Aspen Institute
The Voice That Challenged a Nation
Included here are step-by-step instructions for conducting a close reading of The Voice That Challenged a Nation by Russell Freedman. After an individual and class reading, class members read carefully through the text excerpt,...
Virginia Department of Education
The Writing Process for Persuasive Writing
Get your junior high writers stimulated with the strategies and ideas available in this activity. Learners discuss and debate controversial subjects, and outline their reasons with an online graphic organizer (link included) that creates...
Polk Bros Foundation
Common Core Constructed Response Organizer
Get your writers ready to compose a constructed response essay in response to either an informational or fictional text. Pupils note down the big idea they wish to address as well as up to nine examples from the text that they wish to...
Curated OER
Down in the Dumps
After an introduction to municipal sludge, middle school ecologists consider the pros and cons of dumping in the Hudson River Canyon. The class is split into two groups: one to debate in favor or dumping and one to debate against the...
Curated OER
Persuasion: Analyzing Persuasive Writing
Students examine and create persuasive essays. In this writing instructional activity students engage in activities that allow them to understand how a persuasive essay is constructed so they may compose their own.
Curated OER
Invent a Holiday
Who wouldn't want to create their own holiday? Use the 12 elements of a holiday to have learners of all ages create their own holiday. These days, it seems like we make any excuse for a holiday! Consider having some fun with your kids...
Curated OER
Convey Ideas in Writing
Use the platforms of the 2004 presidential candidates to bring persuasive writing to your class. Young voters identify the three issues most important to them in the election and research the issues and candidates' positions. They write...
Curated OER
Persuasive Writing
Use a quick bell-ringer to interest your class in the art of persuasion. They brainstorm where they find examples of persuasion in their lives and identify who is trying to persuade them. Then they either fish through magazines or look...
Curated OER
All Aboard the Innovation Train
Students read "Next Stop for the Subway, a Fully Automated Future" from The New York Times and consider the effect of technology on their town or city. After discussing arguments for and against the new computer-based subway system in...
Curated OER
Telling Our Stories of Giving - Writing to Persuade
After identifying the parts of a persuasive piece of writing, young writers explore different prewriting activities for the persuasive essay. They have the option to write a news article, personal narrative, or persuasive essay to...
TV411
Whip up a Storm of Writing Ideas
Need a key to unlock writer's block? Introduce your writers to four easy steps that will release them from their mental prison. The brainstorming worksheet, designed to set free their imaginations, even has an answer key.
Curated OER
Writing: Laying and Covering the Foundation
Your middle schoolers can become stronger writers with a lesson covering the basics. They compose effective thesis statements and introductions, discuss different ways to capture a reader's attention, and compare a poorly written...
Curated OER
Academic Writing Worksheet
Academic writing is characterized by certain phrases. Young writers are asked to indicate where, in an academic paper, phrases like, having said that, most experts agree that, the generally accepted view is that, etc. would appear....
Curated OER
House and Holmes: A Guide to Deductive and Inductive Reasoning
Test your pupils' reasoning skills with several activities and a quick mystery to solve. Learners watch and analyze a few video clips that demonstrate reasoning in action, practice deduction with an interactive and collaborative...
Mr. Nussbaum
THE Founding Father
Who is the founding father—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Franklin? Scholars decide which of three early Americans, should be crowned the founding father of America based on research. Then, they compose a persuasive...
Ereading Worksheets
Persuasive Essay Examples
Your young writers will practice identifying the hook, position statement, and main points of two examples of persuasive writing.
Curated OER
Teacher of the Year
Now is the time to identify the great teachers in your school! Discuss the characteristics of persuasive writing and analyze an example. Then, each pupil chooses a teacher who they feel should be named teacher of the year. They plan and...
Curated OER
The Art of Persuasion
Students practice persuasive writing by creating a travel brochure. In this creative writing lesson, students research a popular tourist destination they would like to visit and create a brochure enticing readers to come. Students...
We are Teachers
Phrases to Outlaw in Students' Writing
If your writing classroom was the Wild West, what phrases would be "outlawed"? Here is one poster that every writing instructor, and really, any teacher of communication, should have in their classroom!
Curated OER
Literary Analysis: Summary vs. Analysis
What is the difference between summary writing and literary analysis? A 16-slide presentation offers some basic requirements for both types of writing and helps readers identify each based on keywords used in both types of writing....
Odegaard Writing & Research Center
Strong Body Paragraphs
Here's a handy, seven-step guide to crafting good paragraphs in support of a claim. The steps are clearly explained and examples provided.
Curated OER
Developing an Outline
A lot of writers don't like creating an outline before writing the first draft of their paper. Introduce them to what an effective and organized outline looks like with this presentation. Designed for higher education, you could easily...
Virginina Department of Education
Planning Persuasive Writing
A nice starting exercise that organizes a learner’s persuasive writing assignment by issue, claim, and hard and soft evidence. Definitions of the terms aforementioned are provided, as well as the worksheet needed by the class. The...
Curated OER
Examining Persuasive Literature
Examine persuasive literature and writing. In this persuasive literature lesson, pupils work through a variety of activities over the course of three weeks (each week is planned by day). The unit's purpose is to examine examples of...