I'm random, thanks for asking.

LOL I meant to erase the color words after I wrote all that, but I was tired. We use this program called Step Up to Writing, which is a really cool system for teaching kids both narrative and expository writing (stories and informational, respectively. There's a big focus on planning, and they use a stoplight analogy. You start with the green, which is your topic sentence for a paragraph or an introduction for an essay. The yellows are your transitions and RDFs, or reasons, details or facts that tell more about your topic. The reds are where you explain the most, giving the most specific information. So, like a stoplight, green means GO, tell the reader what you are going to talk about. Yellow means SLOW down and give a little more information. Red means STOP and explain, say all that you need to say. (you can only have one yellow sentence at a time, but you can have as many reds after it as you need) Finally, your last green means GO again, restate the topic and main points in your conclusion. I wish I had heard of the program when I was in CA.

I'll share my teacher experiences, and I get to read about your grad school life :) It's a good thing I wrote this post, because I was able to just send the link to my friend who asked me today about school.