Curated OER
Instill a Passion for Writing Short Stories
Quick writing tips and tricks to guide and polish learners' narrative writing.
EngageNY
Writing, Critique, and Revising: Two-Voice Poems (Chapter 14: "Las Ucas/Grapes")
Continue work on the two-piece poem that compares two characters from Esperanza Rising. Give class members a few minutes to finish their drafts. After they have a complete product, model how to critique and edit the poems with one group....
Scholastic
What Happened Next? (Grades K-4)
Explore the structure of narrative writing with this fun, collaborative instructional activity. Start by reading aloud a short story, asking small groups of learners to fill in key events on a large story board prepared on the class...
Curated OER
Making Objects Human
Explore poetry, personification, and multiple languages with a poetry reading and writing lesson plan. After the teacher reads the poem to the class, a discussion about personification follows. The class then writes a collaborative poem...
K12 Reader
Describe It with Adjectives
Put children's descriptive writing skills to the test with these fun collaborative writing activities. Presented with the picture of an object, young writers are are tasked with creating a description that provides enough detail for one...
Curated OER
House and Holmes: A Guide to Deductive and Inductive Reasoning
Test your pupils' reasoning skills with several activities and a quick mystery to solve. Learners watch and analyze a few video clips that demonstrate reasoning in action, practice deduction with an interactive and collaborative...
Curriculum Corner
Helping Students Learn to Collaborate
Keep this attractive display up on your walls to refer to each time you ask your learners to engage in a group discussion. The printable reminds participants to come prepared, complete assignments before meeting, listen and share ideas,...
Curated OER
What's The Story?
Groups of learners get together and are given copies of the state quarter reverses from the 2002 US Mint issue. Each pupil makes up a story that's based on the scene that appears on the reverse side of the quarter. The goal is for all...
Curated OER
Dancing through Poetry
Get your class up and moving as they explore how to express movement and dance through words. Designed around two poems by Lillian Morrison about break dancing, the activity truly captures the creative and multi-sensory aspects of...
Curated OER
Acrostic Poem Pals
Students work in groups to determine a creative writing theme. They listen to each other to produce a group acrostic poem and then collaborate with their partners to recite their poetry. They then add drawings to add an artistic element...
Curated OER
Story Writing
Students work in groups to create a story that will be presented to the class. In this story writing instructional activity, students complete a project planning sheet, work together to create a story that includes a hero and at least...
Curated OER
LA CENERENTOLA (Cinderella)
Learners work in groups to create a map key. The map key represents the diversity of each of the Cinderella stories previously read. They explore the cultural dimensions and contributions of the arts.
Curated OER
Apples and Apple Activities
Students investigate apples. In this reading comprehension instructional activity, students read a book about apples then compare and contrast, make graphs, distinguish between fact and fiction and work in groups. Students work in groups...
Curated OER
The Lewis and Clark Expedition
Students explore the challenges of the Lewis and Clark Expedition through a physical education simulation. In this cross-curriculum physical education lesson, students work in groups of three to log 8000 steps, stopping to participate in...
Curated OER
Collaborative Editing
With the use of an online editing site, budding authors revise their writing. This is a creative way to have your class practice essay revision. Instead of being a tedious process, editing and revising can be fun.
Macmillan Education
A Class or Company Newsletter: A Collaborative Writing Lesson
A class newsletter? The possible extensions for this activity are endless. After examining examples of news print-outs from hotels or workplaces, class members develop their own articles and produce a newsletter. A great way to keep...
Curated OER
Create a Book with Student Treasures
You can't publish a story until after it has been revised and edited! Budding authors investigate the writing process while drafting an original story. They select a topic, complete a rough draft, edit it, revise it, and finally publish...
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Designing Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World
How do you convey someone’s creativity? Individuals answer the question as they design exhibitions to showcase the intellect and genius of Benjamin Franklin. After conducting research, classmates work in groups to try to capture and...
Roald Dahl
The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
Follow up a reading of The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl with this collaborative lesson on teamwork. Starting with a fun team game, learners go on to investigate examples of teamwork in the story before working in small...
Curated OER
Write Me a Mystery
Eleventh graders, in groups, pre-write, draft, edit and revise a murder mystery short story to hone their skills in short story drafting, editing and revision, group collaboration and computer usage. They also evaluate writing for both...
Curated OER
Where We Come From - A Culturally Responsive Writing Lesson
Students create a group poem. In this poetry lesson, students make a cultural poem titled "We Come From." They share their poems using the document camera and SMARTboard.
Curated OER
Alphabet & Number Books for Young Children
First graders create either an alphabet or number book using Kid Pix software. In this alphabet and/or number unit, 1st graders design a themed alphabet and/or number book using the Kid Pix software over the course of three weeks....
Curated OER
Good Words are Better than Bad Strokes
Students research negative campaigns and propaganda and then interpret characters from Julius Caesar in that light. In this negative campaign lesson plan, students take the character and create visual images to depict the characters in a...
Curated OER
Search for the Missing Pi
Third graders work in groups of two to three with measuring tapes, finding the circumference and diameter of teacher-selected circular items. They relate circumference and diameter measurements to find pi.