Curated OER
Outlines and Organization: Sample Outline
Provide your essay writers with a sample essay outline. Richly detailed, this two-page handout not only describes the necessary parts of an outline, but also explains the purpose of each section. A model outline is also included.
Curated OER
Research Paper Project
Break down some of the most foundational components of writing a research paper, such as incorporating and formatting citations, creating a thesis statement, and using quotes effectively, into manageable tasks for your young writers.
New York State Education Department
Comprehensive English Examination: January 2014
What better way to prepare learners for academic success than to administer practice tests? With the Comprehensive Examination in English, scholars read informational and literary texts and answer listening and reading comprehension...
EngageNY
Organizing Evidence from Multiple Informational Texts to Prepare for Writing: What Makes an Earthquake a Natural Disaster?
Fifth graders prepare for their end of the unit essay assessment by continuing to look at what makes an earthquake a natural disaster. They complete a graphic organizer and write a topic sentence. To finish, they view a model essay and...
New York State Education Department
Comprehensive English Examination: January 2015
Looking for practice for state standardized testing? Scholars work through a variety of passages and multiple question types in this exam. Questions range from comprehension of auditory passages, reading passages, and poems, as well as...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 7
Can three works of literature work together to establish and develop a common central idea? Put your thoughts into writing with a final assessment focused on a unit-long analysis of Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepard to His...
Curated OER
Reading a Comparison-Contrast Essay
Turn your passive readers into active readers with an engaging activity on reading informational text. Focused on compare and contrast structured essays, the activity prompts elementary learners to jot down questions and think-aloud...
New York State Education Department
English Language Arts Examination: August 2015
Assessing a variety of skills using numerous item types is a great way to collect data for formative and summative use. Using a challenging exam, scholars prove their comprehension and reading skills through multiple choice, task, and...
New York State Education Department
English Language Arts Examination: January 2015
Successful arguing is a learned skill. Pupils read four passages and craft a text-based argument about the return of extinct animals. The resources provides writers with specific guidelines on how to create a well-rounded essay and how...
Curated OER
Reporting from Multiple Sources-The Role of Dogs in Three Societies
Students synthesize information from various resources. In this expository essay writing lesson plan, students view three video segments and take notes. Students analyze notes in peer groups and write an expository essay.
Curated OER
Women Who Inform Our World
Students examine the contributions of women on the international, national, and local platforms. In this writing skills lesson plan, students analyze a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt and compose essays that reveal how women...
Curated OER
Writing an Essay- The Circulatory System
Fifth graders write an essay. In this writing instructional activity, 5th graders research the circulatory system and organize their notes into an outline. Students write an informational essay on the circulatory system.
EngageNY
Writing to Inform: Colonial Trades
Fourth graders who are studying life in colonial America engage in an instructional activity that has them create a "Help Wanted" ad that would have been written by a master craftsperson from back in the day. They utilize a graphic...
Curated OER
Lending Discrimination and the Community Reinvestment Act
Write about economic and banking issues of concern to the public. Investigate lending discrimination and the impact of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act. Use a guide to do research and write an essay.
Curated OER
Power Writing to Elaborate: Paragraph Writing, Main Idea
Young scholars are walked through an outline (Power Writing) and shown how to elaborate on a main idea in their writing.
Curated OER
Learning About Hurricanes
Learners write a research paper on hurricanes. In this weather lesson plan, students use a science text book to write down facts about hurricanes on note cards and then outline their essay. Learners use the outline to create an organized...
Curated OER
Characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Stories
Pupils read literature by Nathaniel Hawthorne and write an essay comparing the main characters in the two stories. In this character analysis lesson plan, students read the stories Young Goodman Brown and The Minister's Black Veil....
Curated OER
COMPARE AND CONTRAST LIFESTYLES AND TIME PERIODS
Eighth graders demonstrate the steps needed for a compare and contrast essay by writing a paper comparing and contrasting two selected pictures.
Virginia Department of Education
Writing Counterarguments
This activity is better utilized as a peer-editing exercise and not as an activity on how to write counterarguments. Writers take their argumentative rough drafts, peer edit in groups of four, and review the author on common essay...
Curated OER
The Missing Link
What is the missing link? Provide your class with this incomplete essay (it's missing transition words), and have writers place words from the transition word bank into the essay. Also, since only three of the five paragraphs are...
Curated OER
Can You Get the Signal?
What is a signal word? Recognizing these words is an important step in both reading and writing formal text. Review a list of signal words (provided and organized into specific categories), and then have your class play a game to...
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 11 ELA/Literacy)
Support your eleventh graders with a practice assessment for the Common Core tests. The practice test features a series of literary and informational passages and related multiple choice and essay questions. An online version is also...
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 5 ELA/Literacy)
Check in on the development of your fifth graders' reading and writing skills with this Common Core-designed assessment. Given a series of six reading passages ranging from narrative stories to informational texts, young...
New York State Education Department
Comprehensive English Examination: June 2016
Those in positions of authority don't always have the best interest of their people in mind. As part of a sample assessment question, readers must consider how works of literature they read apply to a quote from Edmund Burke—"The greater...