Writing is a process, and lesson planning is, too! A personal narrative unit stresses the writing process to pupils, who first examine various stories and poems as a model of autobiographical writing and then write their own stories....

Close out the school year with a look back at a specific event. You provide individuals with photos of themselves, and each pupil fills out the graphic organizer here to prepare for writing a paragraph about the memory depicted in the...

Provide these templates as aids for pupils as they work to compose summaries of both stories and informational texts. The first two frames provide sentence starters to help learners structure their summaries and include all the necessary...

Young writers can contemplate a cartoon zombie's brain while they write a creative story. The theme is Halloween and the issue is that the writer invited real monsters to his or her party. Big mistake! Or was it?

Test understanding of "The Inn of Lost Time" by Lensey Namoika with an assessment that includes true/false, multiple choice, vocabulary, short answer, and essay questions. The test is not entirely traditional since, for the first 10...

Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.

What do whales sing about? Invite your class to imagine the thoughts of whales before writing acrostic poems on the topic. The plan blends together a bit of life science with plenty of opportunities for creativity and writing.

The sun shines, flowers bloom, and bugs fly—it must be Spring! Add a cheerful theme of bugs and flowers to math and literacy centers. Scholars take part in an assortment of activities designed to reinforce concepts such as...

Oh, snap! Learners practice conversational English by learning the rules of the card game Snap. Then, they play the game in small groups before writing out instructions for another card game of their choosing. 

Look back on the school year by spending a few days putting together books that learners can reflect on in the coming years. Learners note down personal information and their favorite things, respond to questions with goals, stories, and...

Teach your English language learners about conversations by inviting them to participate in a conversation about an interesting object. Through this conversation, learners will naturally use various verb tenses and practice asking...

Boost language skills with a unit all about feelings. Scholars from all grade levels take part in several lessons that incorporate specific vocabulary terms and adjectives while discussing their feelings with their peers. Reading...

Budding poets choose a topic for a sensory-filled poem. Authors describe that topic using detailed language based on the five senses. Then, switch the senses to create a fanciful poem intended to add a touch of fun to the objective. 

Is your class reading Hi! Fly Guy by Tedd Arnold? Get them involved in the story-creation process with this partially blank comic strip template. Learners take a look at the first and last panels and then fill in the remaining four with...

How do writers use the interaction between elements like characterization and setting to create meaning? Readers of "A Worn Path" create a series of comic book-style graphics of Eudora Welty's short story and reflect on how Welty...

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

Invite your class to consider how to respond to a conflict. Designed to be used alongside Secret Saturdays by Torrey Maldonado, a lesson plan focuses on a set of terms: conflict, escalate, deescalate, conflict resolution, denial,...

Inntroduce primary learners to essential critical reading strategies with an activity based on James Reeves' poem, "The Wind."  Learners listen as the poem is read, first as a riddle, and then re-read with the title visible. The...

Second graders create dialogue for a comic strip using context clues to match the text to the pictures. They use comic blanks imbedded in this lesson. They write dialogue for each frame. Remind them to use the picture clues when writing...

Students test and discuss their ability to remember events in their recent and past history and reflect on cases of dissociative fugue and amnesia. They graph and analyze data to look for patterns in the ability to recall a list of...

Positive and negative may be opposites, but what does that have to do with the words clean and filthy? Ask your pupils to consider word relationships as they complete the 10 analogies presented here. Note that the exercise gradually...

If you need an anchor for your unit on Sense and Sensibility, use a concept analysis with key discussion points. It includes literary themes, vocabulary, background information, and suggestions for addressing gender and diversity...

Second graders practice their writing skills on a daily basis. Using a prompt, they write about a time they surprised themselves or someone else. They use a graphic organizer to gather their thoughts before writing the first draft. ...

Students participate in lessons that focus on reading and writing skills. They work on punctuation in sentences with book titles present and not present. The lesson has a scaffolding section for ESL. This strategy is usually applicable...