In a traditional school, learning to write means a paper filled with red marks; reading a textbook on grammar; or listening to an adult drone on and on about Faulkner (the distorted wah, wah, wah of Charlie Brown’s teacher comes to mind.)

At Acton Academy, the first step towards becoming a writer is developing a love of reading.  Next comes journaling: getting observations, thoughts and feelings on paper to share with others.   Group critique with warm and cool feedback serves as a catalyst for the difficult art of revision.

Yet, this somehow feels incomplete.  At some point a writer needs to hone her or his word crafting skills.   No Red Ink is an interactive program that helps with grammar, as do the best computer grammar checkers, but this is more about art than convention.

So we asked each Eagle to choose a specific type of word to research – a pronoun or adjective or even more specific term.   Then to prepare a Prezi celebrating the word.

Pods of eight shared their creations, and voted on the two best presentations from each group.  The semi-finalists from each pod shared with the entire studio.

The result – lots of enthusiasm. Full coverage of every type of word, several times over.  Energy; sharing with peers and more finely honed tools: a fertile soil for cultivating powerful writers.

Far more powerful than a textbook, red marks or a droning adult.