EngageNY
End of Unit 2 Assessment, Part 2: Revise Essay Drafts
Time to revise! Scholars revise their argument essays based on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream using feedback from their teacher and peers. They begin their revisions after reviewing a mini-lesson plan on proper writing conventions.
EngageNY
Determining Cascading Consequences Using The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Industrial Organic Food Chain
Organic versus conventional farming: which option is best? Pupils use Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma to determine the cascading consequences of the industrial organic food chain. They work in research teams to create an...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment Parts 1 and 2: Evaluating Arguments and Claims
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? As part of the end-of-unit assessment for The Omnivore’s Dilemma, scholars watch a video about organic eggs versus conventional farm eggs. They use graphic organizers to collect evidence as they...
National Endowment for the Humanities
American Literary Humor: Mark Twain, George Harris, and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne as a humorist? Really? The three lessons in this series focus on the the storytelling style, conventions, and literary techniques employed by Hawthorne, George Washington Harris, and Mark Twain.
Curated OER
Editor Travels U.S. Fixing Errors on Signs
An interesting article on editors helps young writers understand the conventions of written English. They read a news article about an editor traveling America correcting spelling and punctuation errors on signs. They discuss proper...
Scholastic
Writing to a Historical Poet
Poetry is a very personal and introspective art form. Give your class the opportunity to understand how a poet's voice can speak to them on a personal level, and that every reader can respond to an author differently. After a poetic...
Ontario
Critical Literacy—Media Texts
Media texts convey both overt and implied messages. As part of their study of media, class members analyze the language, form, techniques, and aesthetics in a variety of media texts.
Curated OER
Conventions: Strong Verbs
Fifth graders practice using strong verbs. In this conventions lesson, 5th graders brainstorm words to complete sentences and list lively and exciting verbs. Students act out meanings of certain words. Students come up with new ways to...
Curated OER
Consumer Scams
Letter writing may be outdated but it's a great way to practice English conventions, grammar, and spelling. The class researches consumer scams, then writes a letter about them. They each choose a scam to write about paying close...
Curated OER
Spelling, Capitalization, and Punctuation
Elementary schoolers explore writing conventions. First they play a ball toss game to practice spelling high frequency words. (A link to a 2nd grade list is attached.) The class works together to correct spelling, punctuation, and...
Curated OER
Letter Writing
Keep the art of letter writing alive in this age of Tweet and Twitter! The 10 activities detailed in this resource lead pupils through the process of crafting classic forms. A list of and links to famous letters is also included as part...
Curated OER
Combining with Participial Phrases
Combine participial phrases and creative writing with this lesson, which is equally helpful for writing skills and conventions. After a mini-lesson on participial phrases and reading the picture book Dancing in the Wings, pupils use a...
ReadWriteThink
Who’s Got Mail?
Today's kids are probably not familiar with the conventions of letter writing, due to the boom of technology. Here is a lesson that will provide opportunities for formal and informal letter writing.
Curated OER
The Argument
After brainstorming, middle schoolers write an expository essay for a writing project. They focus on supporting points, organization, and writing conventions to develop a well-integrated paper. In addition, they revise, proofread and...
Curated OER
Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems
Poems carved into the wooden walls of the Asian immigrant prisons on Angel Island provide upper elementary graders an opportunity to study not only the story behind the poems but to also focus on the figurative language employed by the...
Curated OER
A Way with Words or Say What?
Young scholars explore the language of Shakespeare. In this literature lesson, students examine words invented by Shakespeare as they interpret their meanings in drawings. Young scholars pantomime the meanings and then write a short...
Candlewick Press
A Classroom Guide to Peter H. Reynolds's Creatrilogy
Help young readers find, identify, and use their voices with a set of empowering activities based on Peter H. Reynolds' trilogy of books. Sky Color, Ish, and The Dot focus on recognizing moods and treating each other kindly, and their...
EngageNY
Writer's Gallery and End of Unit 3 Assessment: On-Demand New Historical Fiction Narrative
Fourth-grade writers applaud their historical narrative writing pieces through a Writer's Gallery. First, they read an assigned classmate's work and leave a positive comment on a sticky note. Once learners have read a couple of people's...
Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators
Persuasive Essay: Grade 5
Improve your fifth graders' persuasive writing skills in four weeks. Working independently, in peer editing groups, and with instruction, writers work over the 17 sessions to craft an argumentative essay. They craft a well-organized...
K12 Reader
Alliteration: Change the Adjectives
Work on a wonderful worksheet this Wednesday! Elementary scholars read ten pairs of adjective and noun pairs, and choose a synonym for each adjective to create an alliteration.
Curated OER
Leading into Good Writing
Discuss the importance of a lead in writing with your upper graders. They examine several examples of leads from literature and practice writing leads for pieces of artwork. They then select a topic from a list and write an introductory...
Water
Global Water Supply Middle School Curriculum
We take a steady shower stream and clean drinking water for granted, but in many countries around the world, the lack of water or a clean water supply is responsible for higher sickness and death rates. Taking a closer look at the water...
Curated OER
High Frequency Words with Clip Art
Second graders invent sentences using high frequency words. In this literacy lesson, 2nd graders type simple sentences using high frequency words, and a clip art picture for each sentence.
Curated OER
Capitalization and Punctuation
First and second graders explore writing conventions. They add question marks or periods to the end of teacher generated sentences on sentence strips. They locate punctuation marks in poems and write original sentences using appropriate...