Curated OER
Lesson Exchange: Introduction to Research Papers (Senior, Literature)
Although unlikely in today's English classroom, this lesson focuses on introducing research papers to seniors in high school. It briefly reviews the parts of an essay, and mentions showing learners example essays, but no examples are...
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.
Wyatt Bingham
Comparative Essay: Tips for Timed Writing
This site provides a guideline for writing a comparative essay for the AP World History Test. It also provides practice exercises and samples.
Curated OER
Writing Essays
Students compose expository essays. In this written communication lesson plan, students examine paragraphs from sample expository essays and then discuss the attributes of well-written essays prior to writing their own expository essays.
Curated OER
Four Year Plan Essay
Students complete a personal vision, a four year plan essay, meant to stimulate their thinking process. They set a foundation for what they hope to strive for in the next four years to come.
University of North Carolina
Should I Use “I”?
Despite the formal nature of academic writing, personal pronouns frequently appear in high school and college papers. While your first instinct may be to cross them out, sometimes it's okay to use them, an idea covered in a handout that...
Curated OER
Topic Sentences and Transitions
High school writers identify the purpose of both a topic sentence and a transitional statement. They write a topic sentence which denotes the paragraph topic and the author's stand on that topic. Then they write an effective transitional...
Curated OER
Research Paper Project
Break down some of the most foundational components of writing a research paper, such as incorporating and formatting citations, creating a thesis statement, and using quotes effectively, into manageable tasks for your young writers.
Curated OER
Workplace Vocabulary
High schoolers engage in daily spelling and vocabulary practice of workplace-related terms with definition matching exercises, word scrambles, dictation, sentence writing. Finally, they compose a short essay in which they use the words...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Lesson 1: The First Great Awakening
High schoolers examine the First Great Awakening and how it affected religious belief in colonial America. They read and analyze primary source documents, explore various websites, and write a five-paragraph essay examining the beliefs...
Curated OER
Formal Essay Process
Students identify and use the four types of brainstorming techniques used in essay prewriting. They select an appropriate attention getting statement to attract the essay reader. Students explore the purpose and methods of selecting...
Curated OER
It's Your Birthday! Expository Writing Unit 2
Students create an expository essay. In this writing lesson Students are assigned a country and must conduct research surrounding a historic event that occurred in that country at the time of their birth.
Curated OER
Introductions and Conclusions
Ninth graders explore the techniques for writing an effective introduction and concluding paragraph in their academic essay. They create an outline of where they plan to take the reader and explore the methods for creating an...
Curated OER
Do Heroes Have to Wear a Cape?
Young writers choose a person from American history, their community, or their family to use as the subject of a persuasive essay. The process begins with a discussion of the characteristics of a hero, the completion of a prewriting web,...
Curated OER
Making a Treasure Your Own: Lesson Two
Pupils write an essay describing the Curtis Center and what they learned there. In this descriptive writing essay, students discuss the five paragraph essay and review sensory discoveries from their trip. Pupils draft an outline and work...
Curated OER
Sandwich Chart
Students fill in the blanks on a writing worksheet to create ideas for a five paragraph essay. Each blank needs to be filled in to create a "sandwich" essay which includes a topic sentence, the paragraphs with supporting details and a...
Curated OER
Graphic Writing Web
High schoolers discuss and develop graphic writing webs, writing supporting ideas for a given topic.
Curated OER
Thesis Statement Exercises
In this writing worksheet, young scholars identify what a thesis statement is and how to write one from three different essay questions. They identify the three main points for each questions and then, give it a title.
Curated OER
Expository Journal Prompts
Stuck for a journal topic? Download CAHSEE’s 21 “Expository Journal Prompts” as a pdf handout for yourself or class. A great resource for your writing program, print it up and add it your curriculum library.
Curated OER
Visible Speech: What is a Sentence?
Use this straightforward presentation as a basic guide to your grammar unit. With explanations of the parts of a simple sentence (subject, verb, direct object), the slideshow is a good way to reinforce students' prior knowledge about...
Curated OER
Using Transitions
Transitions, words that reveal the relationship between two ideas, are the subject of a presentation that provides color-coded illustrations to show viewers how this part of speech functions in sentences. The PowerPoint concludes with an...
Santa Ana Unified School District
Lord of the Flies Unit
How does a society influence and shape individuals? Class members ponder this essential question as they read Lord of the Flies, as well as primary source materials about the historical background of the novel. As a final assessment,...
Curated OER
Don't Forget to Say Thanks
Students practice descriptive writing in a thank-you note format. In this descriptive writing lesson, students read the example letter and analyze the corrections in the letter. Students read the example thank you notes and focus on the...
Curated OER
Songs that Bring Us Together - Lesson 5
Students compose song as a classroom effort. They write a one-paragraph essay about "message" songs in 100 years and include three ideas for topics along with the style of music (such as folk, rock, blues, rap, etc.) that would match.