Students practice using an online encyclopedia to research native animals to Virginia. Using the information from the encyclopedia, they identify the main and supporting ideas. They share their information with the class using the...

Literacy Education Online (or LEO) is a great place to start if you need help with your writing. The homepage is organized around kinds of problems or questions you might have concerning your writing. Find your problem, click on the...

This site provides several sample sentences which show sensory details and aid students in writing specific rather than general sentences. It is a good site for someone preparing to write a descriptive essay. W.9-10.3d Precise/sensory...

What kinds of evidence best support the points you make in a paper? Where can you find the evidence you need? This handout answers all these questions and more, including the difference between primary and secondary sources. You'll also...

[Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, students will be read Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie DePaola in order to understand and describe people, places, things and events in a text. They will create a book by drawing or...

This tutorial focuses on argumentative and persuasive writing: it lists and defines the components of arguments, provides a flow chart for argumentative writing, defines counterarguments, and lists the 3 elements of persuasion: ethos,...

This instructional activity is a final step towards supporting students to practice writing an informative/explanatory paragraph conveying complex ideas and presenting information clearly and accurately. Second-grade students can usually...

This lesson focuses on using statistics as supporting details. It explains why statistics make powerful supporting details, however, these can be skewed to show different outcomes. It suggests looking carefully when using statistics to...

This tutorial focuses on supporting details using a video of a paragraph from a book showing the topic sentence and two strong, reliable, supporting details. This is followed by a slideshow that stresses the need for variety in the types...

Three learning activities to teach K-2 students about poetry. Very detailed lessons with references and other suggested activities. Ways to individualize and academic content standards are noted. (Attachment may not load in archived URL.)

A lesson plan based on a study unit of earthworms, using the inquiry model to integrate scientific processes with literacy practices. Instruction plans, related resources, and standards are included.

A literacy specialist shares three effective strategies for teaching students revising techniques. These include providing students with specific criteria and peer revision. Examples of resources used in a classroom lesson are pictured.

This site from the St. Cloud State University provides many links in this index with general writing help. Under "Development" you'll find "Sensory Details." Under "Logical Fallicies" you'll find a link by the same name. Look under...

Students need to have lots of opportunities to share their opinions based on text. In this lesson plan, the teacher will read the story, Jack and the Beanstalk, multiple times before the students create their opinion. The detailed...

Students will write a sloppy copy and help a peer to edit their writing. They will use a kid-friendly checklist (included)to help each other find their mistakes. Videos of students engaged in the instructional activity are provided,...

Students will write a sloppy copy and help a peer to edit their writing. They will use a kid-friendly checklist (included)to help each other find their mistakes. Videos of the lesson in action are provided, along with a teacher's grading...

You mean I have to write my story again, have someone check to make sure it's right, and fix my mistakes? In this lesson, students will peer edit each other's writing. They will use their five-star checklists (included) to make sure they...

Read, write, and present a digital narrative with transition words to help us put the events in order! After modeling the lesson, groups of students will write narratives to recount a short sequence of events, they will include details...

Students will engage in discussions about story details and write an informational piece about the events in the story "Come Along Daisy".

This reproducible resource provides an assessment rubric to be used with students' oral presentations. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4

Help young students move from drawing pictures into writing simple stories. Good plan for having students put pictures in sequential order and teaching them about sequential order.

This detailed resource provides a good tutorial on writing style, whether informal or formal. It explains how to get style through word and sentence choice and includes lots of examples. W.9-10.1d & W.9-10.2e Style/tone/conv,...

This graphic organizer can be used with students when they read informational text. Students will write the main idea in a central oval and then write four details that support the main idea of this reproducible graphic organizer.

Links to 12 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2b: Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.