Curated OER
Women
A close study of two works of art provides the introduction to this cross-curricular writing assignment. After comparing the clothing, facial expressions, body language, setting, and color in the two 19th century paintings Tissout’s...
Denver Art Museum
The Poetry in Non-Events
The photograph, Nellie and her Italian Soda is viewed and discussed by the class. They are instructed to use the photograph as inspiration to write a poem about non-events, or things that are beautiful in every day life. Pupils use...
Curated OER
Viewpoint and Persuasive Writing
Practice persuasive writing skills in this thorough lesson. After selecting issues and discovering viewpoints, middle schoolers write letters or brochures created to express the individual's perspective. The ideas are presented to the...
Curated OER
Paradise Lost, Books III and IV
A short synopsis of Book III from John Milton's Paradise Lost opens this presentation, which would be a good way to discuss a previous night's reading. The slide show goes on to address Book IV, first including the synopsis and then...
Virginia Department of Education
Revising Writing
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...
Curated OER
"Jabberwocky": Inferring
Pupils, over an extended time, read and explain the nonsense words of Lewis Carroll's poem, "Jabberwocky". They infer the meaning of the poem using visualizing as well as decoding skills. While written for first graders, this is easily...
Curated OER
"Data Dabble"
Students engage in a lesson which facilitates their use of web sites to find data, graph it, and interpret it, thus scaffolding graphing skills to prepare students for their 8th grade I-search exit project.
Virginia Department of Education
Adding Specific Vocabulary
An exercise and activity tackle the struggles young writers have in expressing and adding details and specific vocabulary to their writing. The instructor guides the class with an example paragraph, where the learners discuss what...
Curated OER
Tense Consistency Exercises
In this language arts worksheet, students study subject/verb agreement in sentences by reading and looking for errors in 12 sentences. Students then insert the correct verb tense indicated in 10 sentences. Students also read 3 paragraphs...
Curated OER
Check My Writing
Use this resource as an evaluation tool, or have your class assess their own letter writing skills. They will use a checklist that they create during some interactive writing sessions as criteria for their self-evaluation. Teachers can...
Curated OER
Precise Vocabulary
Pupils complete acting exercises as a part of a precise language activity to help them build vocabulary and improve their descriptive writing skills. In this theatre and writing lesson plan, students create and act out a sentence with...
Curated OER
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Packet
Readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are directed to complete two projects as a part of their study of Mark Twain’s novel. Individuals craft an organized notebook containing all their work during the study, and they...
Curated OER
When You Reeeaaallly Want to Say Something
Kids paraphrase an entry from The Elements of Style, and then revise a sentence. They use the Visual Thesaurus and find synonyms for the phrase very pretty, brainstorm a list of intensifiers (as alternatives to really and very),...
Curated OER
Prairie Poetry
Ninth graders take note of the ways in which word choice, rhythm, language and narrative voice, as well as point of view in a poem can be used to evoke a time and place. They use their insights to create a poem of their own.
Curated OER
Children's Picture Books
Fifth graders will enhance their typing skills and practice using Pages, a software for Mac computers, by writing their own children's book. Note: This lesson plan refers to a template that is not included, however, you can adapt this...
Curated OER
The Star-Spangled Banner
Get your kids moving as they learn about the history of the United States National Anthem. Scholars examine the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key, and the meaning behind The Star Spangled Banner as they listen to an 18-minute...
Curated OER
Defining Success
The class defines what it means to be successful by examining the achievements of Rich Wilson. They create headlines for a mock paper, discuss achieving personal goals, and create a scrapbook of his journey. Tip: Use this resource when...
Curated OER
Encouraging Others in Class, in the Workplace, in the Home
Students write a letter of encouragement to a classmate to encourage each other and practice writing skills.
Curated OER
Help Me Learn About the Holocaust
Young readers select a book from a provided list to use as the basis for an intensive class study of Holocaust novels. After completing their novels, groups create a multimedia presentation highlighting the elements of literature...
Curated OER
Becoming Part of the Action
Students improve visualization skills through role play, texture identification, and storytelling. They discuss connections between a painting and their own lives.
Curated OER
Storytelling Traditions
Students demonstrate an evaluation of how the culture of a time period influences storytelling narratives by comparing Adeline's story to the plot summary of Cinderella and Anne Sexton's poem Cinderella. They write a poem which reworks a...
Curated OER
Lesson Two: Writing Letters in Code
Combine your friendly letter lesson, grammar lesson, and technology lesson with this fun activity! Young writers compose letters to friends, and then convert the text to Webdings font. Their friends then decode the letter based on a key....
Curated OER
Let's Read For Speed!
Explore reading for fluency and speed with your class. They discuss reading faster, smoother, and with more expression. Practice reading with fluency using one minute timed reads. They read "Tin Man Fix-It." and record how many words...
Curated OER
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day
Second graders interact with the story of Alexander's horrible day by connecting it to their lives. They practice predicting, writing paragraphs, reading aloud, discussing his problems, making a card to cheer him up, and designing a pair...