Bright, bold, and engaging, this presentation on elaborated paragraphs is a good way to reinforce your expectations for your class's writing. Each slide presents a simple, straightforward tip to writing complete paragraphs, including...

The practice of developing lyrics by elaborating with sensory details and examples continues in the third lesson on songwriting. This time class members examine Jesse McCartney's "How Do You Sleep?" Using procedures established in the...

Designed to help writers strengthen their elaboration, revision, and proofreading skills, this 48-page workbook is packed with information about and exercises in personal, narrative, persuasive, and report writing.

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

Young scholars are walked through an outline (Power Writing) and shown how to elaborate on a main idea in their writing.

Read a short story, "A Day at the Park" together as a class. Have the class break up into groups to add prepositional phrases to each sentence to make it more elaborate and interesting. Consider having a volunteer from each group...

Writers examine the elements of an informational essay, identify them in several essay snapshots, and then craft their own to demonstrate what they have learned.

This engaging activity is a great change of pace for the classroom. The activity starts with a simple message on the board “The teacher is angry.”  The instructor is to stomp around, drop books and glare—anything to show anger. The...

Personal narrative writing is usually a favorite form of writing for youngsters because they get to write about a personal experience. The lesson here asks pupils to take a piece of narrative writing and improve it by following...

A desk is used as a visual analogy to construct the main idea and supporting details in a story. The top of the desk is the main idea, and each of the four legs provides supporting details. The legs of the desk provide support for the...

How can you tell if a prompt is expository or narrative? Help your learners identify key words in writing prompts to determine how they should craft their essays.

Some things are beyond comprehension. Scholars read an excerpt from "Comprehending the Calamity," a primary source text about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. After identifying the gist, pupils complete anchor charts to analyze how the...

Brace for the aftershocks! Scholars read an excerpt from a primary source document about the immediate aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco fire and earthquake. Next, pupils complete an anchor chart, analyzing how the author introduces,...

In this writing worksheet, students learn to create a vivid picture in the reader's mind with descriptive words. Students read 10 pairs of example sentences-- one telling an event and the other showing it. Students then write 4 "show not...

Here is a packet of lessons which are designed to help you to foster your pupils' creativity. The lessons are designed to develop their fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration on ideas. The are built around field trips to a...

Introducing herself as "a discouraged professor of English education," Alleen Pace Nilsen elaborates on the prominence of incorrect spelling in education today. She laments the overuse of spellcheck (and substituting the wrong words),...

Christmas trees can be as large and elaborate as the tree in Rockefeller Center, or as small and understated as Charlie Brown's tree in A Charlie Brown Christmas. But where did the tradition of Christmas trees come from? An engaging...

Everyone knows that the Declaration of Independence is important, but what does it actually say? Members of American history classes analyze the Founding Fathers' arguments against British tyranny and for a more perfect union with a...

With their action plans in place, groups now develop a presentation to get others interested in their project. Scholars learn how to present themselves during a presentation and elaborate on and add visuals to their presentation. After...

A poetry activity takes a close look at home. Scholars discuss with partners what they are most grateful for at their homes. A timelapse video showcases potato tubers growing. While watching, pupils write down what they notice. Learners...

Students expand on and elaborate about the field of genetics.

Junior high writers investigate other student’s sample writing and critique on how it could be improved. Skill emphasis is place on elaboration, voice, and sentence variety. The student writing is provided, but the checklist for revision...

Students explore language arts by reading an English related story. In this sentence structure lesson, students identify prepositions and discuss how to utilize them effectively in sentence writing. Students read the story "A Day at the...

Learners read writing samples and discuss the differences between the writing with and without anecdotal examples. They write expository essays that include personal anecdotes.