Every writer knows how terrible writer's block can feel. Use these five writer's block-busting techniques to help young writers get out of their rut and into a better state of mind.

All the tools (and directions) you’ll need  to build an essay are included in a resource designed for learners and educators. The packet can be given to class members or divided into sections and used as part of a series of lesson...

Plagiarism is the theft of intellectual property. To avoid this crime, class members learn how to create a works cited page and how to craft in-text citations. After examining a high-performance model paragraph and an example of a works...

Young scholars learn how to distinguish between the mood of a piece of writing (how the work makes the reader feel) and the tone (the writer's attitude toward the material) in the sixth lesson in a poetry unit. After watching two very...

Give scholars the opportunity to perfect their handwriting abilities with a worksheet featuring the letter I. Here, young writers trace and write the letter in upper and lowercase form.   

Scholars boost their knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement with a lesson that challenges writers, readers, and historians to analyze primary sources and caption their observations. By way of reading, writing, discussion, independently,...

Pairs of contradictory words introduce learners to paradoxes, the literary device writers use to get readers thinking deeply about their messages. An interactive lesson uses poems by Emily Dickinson and Wilfred Owen and excerpts from the...

Whether you are teaching mainstream, advanced, or intervention language arts classes, you will find something helpful in a thorough writing packet. It includes prompts, rubrics, responses, helpful hints, graphic organizers, and many...

Use the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin to teach your third grade class about descriptive writing. Following a teacher read-aloud of the story, the class brainstorms a list of adjectives describing the main character. Students use this list...

Eight prompts, designed to accompany the Health Smart series of lessons, provide high schoolers an opportunity to reflect on and learn from the issues raised by the various activities.

Young poets learn the value of using a thesaurus when crafting and revising poems. They examine poems rich in figurative language and then a revised version with the figurative language removed. To demonstrate what they have learned,...

Practice makes proficient! Using a journal of their choice, authors organize pages, then begin their writing journey of on-going writing practice in which they compose all poetic forms including diamante, limerick, free verse, and more!

Understanding different verb tenses begins with knowing how to decode words. A lesson on the -ed suffix with unchanging base words introduces readers to the past tense. Teachers present the skill with oral reading and spelling...

Support scholars' ability to write complex sentences with a two-page learning exercise designed to inform and reinforce. Here, learners obtain a brief overview of what a complex sentence is and how one is made; then apply their new-found...

Be sure to grab a copy of the Revolutionary Times! Scholars take a step back in time to report on topics set in the revolutionary period. Events include the ride of Paul Revere, the Battle of Saratoga, and more.

Spongebob Squarepants helps teach middle schoolers about personification! After discussing the human characteristics demonstrated by the cartoon character, scholars identify the personification in poems by Emily Dickinson and Langston...

What were the virtues and values that helped form America? Pupils watch and discuss a video, read biographies of early Americans, chart the differences between early American religious movements, write journals and letters, draw, and...

Sometimes a whole story can change based on the perspective of the person telling it. Practice identifying and analyzing point of view in various reading passages and writing assignments with a language arts packet, complete with Common...

Before honoring courageous veterans, get to know more about who they are and why November 11th is a special day. Scholars obtain such information through a read aloud of Eve Bunting's The Wall, grand conversation, and...

Inspired by the embarrassing situation Byron finds himself in during chapter 1 of Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, students will think of their own embarrassing moments they might write about. Using the...

This is a slideshow that examines the cause-and-effect text structure of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. The lesson plan includes questions for students to answer in their Reading Response...