jc-schools
The Expository Essay
Did you ever create an awesome graphic organizer only to find that your class was completely baffled by how to use it? This resource not only provides you with a great graphic organizer for a standard five-paragraph essay, but also...
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
Descriptive Prompt: Precise Language
Incorporate sensory details into a piece of descriptive writing. First, elementary and middle schoolers improve a piece of writing by using precise, vivid language, as well as appropriate word choice. They then listen to a variety of...
Curated OER
Information Reports
Students practice essay skills. In this essay skills lesson, students select an essay subject and take notes for their topic. Students create a web for their essays. Students organize, write, revise, and publish their essays.
Curated OER
Run On Sentences
Explore run-on sentences with your language arts class. There is a SMART Board presentation included, but even if you don't have access to this technology, there are several useful pieces here. Provide your learners with the "student...
Curated OER
Sentence Construction
Switch it up! Present young writers with suggestions for how to add variety and interest to their writings. Using a draft of one of their papers, viewers bracket the first words of their sentences and use the provided questions to...
Curated OER
The Scoop Through Desktop Publication
Drafting, revising, and editing is all apart of the publishing process. Using a series of documents as inspiration, young journalists compose a class Newspaper. They work independently and in groups to publish their own articles.
Curated OER
Wild Horses of the Outer Banks
Students explore animal habitats. In this cross curriculum animal survival and writing lesson, students view a website about wild horses on Shackelford Island and discuss ways in which the horses have changed to this environment. ...
Purdue University
Sentence Fragments Exercise 2
In this sentence fragment exercise, learners are given paragraphs to proofread for sentence fragments. Students are given space to make revisions.
Curated OER
Tips for Improving Transition
Vary, bury, pull, fit. These tips for improving transitions in writing are found on a template designed as a teacher resource. A clever way to make memorable these suggestions for improving transitions in writing, the language in the...
Curated OER
Extreme Work Makeover
Students revise paragraphs for effective word choice. In this effective word choice lesson, students analyze a paragraph for purpose, audience, development, and conventions. Students identify commonly overused words and rewrite a...
Curated OER
A New Point of View
Analyze point of view and how it affects a literary work with this lesson. Middle schoolers create a written piece that focuses on point of view. They review the literary term "point of view," and explore examples of the term in text....
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
How to Combine Sentences
Learners practice combining sentences. In this writing lesson, students view essays and discuss how it can be revised, using sentence combining. Learners practice this skill in their own essays.
Curated OER
Editing
Students write a paragraph and then revise it. In this editing lesson plan, students use a checklist and a scoring guide to rate their writing.
Curated OER
Don't Let Computers Bug You
Students write paragraph about a bug using the computer, an Internet encyclopedia, and word processing program.
Curated OER
Time Capsule Survey
Here's a fun way to incorporate technology into your curriculum. E-mail each of your class members a picture and 10 questions about the photo. Individuals then imagine the story behind the image and e-mail back their responses. Although...
Vista Murrieta High School
English II Research Paper Packet
If your school requires a senior research paper or if you are considering one for your class, then this resource is for you. The 43-page packet includes everything from a sample letter to parents to requirements, from topic suggestions...
Curated OER
Keeping verb tense consistent (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Students improve their personal and academic writing by use of one consistent verb tense.
Curated OER
Small Group Shared Writing
Students discuss elements of effective writing in small groups. They work together to critique individual and group writing focusing on including supporting details.
Virginia Department of Education
Adding Specific Vocabulary
An exercise and activity tackle the struggles young writers have in expressing and adding details and specific vocabulary to their writing. The instructor guides the class with an example paragraph, where the learners discuss what the...
Curated OER
Parts of Speech: Active Verbs
Pupils use White Fang to help them study active verbs. In this grammar lesson, students define active verbs and find examples in the the novel White Fang. Pupils then use ProQuest to research a place they'd like to visit. Students write...
Curated OER
The Newspaper Article
Have your class participate in an interview activity using an informational text about the Amazon. After reading a Cultural Connections story about a person from the Amazon, middle schoolers write interview questions based on the text....
Curated OER
What Does Christmas Mean to Me?
Students write an essay entitled "What Does Christmas Mean to Me?" In this writing lesson, students express their feelings about Christmas in an essay. Students discuss ways they have given to others during the Christmas season, then...