Explore basic paragraphs. Young writers compose a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. This lesson is intended for use with a SMART Board, a software technology web link is induced. 

Are you teaching a high school language arts class and stumped for writing topics? Five pages of writing prompts for all kinds of writing should help you out. Many of these prompts refer to texts that are not included in this resource,...

Students develop a strategy for combining various ideas into well formed sentences which then combine to produce effective descriptive paragraphs.

Third graders have fun using descriptive words in an expository format to describe a food that they hate. They utilize a planning worksheet that's imbedded in this plan before they begin their drafts.

Students determine the difference between major and minor details after researching animals and completing graphic organizers. They write descriptive paragraphs for classmates to guess what animal is being described.

Sixth graders create a descriptive essay and map describing their island paradise. They try to evoke the reader's senses: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. They revise their paragraphs using their partner's feedback.

Explore ethnicity and identity with a research and writing assignment. Class members conduct online research, looking in particular at images and carefully noting down their sources on notecards. They read about identity and compose...

What is the difference between a news story and a personal narrative? This plan has learners write a personal narrative using the topic of service projects in their community. Consider completing a cross-curricular extension by bringing...

Students 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. Students draft an outline and...

Learners look into a mirror and draw their own self-portraits. Then they write a descriptive essay, describing the portrait and the features of their face.

Young scholars research an event or a person from a decade in American history when the civil rights movement was an important focus. They create a multimedia project based on the research.

A three-part assessment challenges scholars to write opinion essays covering the topic of the student council. After reading three passages, writers complete a chart, work with peers to complete a mini-research project, answer...

Second graders write as essay describing the cooperative group drawing they made or describing the process to draw a group picture.

Eighth graders read copies of The Declaration of Independence, United States constitution, and the Bill of Rights. They write an opinion about the document they feel is most important in the history of the united states. This is their...

Does your class love reading cartoons? Use their talents and interests to examine the process of writing a story they wish to tell through a cartoon. They develop the beginning, middle, and end of a story based on their original...

We are living in a technical world. Scholars learn how to examine digital resources for their research on DDT. They explore a list of websites using a Digital Resources on DDT sheet. Learners examine their research notebook to...

Students compare and contrast the experience of the migrant worker as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath with the experiences of migrant children as depicted in the narratives and poems provided.

Seventh graders write a five paragraph persuasive essay on a contemporary civic-life issue.

Read and discuss "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and the gender issues that the story brings up. Use articles from the time period to analyze, complete with specific discussion questions. After two days, scholars write an essay based on topics...

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.

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass serves as the anchor text for a activity on symbolism. Readers use the provided worksheets to examine the symbols in the novel as well as in the world around them.

Sixth graders choose from a list of researchable inquiry questions. They engage in all phases of inquiry/research process.

Third graders write an essay which answers the question, "What kind of student do you want to be?"

Eleventh graders participate in activities that compare and contrast The Canterbury Tales with the television show, Survivor. They write a compare and contrast essay, and create a festival table and PowerPoint presentation.