Curated OER
Jabberwocky Lesson Plan
Students complete a review of the parts of speech using a jabberwocky poem format. In this parts of speech and poetry instructional activity, students read a jabberwocky poem and identify parts of speech in the poem. Students list...
Curated OER
Words from the Wise
Students explore how famous people, through newspaper Op-Ed articles, often inform the public about issues of national importance. They write Op-Eds in the voice of famous people on current news topics.
Phoenix Prints
To Cite or Not to Cite
A detailed overview of plagiarism and citations. This 33-slide presentation is broken into three sections: a discussion of plagiarism, various examples of in-text and work cited citations, and a short, interactive quiz. Although the...
Curated OER
Persuasion and Parallel Structure
Discuss the definition of parallel structure with your high school class. In small groups, they read a section of "The Declaration of Independence" to identify examples of parallel structure. Each learner writes an essay explaining the...
Curated OER
Creatively Creating Expository Essays
Students, after reading Fahrenheit 451, brainstorm inventions that could have been in the novel. They present their invention to the class and writing an expository essay about their creation.
Perkins School for the Blind
Daily Journal
Keeping a daily journal is fun. It builds strong writing skills and provides an expressive outlet. For children with visual impairments, it's even more important. It provides a way for them to connect written word with real events, which...
Curated OER
Persuasive Speech Assignment
Practice using concrete evidence from various sources to back up an argument. The instructional activity emphasizes the use of support in a persuasive speech, as well as the importance of appealing to an audience's logic and emotions....
Saber Socials
Writing History Essays
Stop the regurgitation of history facts that your writers submit to you as a report by presenting this PowerPoint that reveals how history essays should be done. The presentation covers topics from pre-writing to endnotes, and includes...
Curated OER
Multimedia Storytelling
Experiment with multimedia storytelling. After watching a segment of American Family, first, middle and high schoolers tell a story about their families, clarifying the setting, characters, and script. They work on setting their story in...
Worksheet Web
Language – Debating
Having a debate doesn't mean you're fighting. Introduce middle schoolers to debate with a resource which distinguishes between an quarrel and a debate, describes the debate process and format, and presents some possible debate topics.
Curated OER
A Great Beginning
Check out this detailed resource for some beginning of the year activities. After examining examples, class members uses the computer lab to create a personal brochure enhanced with clip art or photos to introduce themselves to the...
Curated OER
An Untold Triumph
High schoolers examine and analyze the history and experience of Filipinos in Hawaii and California. They identify the contributions of Filipino Americans to the US war effort in World War II, and analyze the many causes that led to...
Curated OER
Literature Review Paragraph
Tenth graders review the structural elements of a literary paragraph and organizational paragraph formats. They author a paragraph examining and reviewing a piece of literature currently being read in class. Students peer-review the...
Curated OER
Peer Editing Form
Save time by downloading a template for peer editing. Included, you will find a one-form-per-page format and a four-forms-per-page format.
Curated OER
Editorial Writing
Use your class's knowledge of pollution and water treatment to write an editorial to town citizens. They apply prior knowledge in order to compose a letter intended for newspaper publication, focusing on writing to an appropriate audience.
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
Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
Curated OER
Ways Twitter Makes You a Better Writer
Practice being concise. Exercise your vocabulary. Improve your editing skills. The contention in this lesson plan is that by imposing a 140 character limit, the Twitter format actually helps improve writing skills. And of course class...
Curated OER
Poetry Gifts
What kind of shoe is this person? What time of day is this person? Aspiring poets’ responses to a list of questions provide descriptive words and phrases that can be crafted into a blank verse poem. A link to sample poems is provided.
Curated OER
MLA Documentation Exercises
Has your school adopted the MLA style for documentation? If so, use this worksheet to assess whether or not your class members know the rules. Young researchers complete of series of documentation exercises using the MLA format. They...
Curated OER
How to Research and Write an Essay
Research and write a 500-word essay. Pupils research a topic and write an essay based on their research. They use the given directions and examples to help them research, organize, format, and write their essay. There's a short chart...
Curated OER
How to Write an Essay: Secondary ed.
Whether introducing the structure of expository essays or reviewing the format with your high schoolers, take the time to check out this resource. Examples of seven common forms of introductory paragraphs and six types of conclusions, as...
Curated OER
Peer Editing Checklist
A handout to guide peer editors, this checklist delineates common problems with paragraph structure and specific proofreading items to check. It also provides encouragement about the collaborative part of the writing process. Formats...
Curated OER
Effective Writing is More Than a Five Paragraph Essay
Groups become experts in one aspect of the six traits of writing, prepare a PowerPoint presentation, jigsaw, and teach others about their trait. Writers then focus on these traits as they compose a persuasive essay about a person they...