Curated OER
Creating a School Web Site
Students create websites for their school. They work in groups as a web team and devise a self-management plan. As they work on projects reflecting school life, the team edits what may appear online as the school's web site. Writing...
Teaching Tolerance
Journalism for Justice
Roll the presses! Or at least have your class members participate in the time-honored tradition of the student press by creating their own newspapers or journalist pieces on a social problem. After conducting research and collaborating...
Curated OER
To Whom It May Concern
Fourth graders produce and peer edit typed rough drafts of the business letters following the guidelines illustrated in the Eight Essential Parts of a business letter and save to disks. They complete the Where's the Math? scavenger hunt...
Curated OER
Keyboard Buddies in my Community
Second graders utilize Microsoft Word to create stationery and letters to send to other children in their school building, expressing experiences in their daily lives. As the unit progresses, they create documents to send to other second...
Curated OER
Heading West
Students study the concept of the westward expansion. In this exploration of the western U.S. lesson, students participate in different activities that explain economic hardships, jobs, and land opportunities. Students describe...
Curated OER
The Color of Poetry
Students listen to a story about colors and then write their own color poems.
Curated OER
Personalized Postcards
Students create and send postcards to friends and family members. Using actual photographs, they write a rough draft and final draft of a paragraph and print it out to glue onto a postcard template to mail to their friend or family member.
Curated OER
Would You Like to Become a Millionaire?
Young scholars answer questions written by other teams about literature in an attempt to become "millionaires." In small groups they write a motivational introduction to their teams selected books, publish their questions as a HyperCard...
Curated OER
WH AT' S Y O U R A M B I T I O N?
Students read and analyze an excerpt from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain. Students use the Six Traits of Writing to compose an essay on a personal life ambition that each students may have. Students use prewriting strategies and...
Curated OER
Narration about the Mirabal Sisters
Students research the lives of the Mirabel sisters, complete related graphic organizers, and watch the movie, "In the Time of the Butterflies." They write a narrative essay about one event in the Mirabel sisters' lives.
Curated OER
Sentence Structure: Avoiding Choppy, Run-on, and Stringy Sentences
Use this as a reference sheet for peer- or self-editing, or as a guide when teaching sentence structure. Defines and gives examples of choppy, run-on, and stringy sentences, and provides corrected versions of each. Check revised examples...
Curated OER
Snow Day
Third graders examine the effects of a snow day on various people in the community. They listen to the book "Snow Day" by Betsy Maestro, complete a graphic organizer of people affected by the snow day, and write a story from the point of...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
6 Traits: conventions
Students watch a video and write using conventions. In this conventions lesson plan, students edit their writing for the correct spelling, grammar, and paragraph usage.
Curated OER
Oral Presentation of a Research Report With Visual Support
Students are introduced to the rubric to guide them in an oral presentation. Individually, they use the internet and other sources to research a predetermined topic. They must prepare and use a visual aid when presenting and answer...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
6 Traits: Organization
Students make logical patterns in their writing to demonstrate the trait of organization. In this organization lesson plan, students focus on events proceeding logically.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
6 Traits: Word Choice
Students explore language arts by participating in a vocabulary usage activity. In this word choice lesson, students read examples of great word usage in literature and discuss with the class why some words appear stronger than others....
Pennsylvania Department of Education
6 Traits: Sentence Fluency
Students practice writing with sentence fluency in order to make the story more enjoyable for the reader. In this sentence fluency lesson plan, students focus on rhythm and flow.
Curated OER
Autumn Internet Hunt
Which is better for a harvest party, apple juice or apple cider? Are there many black bears in your state? How soon in advance do you need to plant pumpkins in order for them to be ready by October? Find the answers to these questions...
Curated OER
Defining Character Traits
Students read and analyze an extended definition in preparation for writing an extended definition of a CHARACTER TRAIT. They use analogy as a definition strategy to tailor writing to a particular audience. Finally, students SHARE...
Curated OER
Adventure Stories
Young scholars write an adventure story that contains a title, as many sentences as possible, and a conclusion. On the peer and teacher assessment sheets, the number of sentences required are left blank so that the teacher may determine...
Curated OER
Student Published Books
Fifth graders create a graphic organizer after it is modeled by the teacher. In this graphic organizer lesson, 5th graders complete a graphic organizer describing chapter 1 of a book. Graphic organizers will be revised and...
Curated OER
The Mark Twain Project at the Principia School
Students read and write an analysis of The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn and write a paper on another Twain literary piece. In this Mark Twain lesson, students select a Mark Twain literary piece to write an analysis paper for the work....
Curated OER
Writer's Chair
Students peer edit and present a piece of writing to the class. In this writing lesson, students work in groups of three to peer edit their favorite piece of writing. Students take turns sitting in the "Writer's Chair" and...
Curated OER
Coral Reefs
Students examine the animals that live in a coral reef and how they adapt to their environment. In this coral lesson students write a short book on how animals inhabit the coral reefs.