Lessons and Ideas

Prepositions demonstrate temporal, spatial or logical relationships of a word to the rest of the sentence. That's a mouthful, right? In this prepositions song, Flocabulary breaks it down for you. Here's a story about a boy, his dog and a would-be bully. Can you spot all the prepositions? I woke up. Got out of bed, Put my favorite cap on my head. Grabbed my dog's leash in my hand, While I tied the other end to him. Got onto the skateboard, I hopped, And my dog started running down the block. My dog moves fast like a bobsled, At least that's what my mom said. How many did you get? Let's count them…

Commas are an important part of your writing. How would you punctuate this sentence? "Let's eat grandma!" If you said add a comma between eat and grandma, wonderful! Dinner's on the table and you're ready to eat. If you forgot a comma however, you change the whole meaning of the sentence into a very troubling one... Here's a short list of comma rules: Use a comma in between the city and state when writing an address. Use a comma in between the day and year when writing the full date. Use a comma after the salutation of a letter. Commas should be…

As our new adverb song notes, adverbs can provide more detail about the verbs in your sentence. How did you eat at Thanksgiving? You ate ravenously. How did you trip on stage at the talent show? You tripped clumsily. But sometimes, adverbs actually do the opposite. Many writers use adverbs as a crutch when they aren't exactly sure about what they're saying. Take this article from this morning's New York Times: The writer can't assuredly say that Romney won, so he uses adverbs to hedge. (He also rhymes a little, channeling his buddies over at Flocab). When it comes to…

How are hydrosphere and lithosphere connected? Which of the layers make up the atmosphere? Lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere. Wheww! It's a headache just to read all those names, much less trying to memorize all of them! It's so much easier to remember the answers to these questions with Flocabulary's song, "Weather: Layers of Life" Three layers of life, I’ll make it clear: The one we live on? That’s the lithosphere. The one with the water is the Hydrosphere. The gas and air is the atmosphere. If you listen along you'll also learn why clouds don't fall down, the different…

Close the achievement gap with direct vocabulary instruction. One promise of public education is to level the playing field for the rich and poor. Unfortunately, the system is not entirely fulfilling that promise. The socioeconomic achievement gap has been an issue for decades, but a recent study released by Stanford University sociologist Sean F. Reardon, shows that the gap has widened by 40% since the 1960s. Achievement gaps can be mystifying and confounding because so many cultural and economic factors contribute to them. The layers are complex and interwoven enough to make the problem seem insurmountable, but progress can be…