Anchorage School District
Transition and Closing Words
Provide young writers with a printable that lists suggestions for and examples of transitional sets and closing words. Also included are some suggestions for what to avoid in closing paragraphs.
Curated OER
The Rest Cure: Gender in Medicine and Literature
Read and discuss "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and the gender issues that the story brings up. Use articles from the time period to analyze, complete with specific discussion questions. After two days, scholars write an essay based on topics...
Curated OER
Use A or An?
Young readers observe a labeled object and circle the article a or an that proceed the word, write the articles before illustrated words, and choose the correct word in parenthesis to complete sentences. Everyone writes 29 answers.
Curated OER
Active Reading with American History
Explore connections within and between informational texts with this lesson about encyclopedia articles. Middle schoolers write encyclopedia articles focusing on topics in American history. They discuss how to determine credibility...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Thank You, Mr. Falker: Text Dependent Questions and Vocabulary
In the second lesson plan in a series that revolves around the story, Thank You, Mr. Falker, learners practice the skill of answering direct questions from the text while using complete sentences. After a teacher-led review of how to...
Beacon Learning Center
Challenging the Human Spirit
High schoolers select a theme-related essay topic from Night, by Elie Wiesel, or The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and develop an essay that relates the theme to modern-day personal experiences. The essay follows a preset rubric...
Curated OER
Business Letter
Learners create a business letter using "Letter Generator". For this letter writing lesson plan, students use a computer program to learn what the proper business letter consists of. After the instruction, the learners are...
Curated OER
Daily Routines
Start by listening to a short video involving conversation and dialogue. Listeners complete a variety of grammar tasks around the topic of daily routines. They complete seven lines of dialogue with 11 appropriate time periods. They also...
Curated OER
Self-Monitoring Strategies and Vocabulary Games
Teachers model self-monitering strategies for their learners. They participate in games and artwork that help them increase their vocabulary. They also complete a crossword puzzle.
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle: Text-Dependent Questions and Vivid Words and Phrases
In the third activity from this unit based on the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, learners focus on using specific details from the text-to-answer questions about the habitat of bullfrogs. While reading the text, young...
Curated OER
Whittle, Whittle it Down: Summarizing
Sixth graders are introduced to the jigsaw method of summarizing text. In groups, they create their own summary and work together as a class to create just one class summary. To end the instructional activity, they read the class...
Santa Barbara City College
Structure of a General Expository Essay
A great student reference tool and graphic organizer in one worksheet! Young writers can read a detailed description of each section of a standard five-paragraph essay before completing a graphic organized with their own writing. The...
Curated OER
Short and Sweet
Students examine how to summarize information from expository text. They read an expository text and identify the important information from the reading. Students identify the topic sentence and write their own topic sentences.
Curated OER
What Did I Just Read?
Students summarize a chapter from the book, "Sarah Plain and Tall. After reviewing the the formation of a topic sentence, they independently read a chapter from the book. Students write a summary paragraph using the checklist outlined by...
Curated OER
Developing a Paragraph
In this paragraph activity, students read about the 3 parts of a paragraph, then cut out sentence strips and put them together, forming a topic sentence, details, and conclusion.
Curated OER
Verbal Versus Nonverbal Communication
Young scholars create a multimedia presentation. They will complete a verbal versus non-verbal communication chart to create a multimedia presentation which will include the different types of communication strategies. Then answer a...
Curated OER
The Gold Rush: An Introduction
Eleventh graders study the Gold Rush in relation to "To Build a Fire." They research a website and view a Power Point presentation on the Alaskan Gold Rush. They write notes on a graphic organizer and write a sentence supporting their...
Curated OER
Skimming
Students examine how to skim textual material. They read an article, and identify the main ideas by reading first and last paragraphs, topic sentences, and other organizational clues.
EngageNY
Summarizing Notes: Planning a Graphic Novelette, Part II: The Invention of Television
Let's work together! Using the collaborative resource, scholars work in triads to begin section two of their storyboards about Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the television. They then practice using linking words and phrases to...
Curated OER
The News Article and The Editorial
Here is an outstanding series of lessons on journalism, writing newspaper articles, and writing editorials. This type of writing has long-been neglected in our schools, so this collection of writing activities is most-valuable. Along...
Scholastic
What’s the Good Word? Etymology Project Guidelines
Who named the shapes, or the days of the week? Should words be removed from the dictionary if they're no longer commonly used? Are there too many words in the English language? Language arts students explore these and additional...
Curated OER
Equal Shmequal by Virginia Kroll
Students read a book and complete exercises to explore the meaning of 'equals.' In this equal numbers lesson, students brainstorm the meaning of equals and read a story about the topic. Students use manipulatives to study balance and...
Curated OER
One Grain of Rice
Upper graders read the story One Grain of Rice, and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast topics found in the story to current event topics today. Groups of three learners work together to create their diagram. The topics they must...
Curated OER
A Course in Basic Skills
Tenth graders complete a course in basic skills in order to meet the standards for sophomore year. Using one of their classmates papers, they identify the main idea, topic sentence and theme. They also identify the transitional words...