there’s a scene in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets when Harry falls from a great height during a Quidditch match and he hurts his arm and Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart uses a spell on Harry’s arm and it turns it into this boneless jelly so I know I’ve been incredibly obvious when I say this but bones are pretty important to our bodies without it we’d be like Ares arm just one big blob of jelly or what if the people that built your house decided to build it without any plans like oh well let’s just put some concrete here put some wood here maybe a brick or two here it really wouldn’t be much of a house now would it [Music] what I’ve noticed as an English teacher is that students when they write essays are like builders not using a plan or a body without a skeleton so students when you write you gotta have structure you gotta have a plan [Music] some of you may be thinking but Steven I already have a plan I just write whatever comes out in my head and that’s what I stick with you pretending like what you’ve written has been written in stone and there’s no changing it but that’s not a good place to start here’s what I most commonly see in my students writing is they start off with a good idea but then because they don’t have a structure or a plan they hop around from idea to idea and then I’m not really saying [Music] so I’ve been pointing out a lot of problems of what students are not doing rice but what is the solution I’ll tell you here’s what you need to do get out a piece of paper and number 1/33 and we’re gonna be focusing on memories or experiences from your life and really important memories – it’s only gonna write down three unforgettable memories moments in your life I want to share my through memories first so you get an idea of what I’m talking about my first memory is when I found out I was going to be a dad my second memory is when I swam with whale sharks my last memory is when I didn’t get the lead part in my senior play so pause the video right now and think about what are your three members [Music] what you’ve done is you’ve created something we call a quick list it’s just like the name implies a quick list now choose one of these three memories that you feel that you have a lot to say about you remember as well I’m gonna ask you a series of questions about the memory that you chose it and I want you to answer each question with one complete sentence here’s the first question where were you and what were you doing second question what happened first the third question what happened next the fourth question what happened last the final question is what did you learn realize take a step back and look at the five sentences that you just wrote about your memory do you really look at it closely you have a little mini essay because you use the structure in the gretchen burnaby world we call those five sentences that you’ve written a colonel essay i want you to imagine those five sentences as a kernel of corn if we add more detail to it it pops if we plant it and add even more detail it grows into something far better more importantly though it answers the question do I have something worth writing about we’re et of my colonel si so you can see that everyone’s essays can be different yet structured I was at Lake Country Christian school and patiently waiting for the bell to ring once it did I ran to the Fine Arts Building to see the cast list for our schools fall musical I [Music] saw all of my friends happy and not so happy faces when they saw the list I scanned from my name only to find that I didn’t get the lead part and I was devastated I learned that no matter how hard and they want something it doesn’t mean you get it so I feel that what I have here in these five sentences is pretty good so I’m going to turn each of these sentences to a paragraph and focus on adding details just about that sentence then when you have at the end is a structured well-written essay if you just tried without a plan it probably wouldn’t have come out as good now Colonel essays and quick lists don’t just apply to the narrative stories you can write about expository persuasive check out trail of breadcrumbs net for more all ideas presented in this video are from the brilliant mind of Miss Gretchen Burnaby all art work is done by me Stephen percent yo if you need more kernel ese ideas quickness ideas please go to trail of breadcrumbs net there is so much on there also check us out on social media please share this video and thank you so much for watching