Curated OER
Teaching Imagery with Gary Paulsen
Students read excerpts from memoirs written by Gary Paulsen as examples of how to write a narrative piece. They identify figurative language used and then they write a memoir of their own that contains imagery and figurative language.
Curated OER
Memior: The Stuff of Our Lives
Fourth graders reflect upon the significance of remembered events and to keep a "notebook" of their thoughts and feelings. They read books that exemplify memior writing. They write their memiors, taking it through the writing process.
Curated OER
When I Was Puerto Rican
Students are read passages from When I Was Puerto Rican and asked to respond to the passages in their journals. They decide on a topic for researching and they use this topic to develop their own memoirs.
Curated OER
The Final Word
Students research biographies of Americans who advanced science. They create an obituary for the person to share what information they have gathered. They discuss the importance of the obituary as the "final word" of a person to complete...
Curated OER
Japanese American Baseball in the Camps
Young scholars study Japanese American internment camps. For this American history lesson, students compare and contrast the camp internees' experiences with with team sports-related challenges young scholars have encountered. Students...
Curated OER
Letters From The Diaspora
Students investigate the concept of mass migration and conduct research using a variety of resources. The information is used in order to create letters written from the perspective of a person who may have migrated during the time period.
Curated OER
www.Me.Com
Create a graphic autobiography integrating images and text. Working within the structure of the programs Comic Life and Photoshop, pupils integrate the Principles of Design. They focus on balance, rhythm, proportion, and text structure....
Curated OER
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
In this online interactive reading comprehension activity, students respond to 6 short answer and essay questions based on The Things They Carried. Students may also access an online quiz on the selection using the link at the bottom of...
Curated OER
Signature History
Students review the meaning and application of primary and secondary sources in research. They determine how researchers locate primary source documents before looking at signatures as a validating factor on many primary sources....
Curated OER
I Had a Hero Lesson
Students examine what it takes to make a hero. The respond in their journals to the following prompts: What did I learn about friendship and heroism from reading and thinking about "I Had a Hero"? What did this story teach me about the...
Curated OER
Evaluating Nonfiction Texts
Learners evaluate nonfiction text. In this evaluating nonfiction lesson students read two pieces of nonfiction text and respond with a short free-writing piece. Learners discuss the content and focus on the accuracy.
Curated OER
Wild Swans
Students, watching the movie, "Wild Swans," explore a writer's journey of discovery about her mother, grandmother, and herself. They also study the Chinese culture and history of the last 50 years.
Curated OER
The Holocaust: Survival Stories
Students use survival stories as the theme for written assignments and a photography presentation.
Curated OER
Great Migration 2002
Ninth graders compose journal entries that relate to interview topics working in pairs interviewing each other. They create ten interview questions on their own as well as deliver presentations about their interviews of one another. Each...
Curated OER
Night by Elie Wiesel
Tenth graders explore WWII by reading a book with their class. In this Holocaust research lesson, 10th graders read the book Night, and discuss the horrors of the concentration camps and Nazi brutality during WWII. Students complete...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Write It: Memoir
Write It Memoir offers a complete writing workshop to develop your personal story. Search your memory through the brainstorming activities to launch your piece. Draft a map of the memories along with reading other models. As the process...
Brigham Young University
Ambulance No. 10: Personal Letters From the Front
Read the actual writings of a member of the ambulance corps during WWI. Includes a number of interesting photos and drawings.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: A Memoir Inspired by Three Truths and a Lie
This is a book review and activity for the picture book "Three Truths and a Lie" by Carlalyn Buchner, a story about an older cousin who bullies his younger cousin with outrageous truths and lies. The activity suggests students write...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: An I Pod Inspired Writing Lesson: Summertime Inspired Memoirs
By listening and then responding to multiple versions of the song "Summertime," students will understand how songs can convey various moods. Writing about a personal summertime memory, students will try to mimic a mood from one of the...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Memories Sorted on a Timeline
This is a book review for Marley and Me by John Grogan in which he details events, both good and bad, in his life with his dog Marley. The activity focuses on having students remember and write down experiences in their lives (both good...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: When I Was Young In, a Literature to Language Experience
Past meets present in this lesson in which students practice verb tense when they write personal short stories that they then publish in a flip book.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Suggestions for Memoirs: A Letter & Memoir About a Teacher
After reading the book, Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Palacco, which is about a teacher helping a student overcome a long struggle to learn to read, students write a personal thank you letter to a teacher who helped them. Then they...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Exploring and Sharing Family Stories
Writing gets personal when students interview family members in order to write a personal narrative about that person.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: A Small Moment With an Important Person
A writer's workshop idea where students brainstorm a list of people who are important to them as well as one or two times they remember being with each person. Students then use these ideas to write about a small moment with someone who...