Writing Mini-Lesson Videos for Students

Have you ever had the feeling that you just don’t want to teach a writing lesson? Maybe you lack the confidence in teaching writing or you just can’t muster up excitement over teaching writing.

FEEL

YOUR

PAIN.

You are scrambling. You want to guide your students to write in complete sentences, create juicy paragraphs, and put together a ROCKSTAR essay, but you just don’t know what to do.

Maybe you are confident in teaching writing, but you don’t have the resources for students to learn when you are not by their side. You may have absent students, to plan for a substitute, teach through distance learning, homeschool your child, or maybe you just need a break! Can you relate?

If any of this resonates with you, read on!

You are the reason I created 84 mini-lesson videos designed to take your students through the writing process for sentence structure, paragraph writing, and 3 types of essay writing. You can access it through streaming or download and place it on password-protected sites or in Google Classroom!

The videos were created to go along with our Step-by-Step Writing Programs for Grades 1-8. They are also a part of our 3 part, full-year, trademarked writing curriculum Rockstar Writers®. However, you can use them with any writing curriculum that follows the writing process. Most of the videos are less than 5 minutes. They are easy to pop on and I do the teaching for you! You will hear my voice with animated mini-lessons. I speak directly to the children and provide that spunk to motivate them to rock their writing!

Diana said, “You are AMAZING! I hope you know that! You are helping so many teachers – these take so much time and are worth so much more than you charge! I am so happy I found you a year ago and bought a bundle! It was my main curriculum as I teach writing enrichment for inner city students! Thank you for being you!!”

How do you use the videos?

writing center
absent student
homeschool student
distance learning
substitute
whole class

What is included in each video?

Some or all of the following are included in each video depending on the lesson.

introduction to the lesson
writing mini-lesson key points
examples and practice
model of the same prompt throughout the essay lessons
encouragement to apply the lesson to students’ own writing
rock music at the end- Go rock your writing!

Do you want to see how the lessons are presented?

WATCH THIS VIDEO FOR AN EXAMPLE:

The next one is in the Narrative Essay Videos. (Keep in mind the modeling is talking about a story we’ve been building with the previous videos.)

How do you access the videos?

What mini-lesson videos are included?

Sentence Structure Videos

SS1- Complete Sentences

SS2- Fragments

SS3- Run-On Sentences

Paragraph Writing Videos

P1- Topic Sentences and Indents

P2- Relevant Details

P3- Closing Sentences

P4- Transition Words

Narrative Writing Videos

N1- Narrative Elements

N2- Prewriting

N3- Task, Purpose, Audience

N4- Graphic Organizer

N5- Crafting a Plot- Suspense, Climax

N6- Introduction

N7- Body

N8- Character Traits

N9- Dialogue

N10- Conclusion

N11- Rough Draft

N12- DARE to Revise

N13- DARE- D- Delete

N14- DARE- A- Add details and transition words

N15- DARE- R- Rearrange

N16- DARE- E- Exchange- Rockin’ Beginnings

N17- DARE- E- Exchange- Million Dollar Words (Word Choice)

N18- DARE- E- Exchange- Sentence Variety

N19- DARE- E- Exchange- Jammin’ Conclusion

N20- Craft a Title

N21- CUPS- Capitalization

N22- CUPS- Usage

N23- CUPS- Punctuation

N24- CUPS- Spelling

N25- Peer Reflection

N26- Final Copy

Opinion Writing Videos

O1- Opinion Elements

O2- Prewriting

O3- Task, Purpose, Audience

O4- Graphic Organizer

O5- Introduction

O6- Taking Notes

O7- Body

O8- Conclusion

O9- Rough Draft

O10- DARE to Revise

O11- DARE- D- Delete

O12- DARE- A- Add details and transition words

O13- DARE- R- Rearrange

O14- DARE- E- Exchange- Rockin’ Beginnings

O15- DARE- E- Exchange- Key Words and Phrases (Word Choice)

O16- DARE- E- Exchange- Sentence Variety

O17- DARE- E- Exchange- Jammin’ Conclusion

O18- Craft a Title

O19- CUPS- Capitalization

O20- CUPS- Usage

O21- CUPS- Punctuation

O22- CUPS- Spelling

O23- Peer Reflection

O24- Final Copy

Informative Writing Videos

I1- Informative Elements

I2- Prewriting

I3- Task, Purpose, Audience

I4- Graphic Organizer

I5- Organization and Structures

I6- Introduction

I7- Taking Notes

I8- Body

I9- Conclusion

I10- Rough Draft

I11- DARE to Revise

I12- DARE- D- Delete

I13- DARE- A- Add details and transition words

I14- DARE- R- Rearrange

I15- DARE- E- Exchange- Rockin’ Beginnings

I16- DARE- E- Exchange- Key Words and Phrases (Word Choice)

I17- DARE- E- Exchange- Sentence Variety

I18- DARE- E- Exchange- Jammin’ Conclusion

I19- Craft a Title

I20- CUPS- Capitalization

I21- CUPS- Usage

I22- CUPS- Punctuation

I23- CUPS- Spelling

I24- Peer Reflection

I25- Heading, Graphics, Labels, Captions

I26- Final Copy

I27- Table of Contents, Glossary, Sources

The best way to use this resource:

This is set up like our step-by-step writing® programs and professional development. They are proven to work best if you follow the mini-lessons in order. In the essay writing units, the lessons build upon each other. It follows through the writing process with one prompt. It is ok to skip over lessons for differentiation, but I don’t recommend using bits and pieces here and there. It takes away the flow of the modeling shown in the videos.