Students explore all the uses of commas by finding sentences using commas and describing how they are used by comparing the sentences to the rules for utilizing commas. They create a poster with five rules of commas and examples for each...

Your class participates in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book Julian Secret Agent. They complete a class story chart, examine how to use punctuation for dialogue, write an alternative...

An interesting article on editors helps young writers understand the conventions of written English. They read a news article about an editor traveling America correcting spelling and punctuation errors on signs.  They discuss...

Upper elementary and middle schoolers, in pairs, use PowerPoint to link a button to every comma within a piece of writing. The button links to a slide explaining why the comma was used. They present their slides to the class.

Looking for a lesson about differing sentence types? Use this lesson on compound and complex sentences in your grammar unit. After composing simple, compound, complex and compound-complex sentences individually and as part of a group,...

Learners write a friendly letter. They write a friendly letter to author, Cynthia Rylant, after reading a number of her books, and watch a presentation by the teacher that describes how to write the letter. They word process their...

Students use a map and colored pins to plot the migration path of Monarch butterflies. They use data found at the Journey North website. Commas are also used in the activity to show how they are put in a series of words using butterfly...

Middle schoolers create a story about an unknown planet invaded by humans as a pre-reading activity for the novel, A Wrinkle In Time. They discuss good versus evil, and identify examples of the theme good vs. evil in books, film, and...

Fifth graders explore communication by analyzing manners. In this social skills lesson, 5th graders review the different forms of communication and how to present yourself in a phone conversation, face to face meeting, e-mail, etc....

Students develop their reading and writing skills in this year long activity. They discuss the physical traits that they have in common and those physical traits that make them unique. Students draw a portrait of their partners and write...

Ninth graders read and analyze The Odyssey. They apply note-taking skills to identify enemy, type of enemy, and traits demonstrated throughout the book. Students create a storyboard that illustrates the selected episode from the book...

Learners get in groups, take a list of words, put them into story form, and punctuate them. They present their story to the class and consider how punctuation changes meaning. Great excercise. 

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...

Students combine sentences to create compound sentences. They write about creating their own soda, then make their own soda, comparing and contrasting it with a national brand. They write a paragraph containing compound sentences.

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...

Young scholars examine the expressive and descriptive language used in the books "Dr. Xargle's Book of Earthlets" and "Planet of the Robots." In pairs they take notes about each other's physical appearance and conduct interviews,...

Learners complete autobiographical writing assignments throughout the school year that they save and rewrite to put into a published book during the last month of class. They include photographs, drawings and mementos of their lives in...

High schoolers select a theme-related essay topic from Night, by Elie Wiesel, or The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and develop an essay that relates the theme to modern-day personal experiences. The essay follows a preset rubric...

Students discuss the importance of using adjectives in writing. They separate into five groups, each group is given a bag with an object inside to describe using just one sense. They write a description of a Hershey's Kiss using adjectives.

Pupils review the differences between defining and non-defining clauses, and then go on to a writing exercise which employs non-defining relative clauses to expand a basic story outline.

Fifth graders use the internet to research the Silver Star given to those who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Using the information, they write a short report on one of the recipients of the Silver Star. In groups, they visit a...

Learners draft and revise essays. They share their essays with their partner. Based on the feedback they receive, they revise their essays for clarity, purpose, and tone. They proofread their essays, fixing errors in spelling, grammar,...

Young scholars examine, experience and practice strategies that assist students in writing an expressive essay. They outline and then write a first draft of an essay to be edited and proofed and then corrected. Each student adds a visual...

Fourth graders watch the movie "Contact" and write a review. They discuss in their review how scientists deal with technological problems, the movie's connections to the nature of science and how technology affects science. They share...