Novelinks
The Cure: Guided Imagery
Prepare class members for a discussion of Sonia Levitin's dystopian novel The Cure, by leading them on a guided imagery exercise designed to encourage visualization of written descriptions.
Curated OER
Writing: Planning and Organizing
Twelfth graders examine the five step prewriting process used before writing essays. They select a common topic and determine the purpose,and audience for the essay. They list examples in daily life where planning and organizing are...
Curated OER
Creating Ideas and Organizing Thinking
Students examine the concept of developing ideas and organizing their thinking. They create concept maps and graphic organizers using Inspiration software, and develop a concept map for their own subject area.
Little Stones
How Can Poetry Make People Think and Care?
Can beautiful words change the world? Literary scholars discover how to paint their visions of change using poetry in a series of three workshops. Each independent topic gives participants a chance to examine their feelings about...
Curated OER
Writing an Original Fable
Students discover how to write fables. In this writing skill lesson, students review the literary elements of fables and take all of the steps in the writing process to create their own fables.
Curated OER
Organizing Writing/Composing a First Draft
Seventh graders access an organizer from an earlier lesson and transition sentences to begin a new essay. In this organization and composing lesson, 7th graders work in small groups to create a draft of an article about natural...
Curated OER
Characterization
Students draw pictures to generate ideas about a character. They use prewriting skills to plan written work. They then dictate or write detailed descriptions of familiar person, places, objects, or experiences.
Novelinks
Touching Spirit Bear: The Literary Mandala
Even someone with a dark side can make a good decision—and vice versa. Readers explore Cole's traits and decisions in Ben Mikaelson's Touching Spirit Bear and analyze his sunside and shadowside. They identify a symbol that best...
Curated OER
The Writing Process
Learners engage in the various steps involved in the writing process. The lesson plan is written as a guide for the teacher to write more in depth lesson plans for specific activities. This is a good model plan to follow.
Curated OER
Preschool Lesson: Guinea Pigs
In this Guinea Pig themed lesson, students hear the story, Guinea Pigs Add UP! and then engage in several themed learning activities. Each activity fosters skills in letter/number recognition, art, math or writing.
Curated OER
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Journals
Like the characters in Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, class members write frequently with a series of journal topics that form the basis of the final writing assignment about their personal “heavy boots.” Alas, no list of topics is...
University of Arizona
Identity Repair
In a detailed, creative writing task, potential poets analyze how race, identity, and society categorize and (mis)represent us. The learning begins with an imaginative anticipatory set where young scholars describe unique situations that...
Curated OER
Daughters Come of Age in Women's Fiction
Introduce your young readers to fiction written by women authors. For each story, they explore the way these daughters discover and claim their own identities. Individually, class members use the literature to examine their role in their...
Curated OER
Fabulous, Fractured Fables
Elementary schoolers develop an awareness of the literary form known as the fable. They explore how authors write fables to pass along moral lessons. After reading and discussing many famous fables embedded in the plan, learners attempt...
Curated OER
Post-Colonial Writers Unit
How do cultural and historical background impact thought? To explore this essential question, class members view of portion of the film, The Passage to India, read an excerpt from The Magician’s Nephew, and Nissim Ezekiel’s poem, "In...
Curated OER
Write Right!
After watching part of a Club Write Kids video and discussing the editing process, each group of learners writes a letter to a favorite author. They ask for a copy of a page of manuscript that has gone through the editing process. Prior...
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Socratic Seminar
To conclude a study of Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, class members sharpen their critical thinking skills by engaging in a Socratic seminar discussion of Martinez's novel.
Curated OER
Narrative Writing Lesson
Sixth graders experience the stages of process writing, work cooperatively, to critique and to incorporate software tools to enhance writing and problem solving skills.
Curated OER
From the Middle Ages Straight to You
Students read a "letter" from Dr. Suess' Bartholomew Cubbins and note differences between their lives and Bartholomew's. They utilize prewriting strategies to draft a letter of response to Bartholomew.
Curated OER
Blogging To Create A Community of Writers # 5 of 7
Here is activity 5 from a 7 activity unit on using blogging to create a community of writers. The aim of this activity is to get students writing about what Archaeologists do and how they use material data to study the past. They compose...
EngageNY
Completing Reflection: Preparing a Poster for Presentation
Prewrite, plan, draft, revise, edit, share. Scholars complete a worksheet to reflect on how they used the writing process to improve their writing. They also draft plans for their scientific posters that they will display in an upcoming...
Curated OER
Whose Point of View? The Journey of Three Generations
A reading of Whale Journey, a fact-filled picture book by Vivian French, launches a study of the life cycle and migration of three generations of gray whales. The interdisciplinary lesson plan offers opportunities extensions into all...
Curated OER
Picture Perfect Poetry
Do your language arts students love to draw? Use this lesson to reinforce poetic techniques with illustration. After drawing what they think poem would look like with no words, middle and high schoolers work on several different...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 15
To conclude the study of the play, William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope, class members craft an in-class essay comparing Doescher's adaptation to George Lucas's film, Star Wars: A New Hope.