Have you ever seen or experienced something and wished you spoke up? Writer Sakinah Hofler makes the case for writing as a tool to help you process difficult memories and reclaim the power they may hold. Pick up a pen or pull up a...

This video serves as a motivational and practical guide for aspiring writers who may be struggling to find inspiration. The speaker emphasizes the importance of actively seeking out inspiration rather than waiting for it to strike...

Figurative language devices and other imagery techniques make writing more interesting.In this video, we explore six key figurative language devices—metaphors, similes, hyperbole, personification, alliteration, and onomatopoeia—and break...

Pupil outcome: I can include a flashback in a piece of creative writing inspired by Natasha Bowen's 'Skin of the Sea'. Key learning points: - A flashback is a transition in a story to an earlier time in the life of one or more...

Pupil outcome: I can write a clear analytical response about human nature in the novel. Key learning points: - Consider the first version of your work a first draft and not the finished essay. - Redrafting your analytical writing is just...

Pupil outcome: I can write a poem inspired by Maya Angelou's 'Life Doesn't Frighten Me'. Key learning points: - Maya Angelou uses stanzas and a refrain to structure her poem, 'Life Doesn't Frighten Me'. - 'Life Doesn't Frighten Me' uses...

Pupil outcome: I can explore Maya Angelou's 'On Aging', with a focus on how she creates a complex voice through her poetic structures. Key learning points: - 'On Aging' was first published in Maya Angelou's 1978 collection of poems, 'And...

Pupil outcome: I can analyse the use of symbols in fiction and craft a symbol in my own writing. Key learning points: - In narratives, objects can symbolise key themes or ideas. - Galloway's key symbol is the cello which could represent...

Pupil outcome: I can plan, write and proofread a complete narrative piece of writing. Key learning points: - We need to plan our creative writing to ensure it is clear, cohesive and engaging. - We can use a range of language and...

Pupil outcome: I can emulate Brontë's use of motifs within my own writing. Key learning points: - Arguably, Brontë conveys the concept of exclusion through the descriptions of the windows in 'Wuthering Heights'. - Brontë uses the...

This video encourages viewers to identify and understand the role of adjectives in a story about a cricket and an ant. It highlights various adjectives, including descriptive words about characters, settings, and emotions,...

Discover the role of adjectives in language as they add description and detail to nouns. This video highlights how adjectives like 'blue', 'tall', 'scary', and 'small' enhance sentences, providing examples of adjectives placed both...

Explore the function of adverbs, which describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, and provide details about when, where, how, or to what extent something happens. This video demonstrates through examples how adverbs like 'happily',...

Julia Alvarez's remarkable contributions to Hispanic literature explore immigrant experiences, cultural identity, and resistance against injustice.

In this video, Stephanie Burt, a literary critic and poet at Harvard University, recounts how two influential teachers, John Burkhart and Helen Vendler, profoundly impacted her educational journey. John Burkhart, a high school English...

This video delves into the world of puns, a form of wordplay that utilizes words with multiple meanings or similar sounds for humorous or thoughtful effects. It explains different types of puns, such as homophonic, homographic, and...

This video focuses on character development, an essential literary device in storytelling. It explains how characters, whether human, alien, or even inanimate objects, drive a narrative's progression. The video differentiates between...

Silent Ferry is a creative writing text that contains figurative language and words with particular connotations that impact tone, mood, and pacing.

“Types of Characterization” will help the student to review the different types of characterization, particularly direct and indirect characterization

Sentence variety reduces repetition in a piece of writing and emphasizes important points in the text. Sentence variety can be introduced to the beginning of sentences by starting a sentence with an adverb, starting a sentence with a...

Author Eve Rodksy shares practical advice on how to balance full-time employment with caregiving and domestic responsibilities now that the pandemic has transformed the way we live and work.

This video features a playwright discussing their love of dialogue and how they approach writing it for their plays. They emphasize the importance of balancing naturalism with stylization and the process of refining dialogue through...

Tony Fusco, is a West Haven resident and was named Poet Laureate for the City of West Haven in April of 2019. and is also Co- President and Past-President of the CT Poetry Society. He has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from...

This video features a playwright discussing the evolution of her voice and style, touching on the importance of form in relation to content and the power of verbatim theater to heighten audience engagement and appreciation for the beauty...