The National Writing Project site offers online articles as well as abstracts and reviews of books on such topics as teaching writing, teaching reading, encouraging writing, being a writer and standards and assessment.

Inspired by the picture book How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long, an enthusiastic tale that explores the pros and cons of being a pirate, learners will research an interesting job and prepare to write about it. While researching, the...

Inspired by Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi & Ron Barrett, students will brainstorm adjectives that center around food that might fall from the sky. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner foods will be brainstormed. They will then...

In this review, the author discusses Sharon Creech's book entitled Granny Torrelli Makes Soup. A brainstorming activity to prepare young scholars for descriptive writing is provided. activity about author's voice and word choice follow...

For this lesson plan, students will learn about the season through decriptive words and phrases incorporated in two different books, Have You Seen Trees? by Joanne Oppenheim and The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons. They...

After sharing Margie Palatini's charming "bad-situation-that-only-gets-worse tale", Tub-boo-boo, writers will plan a story about a humorous household accident that gets worse before it gets better. Borrowing Palatini's exciting idea from...

After enjoying the story of Fox by Margaret Wild, young scholars will work in small groups to generate possible themes that the book is trying to teach its readers. Themes will be shared whole-group, and a class list of the best themes...

Students are so used to hearing stories that start with the words Once upon a time and when writing their own stories, they often begin with these same words or with variations like One day I. Inspired by the novel Crispin by Avi This...

Inspired by the opening events in The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman, students are asked to create an original parallel world that is similar to ours but different in certain ways. They will focus on the similarities and differences...

Each writer will brainstorm experiences where he/she has learned some sort of lesson about life. Each will then come up with a personal list of "Rules and Things for a Funner Life," such as those shared in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher...

In this lesson, students will describe a setting, attempting to set a mood for their readers in two paragraphs. Borrowing a technique from Stephen Kramer's two-page introduction to Caves, they will begin with a paragraph that explains...

Contains plans for six lessons that ask students to write group book reviews after reading texts in literature circles. Students also learn about research and documentation as they put together their reports. In addition to objectives...

Contains plans for eight lessons that ask students to write their own children's picture book in order to review story structure and literary techniques. Students also write book reviews of each other's work. In addition to objectives...

After giving learners the writing topic "A Special Day that I Remember, give students ten to fifteen minutes to write on the topic. Then tell them they will be revising their "Special Day" prompt writing, but first they will listen to...

After learners are given time to think about the topic -"Alone Time with an Adult I Care about," they are given ten to fifteen minutes to write between five and ten sentences on the topic. They ten are told they will revise their...

This instructional activity, inspired by the novel Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes is a fabulous classroom mentor text that helps teach a very powerful revision strategy: rewriting an idea in a completely different genre. Grimes' book...

Students build a working definition of slavery by looking at examples and non-examples, use the book The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton to identify internal and external conflict, and finally complete a writing assignment focusing...

Instructions on how to create and publish a children's book in the classroom or as a community literacy endeavour are provided. The NWT Literacy Council offers bursaries for these projects. It tells of a Grade 3 professionally published...

In this lesson, Barry Lane's books entitled Reviser's Toolbox and 51 Wacky We-Search Reports are used as mentor texts. Used as a refeference, the concept of recipe poems can be instructed to the students and the genre of "how to" books,...

This review discusses Ralph Fletcher's book entitled Marshfield Dreams and Cynthia Rylant's book called The Relatives Came. The author suggests that these books be used as mentor texts. In the suggested activity, students will engage in...

Beginning writers work through a Writing Workshop format to create Question and Answer books. A series of mini-lessons, graphic organizers, possible texts, and samples of student work are all provided.

This lesson and prompt encourages students to show information about themselves as they set the things that they love to the music of Tom T. Hall's, "I Love." Students will be further inspired after hearing Brigitte Minne's book, I Love,...

In this lesson plan, students will use the song "The 3 R's" by Jack Johnson to develop ideas about how to "green" up their own classrooms; they will learn two songs (written to the tune of old classics) that will inspire them to...

After reading the book I Stink! by Kate McMullan, students look at the structure of this "guess who I am" book as well as some similar stories. Then students complete a graphic organizer and write their own guess-who stories.