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Writing Process-- Revision and Editing
As guided practice, class members work together to revise a model persuasive paragraph. Then they practice independently with their own writing. The included rubric looks at prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, nonfiction text...
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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!
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Back to School: Style Analysis
Jump back into expository writing and analysis at the start of a new school year! Start with a review of an authors' stylistic choices in diction, syntax, treatment of subject matter, and figurative language. Writers choose a text to...
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Expressing Your Views to the Letter
Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...
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With Your Own Two Hands: Are You Changing the World or "Waiting for the World to Change"?
Can your pupils change the world? Explore this question with Ben Harper's song "With My Own Two Hands" and John Mayer's "Waiting for the World to Change." After listening to the songs, they discuss the tools at their disposal for...
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How To Do an AHAP DBQ
How is an essay like a hamburger? Detailing the "meaty" parts of a well-written essay, this presentation takes students through the process of using a strong thesis statement to write a thorough and engaging response to a Document Based...
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Boogie Woogie with a B: Using Alliteration while Exploring Patriotic Tunes
Are you looking for a way to bring writing into your history lesson - or history into your writing lesson? This cross-curricular activity is helpful and fun, no matter what class you're teaching! Using "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" by the...
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Thoreau's Writing Style
Students analyze Thoreau's writing style. In this writing style lesson, students describe Thoreau's literary style and use the devices he employs in a response to one of his essays.
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Style and Voice
Develop the writing skills of your high school class. Writers consider their personal style and voice, read selections by other authors, and then write pieces that challenge them to experiment with their own style.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
The Columnist Project
Imagine a list that includes Alan Abelson of Baron's, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, and Mother Jones. High schoolers select a national columnist, read and annotate five columns by this author, noting the rhetorical strategies,...
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Transcendentalism and Epiphany in Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine
Twelfth graders examine the characteristics of transcendentalism. For this transcendentalism lesson, 12th graders determine what this type of writing entails before reading a passage from, Ray Bradbury's, Dandelion Wine. They cite three...
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Modernism in Poetry, Painting, and Music
Are you teaching Modernism to your class? Connect different areas of artistic expression in the Modernist Era. Learners read T.S. Eliot, view art by Pablo Picasso, and listen to a Modernist musical composition. This final assignment is...
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Packet
Readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are directed to complete two projects as a part of their study of Mark Twain’s novel. Individuals craft an organized notebook containing all their work during the study, and they research...
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Mood and Tone
Pupils describe their current mood in several complete sentences. They compare their moods with moods set by authors through the tone of their writing. Students read a teacher prepared handout about mood/tone of writing. They write their...
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When I Set My Hat at a Certain Angle: Trying on Zora Neale Hurston's Voice to Dress-up Prose
After reading and evaluating examples of prose nonfiction by Zora Neale Hurston and other authors, high schoolers write a personal reflective essay rich in figurative language. By incorporating this strategy, they utilize voice within...
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American Rhythms
Students combine elements of music with poetry. In this creative writing lesson plan, students examine poems from a variety of authors with varying writing styles. Students explore the different elements of poetry, including tone,...
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Children's Media and Censorship
High schoolers form opinions about children and television censorship after analyzing literature. They complete a journal writing activity to identify the topic and make a list of inappropriate television shows for children. Next, they...
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Mark Twain: Straddling the Civil War
Mark Twain's life, politics, writing, and role as a mirror of pre- and post-Civil War American culture are the focus 11th and 12th graders in this section from an expansive author study. A critical writing assignment comparing Twain to...
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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...
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Writing by Committee
Learners write short stories of three paragraphs. They focus on the story elements of introduction, body, and conclusion. They exchange papers so that three different students author the stories.
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How To Do an AP Euro DBQ
Are your AP classes struggling with Document Based Questions? Nip their problems in the bud with this clear and comprehensive presentation, which compares a "dazzling DBQ" to a hamburger, outlining all of the layers therein....
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Narrative Nuts and Bolts
After viewing slides and reading about child labor, young authors compose an original narrative story. They practice note-taking skills and work to effectively engage a reader by incorporating plot, logical order, complex characters,...
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The Witch of Goingsnake
Students complete literary analysis and writing activities using The Witch of Goingsnake. In this literary analysis lesson, students interpret a proverb, read poems, complete a quaker reading, and complete research for the lesson....
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Renaissance Realities
Students analyze passages by Niccolo Machiavelli and Francis Bacon as an analysis of Renaissance ideas in contemporary situations. For this Renaissance writings lesson, students read excerpts from Machiavelli's The Prince and multiple...