Students discuss the importance of elaboration and supporting ideas in writing. They are given a prompt and must complete it using details and examples.

Students explore how to write persuasive letters. They work in small groups to brainstorm ideas and organize them into a cohesive argument to be presented to the class. Students explore the concept of persuasion and how it is a strategy...

Students examine and write about the relocation of Native Americans to Indian reservations. They view and discuss primary source photographs, brainstorm for details and emotions in a small group, and write a Haiku poem about the...

Learners discover how to organize essays effectively. In this writing lesson, students construct a spider map to develop their ideas for an essay.

Students compare gangs and cliques. In this comparison lesson, students prepare to read the book, The Outsiders, by making a Venn diagram comparing gangs and cliques. They brainstorm ideas about the two groups which they add to the...

Twelfth graders discover the ideas of our government by reading the Mayflower Compact.  In this U.S. Government lesson, 12th graders identify the main ideas of the Mayflower Compact, how it came to be and who was affected the most...

Students write whatever comes into their minds quickly and extend that strategy to art. They draw whatever ideas come to mind and students create in a stream of consciousness style. They listen to different types of music while drawing.

Students complete a final draft of a myth.  In this writing myths instructional activity, students complete their rough drafts, have a one-on-one meeting with the teacher to enhance ideas, and peer edit.  Students use the...

Young scholars explore African American holiday of Kwanzaa, orally share ideas about whom they want to invite to classroom Kwanzaa celebration, create and print invitation to Kwanzaa using Publisher or Print Shop, and share completed...

Middle schoolers work in literary circles to discuss Catherine, Called Birdy.  In this Catherine, Called Birdy lesson, students brainstorm ideas for discussion and observe as the teacher models a good discussion group.  Middle...

Students revise writing to improve organization and word choice. They check for logic, order of ideas and precision of vocabulary. Students list different verbs for the word "said." They write dialogue in which the speakers tell a story...

Young scholars study vocabulary words and explore persuasive speaking. In groups, they support a given argument and generate ideas for a a persuasive speech. They discuss powerful words and strategies for persuasion. Students write a...

Students discuss the characteristics of an autobiography. Individually, they complete a graphic organizer and a timeline of events about their life. In groups, students brainstorm ideas for an interesting sentence and write an...

In this clustering worksheet, students create a list of items under each of nine headings.  Students use the lists to generate ideas from which to find a potential topic for a composition.

First graders utilize descriptive words to convey ideas in writing. After hearing the story, 'Rainbow Fish,' students create their own fish books. The books contain original writing and illustrations.

Students participate in physical education and classroom activities with their parents and families. To engage parent's in their student's educational process, students and family members spend part of an evening roller skating and the...

Young scholars read Florence Parry Heide and Judith Heide Gilliland's, Sami and the Time of Troubles before discussing it as a class. They brainstorm ideas for a letter to the main character, Sami. Next, they write a rough draft of a...

As part of the introduction to Edward Bloor's Tangerine, class members generate a KWHL chart listing what they know, what they want find out, how they plan to find this information, and what they have learned or still want to learn.

Introduce magic and imagination into your classroom with a poetry activity. Learners read the poem "Tiny" by Mandy Coe and use their magic tickets to visit any place they can think of! The final result is a poem describing where they...

Scritch, scratch, scritch. It's the sound of pupils writing poetry! Focus on sensory language and onomatopoeia with a writing instructional activity. After listening to some sounds, learners examine a couple of poems that include sound...

Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...

Accompany a viewing of Disney's live-action feature film, The Jungle Book, with a packet equipped with several activities focused on story elements. Scholars discuss and complete diagrams and charts about the movie's characters, setting,...

Does your class understand the importance of peaceful conflict resolution? Middle schoolers share conflict stories, then collaborate to resolve simulated conflicts during an engaging lesson. The teacher's guide contains implementation...

Add many seconds of beauty to your class with a short film and related project. The resource centers around a competition based on one-second segments of film, and the final compilation that came from the contest. Pupils identify...