Curated OER
Capturing Authentic Narratives
“Authentic narrative is the glue that connects people.” So says the narrator of this short video who models for young journalists how to craft the questions and identify the sources that will yield the information needed to create a...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Common Errors in Introductions
This video lesson focuses on writing introductions and common issues with introductions. It discusses the use of details and information -- too much or not enough and being off topic. It suggests using specific language in the...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Determining Your Audience
A series of four screencasts explaining the importance of audience. Students learn the difference between the real audience and the audience the writer intends, how to create a specific audience instead of a general audience, how the...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Effective Word Choice
This video lesson focuses on effective word choice in writing; it discusses word order, usage, and the need to consider the audience. It explains the need to avoid redundancy and wordiness. It demonstrates how to do this using a student...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Flow
This video lesson focuses on the flow of a paper; it defines flow and explains how to use the natural order of ideas and details and smooth transitions to create a cohesive paper.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Flow: Simplicity to Complexity
This video lesson focuses on the flow of essay writing from simple and general to complex and specific. The introduction begins simple and general until it reaches the thesis where it becomes more complex. The specifics continue through...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: General and Specific Audiences
This video lesson focuses on analyzing your audience and tailoring your writing to it. It discusses the 4 types of audiences: real, intended, general, and specific; it explains how to choose writing styles such as tone, vocabulary, and...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Narrative Key Elements
This video lesson focuses on the key elements of writing a narrative: point of view, tone, reflective statement, pacing, emphasis, and cohesion. W.9-10.3,3a, 3b, 3c, 3e Narratives, W.11-12.3,3a, 3b, 3c, 3e Narratives
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Prewriting: Brainstorming
This video lesson focuses on brainstorming and listing as a prewriting activity. It discusses free association of ideas and perspectives, using webs or flow charts of ideas, and a variety of listing methods. Next students should look at...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Process Papers: Organization
This video lesson focuses on organizing a process paper including how to organize using chronological sequencing in a step-by-step fashion. It includes breaking down and evaluating it in either parts to a whole or whole to parts fashion.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Anticipating and Responding to Readers' Questions
This tutorial focuses on audiences and anticipating and responding to their questions using 2 videos. The first video focuses on determining, defining, and discussing real, intended, general, and specific audiences and also audience...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Argumentative Writing: Identifying the Audience
This lesson focuses on identifying and considering your audience in argumentative writing. It discusses the real vs. the intended audience, general and specific audiences, and the target audience. It suggest that you consider your...
Mind Tools
Mind Tools: Brainstorming: Generating Many Radical, Creative Ideas
Learn how to facilitate both individual and group brainstorming sessions in order to maximize creativity.
Crash Course
Crash Course Literature #1: How and Why We Read
This seven minute video series of Crash Course Literature uses lively verbal explanations accompanied by entertaining visuals with a host who provides compelling examples of how and why people read.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Concise Language: Avoiding Redundancy
This screencast offers several methods to help readers spot and fix redundancy in their writing. She discusses why concise writing is important, and specific ways to edit for a more expressive, concise text. Includes short quiz. [3:32]
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Audience and Writing Style
A screencast lesson defining different types of audience, discussing the importance of determining an audience, and explaining how a writing style should be chosen based on the needs and expectations of the intended audience.[5:18]...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Narratives: Organization: Lesson 1
This video tutorial discusses how narratives are organized including beginning, middle, end and types of organizational patterns. It is 1 of 2 in the series titled "Narratives: Organization." [10:06] W.11-12.3c Narrative Org
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Evaluating Details
This lesson focuses on how to evaluate details as you read a new book. It offers tips as you first begin to read as to what details may be important to track and questions to ask yourself as you continue to read to help focus on the...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Anticipating a Reader's Questions for Academic Writing
This lesson discusses how to anticipate and address a reader's questions.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Writing for an Audience
This lesson introduces the concept of writing for an audience. [7:18]