Baylor College
Do Plants Need Light?
Turn your classroom into a greenhouse with a lesson on plant growth. First, investigate the different parts of seeds, identifying the seed coat, cotyledon, and embryo. Then plant the seeds and watch them grow! Measure the new plants...
Baylor College
Plant or Animal?
Teach your class about the necessities of life using the book Tillena Lou's Day in the Sun. After a teacher-read-aloud, students make puppets depicting different plants and animals from the story and illustrating the habitat in...
Baylor College
Air and Breathing
Blow some bubbles and learn how living things need air in the eighth lesson of this series. Young scientists investigate this important gas by observing bubbles and monitoring their own breathing. A simple and fun activity that raises...
Baylor College
Needs of Living Things: Post-Assessment
Assess your class's knowledge of the needs of living things with the final lesson in a series. Given a large piece of paper and coloring utensils, young scientists draw a picture of themselves and a plant or animal of their choosing,...
ReadWriteThink
Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues
Young environmentalists learn how to craft a persuasive essay about an environmental issue they consider important. After studying the components of a persuasive essay and examining a student model, writers brainstorm possible topics and...
Curated OER
Student Reading Log
In this reading log worksheet, young scholars fill in the title, author, reading level, date, and have the teacher initial each entry. They complete the information for 12 books.
Curated OER
A Plump and Perky Turkey
Help readers recognize elements in a story. They will use pictures and text to gain meaning from written material. Have learners listen to the story A Plump and Perky Turkey and participate in a discussion. They recognize the...
Curated OER
Text Features of a Story
Bring the enjoyable story of Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel to your young readers. After reading the story as a class, students answer questions about a reading and make a graphic organizer. They make...
Curated OER
Students Get Animated: Make Existing Lessons Move and Motivate Students
Students study the chemical elements in a computer generated cartoon format. In this computer animation and chemistry activity, students learn how to animate using computer programs. Students use animation to learn about the Periodic...
Curated OER
Imitating An Author's Style
Pupils explore author's style. In this literature lesson plan, students read and take notes on a short story of their choice. Pupils write an original short story imitating the author's style.
Curated OER
Tomie dePaola Author Study
Using Tomie de Paola's books for an author study can get students thinking about characters, plot, and illustrations.
Curated OER
To Entertain
Second graders consider the author's purpose for writing a text. In this author's purpose lesson, 2nd graders discuss reasons why author's write a book and how it can often be for entertainment. Students read a book, provide two examples...
Curated OER
World Literature-Teaching Asian, African & Latin American Authors
World Literature lesson plans for high school students can lead to a greater cultural awareness and appreciation of literature.
Curated OER
Author's Purpose
In this learning exercise on determining the purpose of writing, students read 3 short paragraphs and choose whether they were written to persuade, inform or entertain.
Curated OER
Everyone's an Author
Students examine variety of written pieces of quality fiction, discuss what different story elements are present and how those elements make stories as effective as they are, and create a class story.
Joel Heck
The Life of C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis is considered one of the greatest Christian writers of all time. A slide show presentation provides an overview of his life and work. It includes multiple perspectives to give your class a well-rounded view of an amazing author.
Curated OER
Encouraging Students to Embrace Their Inner Author
Everyone is a writer! Youngsters compose an original piece of writing. In this writing lesson plan, they come up with their own idea for a piece of writing, revise it, and then publish it with illustrations. This lesson plan includes...
Curated OER
Writing Author's Purpose
Write in all three authorial purposes (persuasive, informational, entertaining) with this lesson. Young writers consider a time when a friend of theirs helped them out and gave them advice on something. They write a short paragraph (no...
Curated OER
Tuck Everlasting: Student Study Guide
A great support for teachers, this study guide provides several short answer comprehension questions, vocabulary words, and a longer response enrichment question for every chapter of the novel Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. Use as...
Curated OER
Author, Author
First graders engage in this interesting lesson on letter writing and writing skills. In it, youngsters listen to the Jan Brett story, The Mitten, as a warm-up. They think of other animals of the world they could ask Jan Brett to...
Curated OER
How Do Authors Use Imagery to Shape Their Writing?
Esther Forbes' award-winning Revolutionary War novel, Johnny Tremain and excerpts from Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine are used to model how imagery brings alive the setting of a story. The young writers then craft their...
College Board
2009 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions Form B
Do you have a political agenda? Some authors do. Scholars analyze a piece of work and determine how the author deals with a political or social issue. Responding to two other essay questions, writers create essays exploring how authors...
Curated OER
Search Warranted?
Young readers work on evaluating claims in a piece of informational text with the article "In New York, It's Open Bag or Find Exits" from the New York Times. They analyze current search procedures implemented to fight terrorism...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 2: Unit 2, Lesson 4
What does it mean to come undone? Scholars consider the author's use of the phrase as they read paragraphs 12–15 from Julia Alvarez's autobiographical essay "A Genetics of Justice." They complete a quick write to analyze how Alvarez...