Beacon Learning Center
Beacon Lesson Plan Library: Formal or Informal?
Start talking trash with your elementary English class! Then lead a discussion comparing formal and informal language. Divide the class into groups to answer a questionnaire and analyze a set of sentence cards to analyze. This is a cool...
Curated OER
Writing Formal Letters
Help your young writers recognize the importance of composing formal letters. Middle schoolers read letters written by Thomas Jefferson and analyze the components that make it a formal letter. They will then compose their own letters.
Curated OER
Languages in Contact, Socio-spatial Diversity: Language Varieties
Spend some time considering the functions and types of language such as vernacular, standard, and pidgin. This lengthy presentation would benefit a college-level linguistics course with its accurate descriptions and plenty of examples....
Curated OER
Formal Commands (Mandatos)
How do you give a formal command in Spanish? Study the charts provided and complete the practice below. This resource is easy to follow and gives learners organized information for easy recall.
Curated OER
Formal and Informal Letters
In this formal and informal letters worksheet, students change eighteen informal words into formal words. Students then complete one informal and formal letter with fill in the blank answers.
University of North Carolina
Should I Use “I”?
Despite the formal nature of academic writing, personal pronouns frequently appear in high school and college papers. While your first instinct may be to cross them out, sometimes it's okay to use them, an idea covered in a handout that...
California Education Partners
Eleven
It is difficult to articulate how growing up feels as accurately and beautifully as Sandra Cisneros does in her short story "Eleven." After seventh graders read the story and note the author's use of figurative language, they respond to...
Curated OER
Shortened Words
Shorten names and words with different activities. Nicknames, acronyms, and shortened words (fridge instead of refrigerator, for example) are ways for third graders to build their vocabulary and differentiate between formal and informal...
EngageNY
Drafting Body Paragraphs
That's just the style. Learners begin with a mini-instructional activity about formal writing style. They then use what they learned about formal writing to begin the body paragraphs for their End of Unit 1 Assessment Prompt: Adversity...
Curated OER
Be Your Own Chief Editor
The value of this punctuation and grammar lesson is in the SMART board presentation, which takes pupils through the proofreading process. It would be a good way to introduce the idea of proofreading in your class before beginning a unit...
Curated OER
Using Words: Verbal Communication
Written and verbal communication is the topic for today. The class goes over various facets of verbal communication, such as plain English, active voice, passive voice, cliché, and jargon. They then use those devices as they discuss...
Curated OER
Test Your Writing Skills
In this letter writing skills activity, middle schoolers examine 15 phrases from letters and determine whether each phrase is from a formal or informal letter. Good, solid writing practice!
Curated OER
Letter Writing - Formal
Although rarely used these days, letter writing is still a form of writing reviewed in schools. After examining written letters, middle schoolers discuss characteristics of a formal letter and its parts. They choose a famous person to...
Curated OER
Formal VS. Informal
Students each get a copy of the "Formal vs. Informal" task sheet. They read the sentences twice and students put a check mark in the appropriate column on the task sheet. Students explain orally why the form of address is formal or...
Curated OER
Subject Pronouns in Spanish
Starting off with examples and explanations of English subjects and pronouns, this resource explores Spanish subject pronouns in great detail. Each subject pronoun is described and paired with examples. Additionally, the material...
Virginia Department of Education
Determining Purpose and Audience
Build the writing skills of your junior high wordsmiths with activities that introduce many essential skills of writing. As a class, they develop working definitions of formal vs. informal writing, explore different categories of...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 26
The focus of the day's instructional activity is methods for creating a formal style and objective tone in an argument essay. After examining models, pairs engage in peer review of their essay drafts and continue to revise while...
University of North Carolina
Literature (Fiction)
An informative installment of the Writing for Specific Fields series helps readers learn how to interpret and write about fiction. The website details nine easy steps for writing a literary analysis—a useful method for all readers!
Curated OER
Writing Informal and Formal Letters
An informal/formal letters instructional activity asks pupils to label the 15 greetings, salutations, and wording of passages from sample letters as being examples of either informal or formal writing.
California Department of Education
Hitting the Write Note: Writing a Proposal
To whom it may concern ... Scholars undergo the process of writing a letter to an authority figure. The instructional activity asks writers to compose a formal letter requesting a music therapy space. Pupils learn how to submit a project...
Dream of a Nation
Congressional Debate
Should junk food be banned in schools? Should the US open its borders to all immigrants? Should the US impose term limits for the House of Representatives and for the Senate? Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a...
EngageNY
On-Demand End of Unit Assessment and Bookmark Celebration
Using everything they have learned about writing paragraphs over the past few lessons of the unit, class members compose an informative paragraph independently. This is an authentic assessment of their ability, since learners have...
ReadWriteThink
Who’s Got Mail?
Today's kids are probably not familiar with the conventions of letter writing, due to the boom of technology. Here is a lesson that will provide opportunities for formal and informal letter writing.
Curated OER
Body Language
Students take pictures in different settings to demonstrate the importance and influence of body language. In this body language lesson plan, students use a camera and work in groups over a 5 week period.