Students investigate storytelling by creating their own dialogue. In this writing development lesson plan, students read the story Jeremy Thatch, Dragon Hatcher in class and discuss their own magical object they wish to write a story...

Students complete activities to analyze points of view in different texts. In this point of view lesson, students read Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Circle and discuss the points of view. Students choose a character from the story and...

Young authors examine a clay figure in order to learn about the 6+1 Trait writing process. They consider how the art was made or buit up step-by-step, they then write about a process in their own lives that occurs in a similar way. 

Drafting, revising, and editing is all apart of the publishing process. Using a series of documents as inspiration, young journalists compose a class Newspaper. They work independently and in groups to publish their own articles.

Music composition can be easy with a little software assistance. The class uses Garageband to listen to, write, sing, and record a blues song. They listen to the song provided through the software, write their own lyrics to the song,...

Mark Twain's life, politics, writing, and role as a mirror of pre- and post-Civil War American culture are the focus 11th and 12th graders in this section from an expansive author study. A critical writing assignment comparing Twain...

Encourage scholars to share their love of reading with informative and engaging book reviews. Here, you'll find a series of guides that walk learners through the review writing process. Included in the collection is information about...

With a brief mini-lesson, scholars learn about using strong verbs, sensory details, and precise descriptions. Next, pupils continue working on their children's book storyboards before choosing their strongest pages for peer critiques. 

Connect literature to narrative writing by researching descriptive writing techniques. Elementary and middle schoolers identify the importance of a narrator and voice in the storytelling process. They read writing samples and identify...

Informative writing is emphasized in the standards. Help your learners reach that goal with the plan for paragraph writing outlined here. After reviewing the work from the day before and adding to their vocabulary notebooks, class...

Building on prior knowledge of the pervious lesson in the series, pupils explain the previous lesson to each other. Then they write a simple guide for a young child to read on the same topic. 

Young scholars examine the military campaigns of the Pacific theater, tracing the path of the Allied offensives. The instructional activity presents what the Allies were trying to accomplish and why.

Amateur poets explore alphabetical poetry. They choose a topic and brainstorm vocabulary that relates to the topic using each letter of the alphabet. The class then generates ideas for a group alphabet poem. After creating one as a whole...

Encourage young writers to edit text based on conventions. After reviewing the conventions, fourth graders watch a teacher demonstrate how to revise a paragraph for correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or dialogue. Then, pairs...

Provide your class with a list of possible topics (three are included here, but they're not exactly gripping), and polish their persuasive writing skills. This plan really emphasizes the prewriting process, and several graphic organizers...

Class members discover what it means to publish their works. Working on a computer, young writers use an online dictionary to edit their spellings and conventions based on the information added to the rubric. From here, and most of the...

Through the use of stories, artwork, and the KidPix program, youngsters explore the color word red, and engage in activities around the word. Teaching kindergartners about the color words can be so much fun. This could be adapted for any...

Upper graders listen to the blues. They discuss blues scale, read a description of the blues, and work together to write an original piece. A lesson like this ties into American history and African-American musical contributions very...

Thinking of assigning a research paper? Get writers off on the right foot with a instructional activity that introduces the BEAM research model. Writers brainstorm the background of their topic, explicate the aspects of their topic,...

If every vote counts, why do we need the electoral college? Middle and high schoolers study the Constitutional precedent of the electoral college, as well as its place in historical and modern elections, with an engaging social studies...

High schoolers collect photographs on the Progressive Era in Illinois, then write three newspaper articles, using one photo per article. The article will highlight an event in Illinois during the Progressive Era. The newspaper must also...

Scholars partner up to review a model essay and talk through the process leading up to writing their essays. During a second reading of the essay, learners locate and underline the claim given, reasons, and counterclaim. They then...

Students examine the role that the U.S. played in bringing about victory in the two major theaters of the war in the Pacific and Europe. How the various military campaigns contributed to the war's successful conclusion forms the focus of...

High schoolers explore the overall strategies pursued by the Japanese and the Allies in the initial months of World War II. What each side hoped to accomplish what what actually happened forms the basis of a comparison made in this...