Curated OER
Strong Descriptive Writing: James and the Giant Peach
Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...
Dr. Seuss Enterprises
Dr. Seuss in the Classroom
Explore the works of Dr. Seuss, such as Horton Hears a Who, Horton Hatches and Egg, The Sneetches and Other Stories, The Lorax, The Butter Battle Book, and Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories. Each story lesson includes reading...
Poetry4kids
Onomatopoeia Poetry Lesson Plan
Two exercises boost scholars' knowledge of a onomatopoeia with excerpts from famous poems. In exercise one, participants circle onomatopoeia words. Exercise two challenges writers to choose three words to use in an original poem.
Curated OER
The Rooms in a Home
Enhance your foreign language students' skills to describe a house. After reading a description of rooms in a house in their target language, they work to answer corresponding questions correctly. Additionally, they view a PowerPoint...
New York City Department of Education
Theater Units for Lower and Upper Elementary Levels
Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons, assessment...
Poetry4kids
Creativity Exercise - Describe the Sky
Scholars stretch their writing muscles with an exercise that asks them to describe the sky using similes and metaphors.
Curated OER
Scent-Inspired Composition
Our sense of smell has a wonderful way of bringing back memories. Unlock those memories with an olfactory-inspired writing prompt that challenges writers to tell a story about a specific smell and the memories it conjures.
Poetry4kids
Simile and Metaphor Lesson Plan
Similes and metaphors are the focus of a poetry lesson complete with two exercises. Scholars read poetry excerpts, underline comparative phrases, then identify whether it contains a simile or metaphor. They then write five similes and...
Poetry4kids
Personification Poetry Lesson Plan
Scholars take part in two exercises to boost their knowledge of personification. After reading a detailed description and excerpts from famous poems, writers list action verbs and objects then combine words to create a humorous...
Curated OER
Sequencing
Are you looking for a way to teach sequence of events in your narrative writing unit? Bring this lesson to your middle school class, as it prompts young writers to create a narrative sequence map of events that have happened at school...
Curated OER
Writing Conventions: Combining Sentences with Appositives
Young grammarians as well as language learners can benefit from a short presentation about using appositives to combine short, related sentences. After a brief definition of terms, pairs share their ideas and combine model sentences.
California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc
Poetic Devices
Have everything you need to know about the elements of poetry with a nine-page handout. Split into four categories—word sounds, meanings, arrangement, and imagery—budding poets may reference terms, read definitions, descriptions, and...
Curated OER
Using Commas for Clear Writing
In this commas worksheet, students learn to use commas to help write more clearly. Students complete three exercises with commas.
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 11: Setting
Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...
Curated OER
Reading a Dialect
Reading a dialect can be difficult; show readers that it can also reveal fascinating details! They read two extracts from Jane Gardam's The Hollow Land, which is written in a British dialect. Readers answer comprehension questions,...
Brockman Elementary School
Living History Timeline
As part of a living history research project, learners research a chosen historical figure that they will study and physically represent in a gallery walk. This resource includes a project description, letter to parents, rubric, and...
EngageNY
Presenting a Research-Based Claim: Effective Speaking Techniques
Take note. Scholars receive their claim drafts back to revise and write their claims and three pieces of evidence on notecards. They save the notecards to use when the verbally present their claims to the class. At the end, individuals...
Channel Islands Film
Arlington Springs Man: Lesson Plan 1
Learning to craft quality questions is a skill that can be taught. Class members use the Question Formulation Technique to learn how to create and refine both closed-ended and open-ended questions. They then view West of the West's...
Curated OER
Writing Original Adventures About Imaginary Sidekicks
Students explore storytelling by conceptualizing a story with classmates. In this publishing lesson, students identify the idea development process and discuss word choice when writing a story. Students utilize a graphic organizer to...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Curated OER
Fused Sentences (Also called Run-on Sentences)
After reading a detailed explanation of fused sentences and studying the provided examples, learners reconstruct nine sentences to eliminate comma splices and fused, or run-on, sentences. This could be used as homework or a group exercise.
Curated OER
Creating a Story that "Stacks" on Itself and Repeats a Catch Phrase
Students explore language arts by reading a classic children's story in class. In this story structure lesson, students read the Judith Viorst book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Students discuss the...
Curated OER
Venerable Inventors
Students discuss important historic inventors and read their biographical information. In this world history lesson, students describe Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison, and Guglielmo Marconi using vocabulary terms used in their text....
Curated OER
Max and Wife
Students participate in a game to see who knows each other best. In this getting to know you lesson, students discuss several questions and work in pairs to get to know each other. Students are then asked questions about their partner....