Third graders use vocabulary from "If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon" to play a game.

Fourth graders read The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

Fourth graders write a five-paragraph essay on the topic: What mistakes have you made and then learned a life instructional activity from that experience?

Second graders role play as dentists researching teeth and their care. They create a slide show showing how a character, Bear, can take care of this teeth explaining habitats, diets and teeth.

Students examine a fairy tale character of their choice in great detail. They create a wanted poster that includes the following: a picture of the character, a written description of his/her appearance, a reward amount, and reasonthe...

Eighth graders pre-write a story brainstorming things that they want to tell in their story; writing down as many details as possible. They then arrange the details in chronological order and practice several ways to write a narrative.

Third graders watch as their teacher demonstates how to make a web of vocabulary words. After listening to a story, they are given a list of new descriptive vocabulary words. To end the lesson, they create their own word web using one...

Sixth graders investigate tall tales as a literary genre. They listen to a number of tall tales to discover how exaggeration is used as a story element. They write and publish a tall tale using word processing software. They illustrate...

Students create a disaster preparation book. In this disaster preparation lesson, students research disasters and use the kidspiration program to create a shape to represent each disaster. They create a page for each disaster.

Students write a letter. In this language arts instructional activity, students play the role of an advice column journalist. Students respond to a letter asking for advice.

First graders write facts about the Earth. In this Earth lesson, 1st graders discuss natural resources, recycling, and how to keep the Earth clean. They work in groups to create a small book with 3-5 facts about the Earth's environment.

Do your learners' minds go blank when they confront a blank piece of paper? Speedwriting can help them get started with writing as well as come up with topics to write about. They can then incorporate their key ideas and phrases into a...

Explains nine methods for developing ideas for writing, including freewriting, brainstorming, clustering/mapping, maintaining a personal journal, responding to a text, maintaining a response journal, responding to a specific assignment,...

Tips on organizing ideas in an essay.

An explanation and examples of main ideas and supporting details.

Learn how to model a range of prewriting techniques and introduce several mnemonics to help students organize their writing.

In this instructional activity, students organize and design a narrative based on three developing ideas.

Tips on organizing ideas in an essay.

A helpful review of important parts of your report and ways to strengthen it. SL.9-10.4 Presentation

Check out this comprehensive website featuring ideas for teaching writing based on the six trait analytic writing model.

Learn how to use outlines, notes, graphic organizers, and lists to help you evaluate and organize your ideas.

[Free Registration/Login Required] A series of three lesson plans designed to teach students to classify and categorize items, characters, and information. The third lesson is based on the book Splish! Splash! Animal Baths by April...

Drawing on New York City teachers' experiences, this article examines three ways to effectively integrate young adult literature into the curriculum: use core texts (usually novels, but also other genres as well) that the entire class...

This site by Plain Language Online states that plain language "begins with the needs of the reader," which will determine why and how the writer writes. It goes on to elaborate on audience and purpose, idea organization, use of...