Pennsylvania Department of Education
Informational Writing: Lesson 2 of 5
Introduce expository writing to your elementary learners. Young authors write a three-paragraph informational paper using the steps of the writing process. They follow guided lessons to experience each of five steps. Included are tons of...
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Composition in Journals
Carlos Fuentes’s The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait and Jaspre Bark’s Journal of Inventions: Leondardo da Vince serve as models for an assignment that asks class members to create a personal journal they will use...
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Getway to More Descriptive Writing
Students use more precise descriptive words in their writing.
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Narrative Writing: Using Exact Words
Review the narrative writing process with your emerging story writers. They read a sample narrative and identify five vague verbs that could be replaced with a more exact, exciting verb. Then they write a personal narrative making sure...
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Beautiful Noise Poetry
"What a beautiful noise comin' up from the street; got a beautiful sound, it's got a beautiful beat..." Use Neil Diamond's "Beautiful Noise" to guide your class through a Six Trait writing activity, in which they write an original poem...
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Write Right!
After watching part of a Club Write Kids video and discussing the editing process, each group of learners writes a letter to a favorite author. They ask for a copy of a page of manuscript that has gone through the editing process. Prior...
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Compare and Contrast Poems vs. Lyrics
Combine your pupils' love of music with their growing knowledge of poetry! First, have them bring in their favorite songs for a discussion on word choice and literary devices. Then, use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the...
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Using Imagery
Show, don't tell! Pairs work together to change a list of telling sentences into showing sentences using picture words that create vivid pictures in the readers’ minds.
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Every Dog Has Its Day
Young scholars explore the use of imagery in writing. In this writing lesson, students create a writing piece that features sensory images without resorting to the use of clichés.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Informational Writing
Emerging writers identify an informational piece of writing. They are provided with examples of informational writing and view a PowerPoint on narrative writing. Then, they design their own informational writing with a brochure,...
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That's The Story!
Images can inspire powerful writing. Engage your class in narrative writing with the idea included here. Individuals each snap a digital photograph that includes action. The teacher then mixes these up and hands each class member a photo...
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Writing a News Report
In this creative writing worksheet, students use the checklist to edit their fictional news report. Students use the checklist to prepare for their final written report.
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If I Could Talk Like the Animals. . .
Students read and discuss a film review of the animated movie Antz and then write a monologue from the perspective of a non-human organism.
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Expository --Writing
For this writing worksheet, students investigate the writing process, especially in expository articles. Students examine a piece written for a children's magazine about dinosaurs. Students read about the steps taken to generate it:...
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Programming and PB&J
Students use peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a method for learning computer programming skills. For this computer programming lesson, students write a detailed, step-by-step program for how to make a peanut butter and jelly...
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Families: Different and the Same
Learners compare varying family structures. In this family structures lesson, students write a book about their family. Learners read The House on Mango Street.
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What's the Story?
Students write a group continuation story after reading the novel, The Giver. They write a continuation of the story of Jonas' and Gabe's adventures in Elsewhere, then share their story with the class.
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Does Word Choice Affect the Quality of a Piece of Writing?
Students discuss the importance of word choice in writing. In groups, they rank a list of words from one extreme to the other. After viewing an example, students apply their knowledge of word choice by writing a descriptive paragraph of...
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Crazy Critters Teach Parts of Speech
Pupils create pieces of writing about a creature they have created. They examine the parts of speech and how they are used in their writing to see how they can write more specifically.
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News View
Students read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.
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Brainstorm This!
Students discuss the advantages and types of brainstorming as a prewriting tool. They experiment with different styles of brainstorming and produce prewriting samples for assessment.
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What Makes Time Tick, or Has the Industrial Revolution Really Made Clocks Go Faster?
Learners explore the concept of time both historically and in their own lives. Students count the number of times they refer to a clock and the number of scheduled and unscheduled activities in their lives. Learners discuss how the...
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A History of Conflict Resolution and the Jury System
Pupils study the history of the jury system in the United States. They enact a number of different types of trials including trial by jury. They complete a worksheet that compares the trials systems before writing a persuasive essay for...
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The House that Dies Drear Built
Students write a descriptive paragraph, in the style of Virginia Hamilton, describing the landscape around their house.