Use the links on the right to get a better understanding of purpose in writing including the types of purposes and how audience affects purpose. Click on Purpose and Audience and Purpose and Strategies. W.9-10.4 Write/Audience/Purpose;...

This Center for Urban Education resource provides a downloadable graphic organizer for students to use when analyzing the evidence that authors use to support a claim. RI.9-10.5 ideas/claims developed. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.8

In this reading comprehension lesson plan unit, students are guided in learning how to find the main theme or idea of a text and understanding how details in the text convey that. Includes lots of exercises and examples, as well as...

Great site! Offers student tons of confusables! Also offers quizzes and a pull-down menu for one "confusable" at a time. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.2, L.11-12.2b Spelling, L.11-12.4 Word Meanings

Extensive examination of what it means to critically read an argument. This process is sometimes called "critical reading," or "close reading," or "active reading." First the differences between reading to extract information and reading...

Questions to ask yourself when determining if a source is reliable. Discusses difference between primary and secondary source. List of reference sources and links to other sites that teach you how to evaluate sources....

Rather than lists of rules, this site provides practical advice on the use of commas, semicolons, dashes, hyphens, abbreviations, acronyms, split infinitives, "this," "that," italics, and underlining. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.2

This page features a list of ten principles that lead to writing clearly and concisely, such as avoiding unnecessary words, writing like you talk, writing to express and not to impress, and the like. It also discusses "fog indexes" to...

Comprehensive guide with 17 areas of suggestions and tips for delivering a successful class presentation. Requires Adobe Reader. [PDF] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4, SL.11-12.4 Presentation

This resource explains six ways authors use context clues that might help readers understand unfamiliar words. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.4, 8.2.B

This lesson discusses how to effectively organize body paragraphs. This tutorial lesson shares a short slideshow with the lesson's content. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.2.b

In this short video, the strategies of summarizing, clarifying, and asking-answering questions are used. These instructional tools will help teachers show students how to access complex texts. [5:54] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10

Knowing the right language for your particular audience is a necessary skill for all writers. No one wants to offend their audience or appear as though they don't know their content. Learn these rules of thumb to become more familiar...

This reproducible resource provides an assessment rubric to be used with students' oral presentations. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4

This lesson explains how to evaluate the possible meanings of vocabulary words. An audio lesson [3:07] and notes are included in this tutorial. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.4

[Free Registration/Login Required] This website provides a series of three lesson plans designed to teach students to use visual, meaning, and structure clues separately and together to determine the meaning of unknown words. Lessons are...

Listed alphabetically, these commonly misspelled words often find their way into our writing! Here are the correct spellings, with brief tips for remembering how to write these words correctly. In addition, use the links of the left to...

A module to learn essential skills needed to research a topic.

In this lesson plan, the children learn about how critters depend on the butterfly bush and how the butterfly bush, in turn, depends on it. Common Core writing skills are integrated as they take it to the next step, and create their own...

[Free Registration/Login Required] Links to 30 worksheets and graphic organizers that can be downloaded and printed. Each worksheet focuses on skills highlighted in standard RL.3.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend...

[Free Registration/Login Required] A site with links to 5 worksheets that can be downloaded and printed for student use while building skills with standard SL.3.5: Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate...

Links to 18 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2a: Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.

Links to 17 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard SL.3.1b: Follow agreed-upon rules for discussion (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics...

Links to 27 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.4.2d: Use precise language and domain specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.