A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...

Students write an essay from rough draft to final copy about the Underground Railroad. Civil disobedience is researched from a variety of sources. There is a prewriting exercise that is included in the lesson. The whole writing process...

Students will be using Inspiration, which is a graphic organizer computer program, to create their own model community where they will label the community parts with the corresponding organelle. They will have prior knowledge of cell...

Students create a graphic organizer and instructional rubric using word processing software. They conduct Internet research at the History Alive website, and publish an essay.

Complete personal pronoun practice activities. Pupils use correct personal pronoun form in sentences the teacher writes on the board. They review the function of a pronoun and the various cases and practice placing personal pronouns by...

Students gather and read articles about school closures in Ohio or other nearby town or city, make list of criteria to use when deciding which schools should close, develop list into essay that argues for these criteria to apply in...

Happy birthday! Celebrate everyone's birthday with this writing activity, which prompts seventh graders to research historical events in a country at the time of their birth to create an essay. Working in pairs, they proofread each...

Key concepts, major writers, and historical events related to Transcendentalism are explored in a student-produced PowerPoint about this movement. The presentation could be used as an introduction to a unit or as a model that class...

Get your writers started on their personal essay with a worksheet that gently guides them into formulating some ideas they might use. Strengths, weaknesses, major experiences, influential individuals, all offer something that can be a...

Students examine and create persuasive essays. In this writing lesson students engage in activities that allow them to understand how a persuasive essay is constructed so they may compose their own.

Students write a 'how-to' paper. In this writing lesson students choose from a list of topics and write a paper explaining how to do something. The students also discuss the definition of a 'how-to' paper.

Sixth graders experience the stages of process writing, work cooperatively, to critique and to incorporate software tools to enhance writing and problem solving skills.

Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members...

Conclude your unit on Peter and the Starcatchers with an involved final writing project that requires learners to write persuasive pieces, compose short stories, create brochures about the setting of the novel, and choose from a...

Sometimes summarizing keeps a writer from going deeper into their analysis—don't fall into that trap. Learn the difference between summarizing and analyzing using an insightful resource. Focusing on introductions, the lesson shares...

A variation of a standard graphic organizer for a five-paragraph essay, young writers may find this style of organization helpful while drafting their writing. Some key features of this particular organizer are sections for transition...

Struggling on what steps to take in your expository essay lesson? Or confused on what to include for your scribes? This exercise in the process of expository writing provides concepts and structure for the educator on what the writers...

Good discussion questions, quizzes, and tests teach as well as assess. Readers of The Great Gatsby will learn much from the materials in a 36-page packet designed to help students prepare for the AP Literature exam. Included in the...

Fix the Articles of Confederation or develop a new constitution? That was the question facing the Founding Fathers. Several of those in favor of a new constitution published a series of essays, collected in the Federalist...

Twelfth graders discuss a fictional text that they are given, they identify passages, which highlight the author's style, language naances and textual ambiguities. Pupils brainstorm possible topics for an analytical essay, they are...

Students, in groups, exchange drafts of an essay and review the essays that they receive for peer review.

Students make a family tree. In this family lesson, students brainstorm what the word family means, interview their family members and grandparents, create a family tree, list their family's favorite foods and write an essay describing...

Students write about New Year's Resolutions made about personal improvement, family and friends, and school and the outside world. They write a first draft and a final draft of a five-paragraph essay about their resolutions.

Students read Chasing Vermeer and relate the book to the author .  In this writing process lesson plan, students view Blue's Photo Album and see how the author writes and revises her work. Students discuss the process that all good...