Dear Sir or Madam: What's the difference between formal and informal language? Scholars focus on using formal English and transitions in their position papers. After revising their rough drafts, they engage in the peer editing process...

Let's work together! Scholars engage in the peer editing protocol, giving and receiving feedback on their draft opinion speeches. They then use classmates' feedback to begin working on their revisions. 

Teamwork makes the dream work. Pupils participate in a peer critique process, using forms to offer constructive advice about each other's storyboards. Next, scholars revise their storyboards based on the feedback, and then share their...

Opposites attract. Scholars choose one of their claims from the previous lesson. They then must consider the opposite view of that claim and create a counterclaim, discussing it with classmates. To help guide the discussion, they use a...

Using the resource, learners share their essay revisions with a partner. Afterward, they participate in a Fishbowl discussion, receiving peer feedback about their editorial essays. 

Sharpen persuasive writing skills while trying to solve a community problem. Learners choose a burning topic and then write letters to persuade others to come around to their views. The provided procedures walk through how to guide the...

After a peer review of their outlines, class members examine a model of an effective, engaging introduction and then craft the first draft of the introduction to their research paper.

Having prepared for an analysis essay about one of the characters from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, tenth graders demonstrate their understanding in a mid-unit assessment. They focus on either Jing-Mei or Waverly in an informative...

Walt Whitman's "Captain, My Captain" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" provide seventh graders with examples of odes. After reading and discussing these and other examples, young poets craft an ode and respond to the ode of a...

The intricate craft of narrative writing can make a happy story feel exuberant or a sad story feel devastating. With 42 extensive lessons that include poignant discussion questions, standards-aligned self-reflections, engaging writing...

All is fair in claims and counterclaims. Scholars continue to work on their argumentative writing pieces by ensuring their papers fairly address claims and counterclaims. Writers review the importance of argumentative writing conventions...

Using research notes on feudal roles in medieval Europe, learners work cooperatively to write a play about one day in the life of a boy or girl in the Middle Ages.

A thorough unit on literary analysis and character development culminates in a final writing assessment. Prompted to compare the parent-child relationships in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights, high...

Can you put that in writing? Scholars work with a partner to write a practice claim before writing their own claims. After writing their claims, learners share with class using a Concentric Circles activity.

Whether the planks hide the beating of a hideous heart or they break away to the madness beneath, their presence makes itself known in the final instructional activity of a literary analysis unit. Having gathered textual evidence from...

Students identify life goals as they write an autobiography. They write a strong introduction for their autobiography. Students write a sequences of events using their Life Map as a graphic organizer. They write facts accurately...

Use these project guidelines as a start to designing your own class PowerPoint project and to consider what elements you would like to assign and assess in your class. While the resource begins with instructions for researching World War...

After reading Loree Leedy's There's a Frog in My Throat: 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me, kids create and illustrate their own poems that convey the meaning of an idiom. The poems are then transferred into Shutterfly's Photo...

Second graders study farm life. In this writing activity, 2nd graders listen to "Pigaroo" and write their own story about farm life.

Young scholars read and write an analysis of The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn and write a paper on another Twain literary piece. In this Mark Twain lesson plan, students select a Mark Twain literary piece to write an analysis paper for...

Learners analyze Shakespeare's Macbeth by completing the creative activities. In this Macbeth activity, students discuss the timeline for William Shakespeare and identify the characters for Macbeth. Learners read Act One, Scenes i-v of...

Students analyze Shakespeare's Macbeth in a variety of creative activities. In this Macbeth activity, students read Act Two, Scene IV and Act Three, Scene I-VI. Students then complete the text given at the link.

Students analyze Shakespeare's Macbeth. In this Macbeth lesson, students read Act Two Scene iv and Act Three Scenes i-vi in the play and complete the test from the given link.

Pupils find words that begin with the letters in their own names, using a variety of sources including word banks and online dictionaries. They create an acrostic poem. Pupils revise poems as needed, for meaning and conventions. ...