This resource provides an excellent explanation of how to begin developing support for main ideas in a writing piece. Young writers will work through a step-by-step process of developing supporting details that serve to prove the topic...

Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...

Angela Shelf Medearis' Poppa's New Pants provides third graders with an opportunity to stitch together their own narrative filled with sensory details. After reading the story and noting the sensory and concrete details in the tale that...

We are a tapestry woven of the threads of our family and its history, our environment, our ethnicity, and our culture. High school freshmen reflect on how these threads influence their goals for the future. After reading George Ella...

After a review of symbolism, class members use the provided worksheet to first list the objects they observe in Arnold Mesches' painting "Coney Island" and then suggest possible symbolic meanings for each of the objects. A second...

To conclude a study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, class members analyze Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech. After a whole-class discussion of the main ideas in the speech, individuals draft a...

A lesson on magical realism has young historians research how Garcia Marquez weaves historical events and his own experiences into One Hundred Years of Solitude. Using historical records and information found in a biography of Garcia...

A study of Jan Felipe Herrera's poem "Every Day We Get More Illegal" opens the door for a discussion on immigration. To begin, class members examine the photograph "Desert Survival," record their observations of the image, and then...

The AP Literature and Composition exam is all about close reading. Test takers are presented with a passage and asked to analyze how an author uses literary devices to create a desired effect. Prepare your students for the exam with a...

This video is sure to convince your class of the importance of including strong evidence to support a thesis statement! Young writers learn what type of information is needed to convince a reader, where to attain such information, and...

This is an essential skill of writing that many of our learners often forget! With this resource, your young writers will learn how to clarify or explain supporting details in order to connect arguments back to topic sentences and thesis...

Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members...

In this writing skills worksheet, students practice writing with facts or quotes from a text by following the graphic organizer format. Students write the concrete detail and then list two commentaries for their facts or quotes.