sketches and also work through some value
clarification exercises. These activities can help students
explore their personalities and can help foster positive self-
esteem.
The Power of
Words
In our busy classrooms, students are often occupied with
learning the literal definitions and meanings of words needed
to understand subject area material. There may be too little
classroom time left to ponder the power of words. These files
“pull up the shade,” so to speak, showing the range of
meanings that lie just beyond the literal or utilitarian as
students explore connotation. They can reach for the richness
of precise words to take the place of a generalization or cliché,
to define the exact feeling of a thing to be described, or to
replace a stereotypical or sexist reference.