Learn to Read - Writing Strategies

Captivate readers, ace writing tests, and express yourself clearly—Marko the Pencil will show you how. His Writer's Toolbox, packed with easy-to-implement strategies, will take your writing from mediocre to magnificent. Stories, essays, term papers, or standardized tests—whatever you write, Marko gives you proven strategies for getting remarkable results. This is the fun way to sharpen your writing skills. Grades 4 & up.

• brainstorm ideas for your assignment
• consider your audience and identify your purpose
• find a hook to interest readers
• organize sentences and ideas effectively
• avoid unclear pronouns
• use transitional phrases
• involve your readers with effective dialogue
• enrich your work with similes, onomatopoeia, alliteration, personification, and more

This animated adventure is ideal for classroom use as well as individual practice. Although it was designed and tested with students in fourth grade, our team of educators discovered that students in higher grades (even high school and college) benefited from the review of writing tools and how to effectively integrate all of them into a writing passage.

We have included a special bonus section: Marko shows you how to proofread your work, and he reveals secrets to score well on multiple-choice writing tests. Students learn to proof for errors involving paragraphs, quotes, incomplete sentences, subject-verb agreement, misspelled words, punctuation, and more.

"This product really explains, in a visual way, story elements such as sequencing, a hook, transition, colorful words, and more. The help that Marko gives is specific, useful, and immediately applicable. The writing process is often a painful one. This product helps by breaking it down into small steps. Even better, it uses visual cues that will help students, especially visual learners, keep the steps in mind." —Diana Lawsky, Instructor Magazine

"I never really knew how to use voice in my stories, but now I finally know what it is. I never understood what my teacher wanted me to do when she said to put feeling into my stories. Now I do." —Caleb L. Age 10

"Marko the Pencil, sporting a bow tie and a French accent, offers encouragement and selects tools to help her sharpen her writing skills. In each instance, he explains the tool, gives an example of how it works, and then asks the girl to try to incorporate it in her story. Marko explains brainstorming, identifying the audience, finding a hook, and organizing ideas. He suggests using language rich with dialogue, colorful words, similes, onomatopoeia, and ending with a lasting impression. The first part of the program deals with writing content, and the second segment covers proofreading by using writing samples and a multiple choice format to find mistakes. This is the perfect vehicle to teach the thought process involved in successful writing, and it does it with pizzazz." —Review from the School Library Journal by Marilyn Hersh, Hillside Elementary School, Farmington Hills

Awards: iParenting Media Awards Best Product; Coalition for Quality Children's Media, Kids First! Endorsement; Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award; Creative Child Magazine's Preferred Choice Award; Learning Magazine's Teachers' Choice Award for the Classroom, 2009

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Rock 'N Learn
• rocknlearn
• writing strategies
• learn to write
• become a better writer
• writing test
• simile
• onomatopoeia
• alliteration
• personification
• unclear pronouns
• transitional phrases
• organize sentences
• educational video
• vic mignogna