Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...

Wrap up a documentary creation project with the final lesson in this series. Class members reflect on their learning and compose responses to four questions relating to what they learned, whey they would do differently, and how the group...

A challenging lesson on writing a book for children awaits your fifth-graders. They must use laptops, document cameras, and a projector to create and present an original piece of writing. A checklist that has all of the requirements for...

A carefully crafted three-day lesson integrates poetry and visual art. By analyzing and comparing Langston Hughes' poem "Mother and Son" and Romare Bearden's collage "The Dove," readers explore the theme of hope. The lesson activates...

Consumer technology has made it possible for filmmakers to create entire movies from the comfort of their home computer. Guide high school film buffs through the process of designing a documentary with an extensive unit published by...

Young scholars discover the process of writing,. including the different steps to be taken in accomplishing the writing process to come up with the final published pieces.

Students use the writing process to write a radio show.  For this writing process lesson, students need to effectively use the writing process to create a radio show and then present to the class.  Member of the group take...

Think about a moment, frozen in time. Now take a critical look at the painting, Better, Homes, Better Gardens. This painting works to provide learners the opportunity to analyze art, critique artist's choices, and write a story inspired...

Here are two great lessons that work together and are inspired by the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. Young writers and actors will retell the story of "The Frog Prince" through games, improvisational script writing, and...

Young authors write books about themselves using one of the identified types of literature and the writing process. They identify the common characteristics among the books in each group, edit, and gift their books to a younger student.

Bring life to your next California geography lesson with this great project! Learners design a three-dimensional wall relief map of California, painting and decorating regions using a variety of materials and labeling major geographical...

Students complete a variety of computer file pre-writing activities to help them prepare for writing a personal narrative. They focus on including a beginning, middle and end to their narrative. They make a class book.

Begin this activity by asking third graders to bring from home pieces of cloth that represent something important to them. (Have extras for students who need them.) They reflect on important events in their lives, compose narrative...

Mark Twain's frame story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" provides an opportunity for a study of this story-within-a-story pattern. Using an illustrated template, class members record a plot summary of the frame story...

Ninth graders write a letter to someone who is deserving of thanks. Peer and self-editing takes place. After the writing process is completed and a copy is made for the portfolio, envelopes are distributed, addressed, sealed, and mailed.

Students write a funny story and illustrate it in a comic strip. For this comic strip lesson, students study comic strips and determine the plot of each story. Students then write a short story and illustrate it using a comic strip...

After a class discussion where learners make predictions about what will happen in a book based on its cover illustration, pupils are asked to compose a written response about an aspect of the story and include some of their own...

Here is a great way to explore language arts by completing a computer activity with classmates. Youngsters read a fairy tale in class and analyze where the beginning, middle and end are. They create their own story using clip art and...

Readers reflect on enjoyable stories they know, brainstorm criteria that make a story "good," analyze a New York Times article about innovative children's performances, re-envision classics on their own, and peer edit drafts. Use this as...

Encourage your pupils to think critically about media and the messages media portrays. Starting off with a quick-write about pop culture, this assignment launches into a hands-on, collaborative collage project. After creating collages,...

Students determine how to use a digital camera, edit the photos using PhotoShop Elements, and how to make a PowerPoint presentation. They use the PowerPoint as a digital portfolio which is an archive of their work. Finally, they write a...

Students explore different styles of writing. In this writing lesson, students look at menus to get an idea of how many different types of writing there are. Students create their own menus and add border and clip art.

Third graders relate the concept of individuality of geometric shapes to the individuality of topic sentences. They write and revise a persuasive argument essay using an established rubric.

Sixth graders explore language arts by writing dialogue. In this vocabulary choice instructional activity, 6th graders identify synonyms and the importance of using a thesaurus while writing dialogue in their own original work. Students...