Curated OER
Creating a Title Page, Organizing, and Writing the Research Paper
Students create a title page, organize information, and write the introductory paragraph to a research paper. For this research writing lesson, students discuss the elements of the title page and outline, then write one of their...
Curated OER
What is Framing?
Students practice framing issues. For this writing skills lesson, students participate in a classroom activity that requires them to look at specific topical issues by framing them. Students then create collages on current issues and...
Curated OER
Macbeth News Broadcast
Here is an authentic assessment task for Shakespeare's Macbeth. Young literature scholars prepare, perform, and record a news broadcast about the major events in the play. For example, groups may choose to report on the death of Lady...
EngageNY
Editing and Publishing: Accessing Books Around the World Informative Paragraph
Provide time to polish paragraphs in class. Pupils, who have been working on these informational pieces for several days now, will have a chance to check for spelling and grammar before publishing their work. Sure to be a rewarding final...
Curated OER
Technological Grand Conversations
Conduct a written literary discussion and diminish stress about public writing. Class members, already arranged into literature circles, compose and post responses to novels, signing with initials or class number. The process continues...
Curated OER
Painting Places with Words Using John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
Useful in an Of Mice and Men unit, or in a unit that focuses on descriptive writing, this lesson prompts young authors to impersonate John Steinbeck's writing style in the opening passages of the novel. A Six Trait writing activity...
EngageNY
Estimating Digits in a Quotient
Boiling down any division problem to a one-digit divisor problem sure makes estimation easy. The lesson shows how to estimate division problems by using place value understanding and basic arithmetic facts to simplify the division. Some...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 13: Going Deeper Mini-Lesson
November is NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month! If your class is participating (or simply doing a narrative writing unit), this peer review lesson is part of a larger unit which can be easily found online. Once your writers have...
Curated OER
Creating an Original Opera
This may be a lot to ask of a high schooler, but then again, who knows? Pupils work in groups to explore, write, and then perform an original opera. They view versions of The Magic Flute and La Traviata, then compose a plot, characters,...
Alabama Learning Exchange
The Big Bang Theory: An Evidence-Based Argument
What evidence supports the big bang theory? Individuals analyze scholarly resources about the the theory and develop arguments backed by evidence. They brainstorm, share ideas, watch a video, and read articles to complete a graphic...
Scholastic
Lesson 1: What Are Barriers?
Scholars discuss the concept of a barrier with a short passage on Jackie Robinson. The writing process begins with a paragraph and several other sentences about Robinson's unique traits that made breaking a barrier...
Workforce Solutions
Thank You Letters
An important step in the job search process is sending a thank you note to any professional that has been of help. First, pupils discuss the etiquette of thank you notes, then draft a practice letter.
Curated OER
Editorial Writing as a Catalyst for Discussion of Important Issues
Students decide which issues are most important to their student body and work in cooperative learning groups to write editorials. In this editorial writing lesson, students brainstorm a list of the most important issues and bring...
Curated OER
Picture This
Elementary writers practice writing descriptive paragraphs by adding adjectives and sensory words to their writing. They use a picture of a monster for their descriptive paragraph. This 12-page lesson should increase your charges...
Cornell University
Fibers, Dyes, and the Environment
Nanofibers can be made through electrospinning or force spinning in order to reduce the negative impact on the environment. Pupils study the role of fibers and dye on the environment through a series of five hands-on activities. Then,...
Curated OER
Parody Hilarity
Upper grade and middle school writers study the art of parody. In this language arts lesson, learners study the work of Lewis Carroll, read and discuss parodies from the book, Alice in Wonderland, and construct their own parody based on...
Curated OER
Writing a Resume
Student create and evaluate resumes. For this practical writing lesson, young scholars employ the writing process to write their own functional quality resumes.
Discovery Education
Clutter Cutter
Challenge young learners to cut the clutter with this fun engineering project. As employees of a home and office supply company, young engineers are asked to develop devices that organize everyday items. After participating in a...
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss and Read Across America
What important facts about Dr. Seuss influenced the Read Across America movement...? This is the driving question of a research project that requires scholars to find information about Dr. Seuss' life and work. Class...
Curated OER
How To Write a Social Studies Outline
One of the keys to success in school is organization. This resource leads learners through the process of creating an outline for a chapter from a social studies text. In addition, they review facts they have learned in their class...
Curated OER
Making Objects Human
Explore poetry, personification, and multiple languages with a poetry reading and writing lesson. After the teacher reads the poem to the class, a discussion about personification follows. The class then writes a collaborative poem...
Curated OER
Double-Entry Journal Writing
Introduce your learners to the concept of a double-entry journal. Talk about how to connect with the text and model an example for them. Using whatever literature you are working with, have scholars choose a quote and make their own...
Curated OER
Learning to Write and Send Email
Students generate more expressibe and receptive language by send emails to a friend. They improve their word processing and technology skills by sending and receiving emails. A rubric is included in this lesson plan for assessment purposes.
Curated OER
The World Around Me
Combining visual and language arts, here is a resource that prompts middle schoolers to write stories based on pictures of their surroundings. They use digital cameras to take pictures of favorite areas in the school. Next, they choose...