Curated OER
Reader Response
Fifth graders reflect upon different concepts of Language Arts while reading literature. In the novel Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt, the characters discover a spring of eternal youth. After reading the first several chapters of...
Curated OER
Writing Essays
Students compose expository essays. In this written communication lesson, students examine paragraphs from sample expository essays and then discuss the attributes of well-written essays prior to writing their own expository essays.
Curated OER
Bullying Essay
In this bullying essay worksheet, pupils find statistics on the internet about bullying and write an essay about their findings or write a letter to the principle explaining what should be done about bullying.
Curated OER
Writing Police Reports: Emergency!
Students practice writing emergency reports. In this emergency reports lesson, students participate in a visit from a police officer or emergency technician. Students then write a historical report based on the fictional account the...
Curated OER
The Glory That Was Greece
After finishing a unit on Greek history, it's important to test how much learners remember. This handout provides six different essay topics related to Greek History, influences, Athenian Democracy, or Alexander the Great. A rubric is...
Curated OER
"All About Me" Paragraph
Fifth graders write a paragraph titled "All About Me" in the computer lab after they have drawn graphic organizers to fill in background information about themselves and used a "10-Point Writing Checklist" to do peer editing.
Curated OER
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Learners investigate the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In this American Civil Rights Movement lesson, students determine whether or not they would have taken part in the boycott and write a 5 paragraph essay about the implications of partaking.
Curated OER
Lesson Exchange: Introduction to Research Papers (Senior, Literature)
Although unlikely in today's English classroom, this lesson focuses on introducing research papers to seniors in high school. It briefly reviews the parts of an essay, and mentions showing learners example essays, but no examples are...
Curated OER
Career Planning and Research
What do you want to do when you finish school? Most high schoolers have an idea of what they'd want to do, but little idea of how to achieve this goal. After researching a career of their choosing, learners identify qualifications,...
San Bernardino Co. Supt. of Schools
Was Julius Caesar a Good Leader for Rome?
Learners consider the various perspectives that different groups in Roman society may have had for Julius Caesar, such as Roman soldiers, senators, the working class, and slaves. The primary activity involves a reading of Caesar's...
University of North Carolina
Thesis Statements
Phrases such as "This paper is going to be about" and "I am going to tell you about" do not make for effective thesis statements. A handout from the UNC Writing Center helps writers break from those phrases to craft effective thesis...
Do2Learn
Organizer Tree
Help your pupils organize their thoughts, gain a greater understanding of a topic by laying it out clearly, or plan for writing with this graphic organizer. Learners can write in three larger topics and then two subtopics for each.
Polk Country Schools
The Death of Abraham Lincoln DBQ
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was a pivotal moment in American history, but what were the immediate effects throughout the newly unified country? A document-based question focuses on the consequences of the first...
Curated OER
Organizing Ideas
Pupils organize facts into categories and list the structure of a five-paragraph essay. They identify the main idea and outline the supporting details. In the class, students discuss how they organized their ideas and begin drafting...
Curated OER
Writing Catchy Introductions
In this introductory paragraph learning exercise, students learn techniques for writing an attention-catching introductory paragraph. Students then read several introductory paragraphs and determine which strategies were used.
Curated OER
World War II: Internment in Hawaii
Students examine world history by writing an essay in class. For this World War II lesson, students identify the attack on Pearl Harbor, the response from the U.S and the effect it had on Japanese-Americans. Students define Japanese...
Curated OER
Context Clues, Plot Structure, Conflict, and Personal Narrative Essay
What are the elements of a personal narrative? Get your class talking by reading "The Necklace" and "A Dangerous Game." The lesson focuses primarily on defining certain vocabulary terms (like context clues, plot, conflict, climax, etc.)...
EngageNY
Structuring The Search: Categorizing Our Research
What can you contribute? Scholars read text to determine how ants contribute to the rainforest. First, they categorize and sort facts gathered from reading. Next, readers focus on specific terms in each paragraphs of the text Ants by...
Curated OER
Young Learner's Writing Workshop 1
Students become familiar with writing an essay in English. They are given an overview of basic essay writing styles. Students develop skills that are used when analyzing texts as the basis of their essays.
Curated OER
Narrative Writing Outline
Students explore the elements of a narrative for its purpose, type of audience, mood, main character, minor characters, setting, and conflicts in the story. A story outline is developed and a five paragraph essay composed in this lesson.
Orange County Department of Education
The Hero: Writing and Responding
Pupils identify heroic character traits that they admire and that inspire trust and result in service to others. They identify the heroic traits of a character of their choosing and defend their reasoning using evidence from the text and...
Curated OER
Book of the Month - A Technology-Integrated Literacy Project
Students write a paragraph predicting what the book is about after viewing the front cover. They are given a copy of the Story Parts Maps, students are explained each story part. Students are explained that they most take notes on the...
Curated OER
"How To Build A Snowman" Expository Writing
Fourth graders write a "how to..." or an expository essay on building a snowman. They practice giving directions by explaining how to draw a person using shapes without mentioning that it's a person being drawn. They revise through the...
Museum of Tolerance
Artifact Research Activity
Artifacts give us the privilege of learning about the past, may it be family, culture, or traditions. Here, class members learn about their family's past with the help of an artifact, or family heirloom. Once an artifact is...