Curated OER
So Much Depends Upon...Sixteen-Word Imagery Poems Inspired by Love that Dog by Sharon Creech
After reading Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (and possibly shedding a few tears), middle schoolers work on their own sixteen-word poems with a Six Trait writing activity. They focus on word choice in this activity to capture an...
Channel Islands Film
Magic Isle: Lesson Plan 4
After watching West of the West's documentary on Catalina Island, The Magic Isle, class members research how Walt Disney's and William Wrigley's different visions impacted the island.
Curated OER
Night Compare Contrast
Using a constructivist approach and a graphic organizer, small groups work together to begin a paper, comparing and contrasting the novella Night and the movie Life is Beautiful. Assuming that your learners have studied both of these...
Curated OER
Editing
Take young authors through the writing process with a learning exercise on editing. Given three sentences with unnecessary words, pupils cross out the extra words and write the rest of the sentence in the space provided. An excellent way...
Curated OER
Conservation vs. Economic Growth
Investigate the choices people make between economic growth and personal growth and development using the ethical/decision making model. Small groups create and present a position paper describing their feeling for or against the...
Curated OER
Map It Out
Explore how illustrations add to a story. Young learners will look at picture books to see how the pictures tell the story. They create illustrations to go with a chosen story, and then flip the activity so they have to write a story to...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: Great Britain
Read to understand! Sounds great and your third graders will read to understand several interesting facts about Great Britain. They read, identify key details in the text, and write to answer five comprehension questions. Learning to...
Curated OER
Informative/ Expository Writing
Elementary schoolers are charged with writing an article for their peers. A class discussion yields topics about which learners consider themselves to be an expert. The teacher models how to construct an article by using facts he or she...
Curated OER
Draft Dilemmas
Consider the possibility of a new U.S. draft with this lesson, which encourages class debate and persuasive arguments. Middle and high schoolers discuss how such a draft might be enacted and how they would feel about it. They write...
Curated OER
Summer of the Monkeys
While reading the book Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls, the class ties together the core reading objectives, which are making predictions, comprehending new information, reading for author's purpose, independence in reading,...
San José State University
Essay Exams: Common Question Types
Novice writers often struggle to determine what style of essay to write when given a prompt. This worksheet helps to identify an appropriate form based on the language of the question. For example, key words like prove or justify...
Curated OER
Analytical Research Projects
High school writers will benefit from learning the basic elements of analytical and argumentative research before completing their first research project. If you're looking to provide more guidance to your learners, pause at certain...
Curated OER
Let's Go Exploring!
Use a Courbet painting of a cave or tunnel opening to reinforce the importance of descriptive writing. Writers of all ages use sensory details to describe what the scene depicts as they pretend to be in the painting. Then they imagine...
Curated OER
Mystery Strategy for Elementary Students
Learners of all ages solve historical mysteries. Elementary learners research historical topics by organizing information presented by their instructor, formulating hypotheses, and considering solutions to mysteries presented about...
Scholastic
What a Character!
How do you know what traits a character displays in a story? Learners select a character and find list three traits for this character, explaining why they chose each trait. They then put this information together into a paragraph or essay.
Curated OER
Playing Vocabulary Basketball
Learners view a slide show featuring famous athletes and educational institutions that have played a part in the history of basketball. They participate in a game in which a basketball is tossed from person to person as facts and...
Curated OER
Georgia CRCT - 7th Grade Language Arts Quiz
Whether your seventh graders are preparing for the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) or any other standardized test, this practice worksheet takes them through a variety of language arts skills. Punctuation, grammar,...
Curated OER
Wrap it up!
Sometimes the conclusion of an essay can be the most important part. Whether your writers are ending with a proposition, lesson learned, or persuasive argument, teach them how to "end with a bang" with this helpful PowerPoint! This...
Curated OER
Preparing for Passover
Informational texts come in all shapes and sizes. Your kids will read the New York Times article, "Preparing for Passover" then answer seven comprehension questions. The answer to each question is located in embedded hyperlinks.
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: Thunder and Lightning
Thunder and lightning are so exciting! Your class gets to read all about it. This informational reading passage provides them with a scientific explanation of thunder and lightning. They read the passage, answer comprehension questions,...
Teach-nology
Author's Purpose
Challenge your class to find the three purposes for writing. After they read three short passages, kids note whether the author's purpose was to inform, persuade, or entertain.
Teach-nology
The Purpose of Summaries
How can you tell the author's purpose from just a short summary? Kids read three different summaries of books to determine whether the author meant to entertain, persuade, or inform.
TV411
Avoid Mushy Writing: Be Specific
Replacing, bland, inexact generalizations with specific statement and precise information is the focus of a worksheet that models how to transform general statements into specific ones. After examining four models, learners have an...
DePaul University
Settlement
Early settlers in the American Midwest experienced constant struggle. This reading passage describes for young learners the hardships of homesteaders as they journeyed west and sought to start a new life. When finished, students identify...