It was the best of places! It was the worst of places! Middle schoolers practice their descriptive writing skills by creating an e-book about the best of/worst of topics. A series of activities about descriptive writing and worksheets...

Seventh graders have a golden opportunity to learn how to read poems and short stories with a unit that introduces them to the techniques writers use to craft their works. They examine poems by William Carlos Williams and Edgar Allen Poe...

Learning how to summarize can be a challenge. Guide your writers through the process of summarizing a story using the children's tale; I Want My Hat Back for practice. Class members then use this "Somebody, Wanted, But,...

The third lesson in "The Story of an Hour" series introduces young readers to analogies; a literary device writers use to add depth to their stories. Instructors identify the three analogies in the tale, and class members consider the...

With descriptive writing, the pleasure is in the details. Young writers learn how to add sensory details to a paragraph about themselves. They read a short paragraph and identify the sensory details used. After revising their draft...

W. W. Jacobs' horror story, "The Monkey's Paw," is used to introduce foreshadowing. As they advance through the story, young readers make predictions about what might happen next and how the story might end. Pairs work through the...

"Warning: Conducting this lesson may be harmful." Such statements, called "Trigger Warnings," are the focus of a two-part lesson that looks at censorship, especially the pros and cons of trigger warnings. Class members read two articles,...

Pictures really do talk in a lesson that teaches young writers how to craft dialogues. Class members closely examine Grant Wood's American Gothic, imagine what the couple might think or feel, and put these words to paper, crafting a...

How authors bring characters to life and make them believable is the focus of a lesson on characterization. Readers closely examine passages from To Kill a Mockingbird and Dreamland Burning, noting details that reveal the character's...

The eyes have it in a project that combines art with creative writing. Class members list three adjectives or characteristics of a person they admire. Then draw a picture of a pair of eyes that they feel reflects these characteristics....

My love is like an anaconda. Huh? Scholars investigate similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification used by writers to express feelings. They examine lyrics from songs and lines from Romeo and Juliet and consider how the use of...

With all the stuff available online, good essays are just a click away. But talk about tracking! Writers beware! New tech can now identify plagiarism, and the consequences of presenting someone else's work as your own are severe. Here's...

Fangs, capes, pale skin, and beady eyes! High schoolers investigate the tropes associated with vampires by examining excerpts from stories and films. They then create a timeline that reveals how the depictions of vampires have evolved...

Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" models the power of descriptive language for middle schoolers. They identify the similes and metaphors in the tale and consider what these descriptions add to the story's emotional...

Remember when everything was Fantastic! Fabulous! Awesome! Iconic! A series of activities encourages young writers to move beyond these overused descriptors and instead choose a more precise language.

Somebody. Wanted. But. Then. Introduce your classes to the structure that supports stories with a lesson that teaches readers how to identify the four basic components writers use to craft their tales. After identifying these elements in...

As part of a study of crafting compelling arguments, class members tackle the problem presented in Lawrence Kohlberg's "The Heinz Dilemma." After discussing the dilemma with classmates, writers draft an essay with a claim, support...

Writers examine the elements of an informational essay, identify them in several essay snapshots, and then craft their own to demonstrate what they have learned.

Remember this lady! Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, the second President of the United States, and the mother of the sixth president, John Quincy Adams, was much more than a wife and mother. This prolific letter writer is the...

The second lesson in the series asks groups to analyze an exchange of love letters between Abigail and John Adams. Scholars identify the many allusions and references in the letters and consider what they can infer about the writers.

Poems by Shel Silverstein, Emily Dickinson, Jean Toomer, Maya Angelou, and others offer users of the final interactive in a ten-part set to demonstrate what they have learned about how writers use imagery, metaphors, allusions, and...

The sixth interactive in this series introduces learners to the power of figurative language. After studying examples of similes and metaphors, readers examine how such comparisons help them see through a writer's eyes. Interactive...

The tone is easy to hear but more challenging to detect in written texts. Users of this interactive learn how to closely observe the diction and words writers use to convey their feelings about their subject. They examine passages that...

Picture this! The first interactive in a set of 13 shows learners how writers use imagery and sensory details to create mental pictures in readers' minds.