Dream of a Nation
Creating Awareness through Action Oriented Writing and Research
Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth graders...
Curated OER
Everyone's an Author
Students examine variety of written pieces of quality fiction, discuss what different story elements are present and how those elements make stories as effective as they are, and create a class story.
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
Children's Books
Students use their personal experiences to create students's books for younger students on topics to which they can relate. Students observe a guest speaker who talks about different formats of students's books that are available, then...
Curated OER
Boogie Woogie with a B: Using Alliteration while Exploring Patriotic Tunes
Are you looking for a way to bring writing into your history lesson plan - or history into your writing lesson plan? This cross-curricular activity is helpful and fun, no matter what class you're teaching! Using "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 2: So What's a Novel, Anyway?
What makes a novel a novel? Class members select a favorite novel, record their impressions on a worksheet, and then come together in groups to discuss the elements common to narrative writing. Next, they identify the characters, the...
Curated OER
Research Techniques: Gathering Credible Sources
How can you spot a credible source? What even makes a resource reliable in the first place? Answer some of these questions with this presentation. Although intended for higher education, this PowerPoint could be modified for middle...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Light Is
Students explore the properties of light. In this light instructional activity, students investigate visible light by viewing a website, examining an electromagnetic spectrum chart, and observing light demonstrations. Students write...
Curated OER
Women in History: Research for Expository Writing
After reading an excerpt from Amelia Earhart's autobiography, The Fun of It, learners explore various nonfiction resources about her life and write a short newspaper article on a specific event. They then develop a longer piece of...
Curated OER
Movie Music
Students discover film making by participating in a music performance. In this performance arts lesson plan, students perform music and physical acting to convey an already written script for their peers. Students collaborate with...
Appalachian State University
Making Your Point Using Dialect
Explore the sounds, importance, and effectiveness of dialect in literature. Active participants read, listen to poetry, and explore dialect by developing a formal definition, discuss the benefits of its use, complete a Venn diagram and...
Curated OER
Poetry Cyberbook
Emerging poets design a website and then post seven original poems as well as their written critique of these poems. Although the resource mentions Inspiration and FrontPage technologies, any software could be substituted.
EMC
The Inn of Lost Time Reader's Resource
Introduce "The Inn of Lost Time" by Lensey Namioka to your middle schoolers with a reader's resource page. It includes links to different activities, including a creative writing prompt about losing fifty years of your life, and a...
Curated OER
Putting It All Together: Revision
Use the revision process to polish your writing. Writers prepare works for job portfolios that include cover letters, job applications, resumes, and letters of recommendation. Prepare them for the future!
Curated OER
Persuade Me
Students develop their writing skills. For this writing strategies lesson, students examine persuasive writing techniques on order to write persuasive mailers.
Curated OER
Scavenger Hunt
Students summarize the "Tri-County Project" section of the nebraskastudies.org web site using a scavenger hunt.
Curated OER
Reporting Live From...
Students examine the many disasters in West Virginia. In this US history instructional activity, students write about and give an oral presentation of one of the disasters as if they were reporters.
Curated OER
Character Sketch
Students view a PowerPoint presentation about Character sketches, and write a four paragraph character sketch. Emphasis is placed on topic sentences having one main idea per paragraph and elaborating. They study and discuss ways to write...