[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] A learning module that teaches students how to write a strong thesis statement in four mini-lessons: Introduction, A Thesis Should Be Debatable, A Thesis Should Be...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] A learning module that teaches students how to focus on a thesis in an expository text in four lessons: Introduction, Opening Statement: Your Thesis, Maintaining Your Thesis...

Contains plans for three lessons that introduce a nonfiction prereading strategy with the acronym THIEVES, which stands for Title, Headings, Introduction, Every first sentence, Visuals and vocabulary, End Questions, and Summary. In...

Lesson in which students read various narrative texts which provide a context for them to learn content-area topics. Narratives allow the students to begin to understand expository texts.

Teaching students to pay attention to headings and titles as they read? Here you'll find a practical application for using an expository text to apply the concept of using headings. Geared toward older elementary students, but lesson...

A five-part standards-based lesson in which young scholars learn to write a 20 word summary of an informational text by focusing on answering the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. This strategy can be applied to any content...

Using two songs by India Arie as well as an excerpt out of Sharon Flake's The Skin I'm In, students will explore their own self image. After analyzing the qualities that each student feels that they embody, they will compare these to the...

In this interactive instructional activity, students will increase their understanding of the important role that freshwater mussels play in our watershed. Students will learn about freshwater mussel species, how mussels improve water...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will be taking a look at how authors of informational texts, such as expository texts, organize their writing and the effects that organization can have...

Links to 7 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2c: Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.

Links to 8 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2d: Provide a concluding statement or section.

Links to 12 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2b: Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.

Links to 18 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2a: Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.

This is a tutorial which focuses on how to narrow the topic for expository writing, how to determine what information to keep or eliminate, and what questions to ask yourself. Students respond to questions throughout. A comparison is...

Unit plan containing five lessons designed for tenth graders. They center around reading and writing nonfiction, and they teach skills such as identifying the features of nonfiction and writing expository texts. All are aligned to...

A six-part learning module with links to videos, websites, and texts on writing expository essays.

In this scaffolded lesson, 1st graders will independently gather information about elephants and then compile this information with their peers. This lesson is part of a unit that will culminate with an expository writing assignment.

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will learn how to adjust your thesis so it accurately reflects the main idea of your essay. You will learn how to breathe life into a dead introduction...

By using the children's book, Squirrel's New Year's Resolution, as an example, students learn to write responses to the story and explain their own resolutions for the year. Site requires registration, but it is free.

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] An inference is a guess based on the information within a situation. It is valid if the guess is logical. This lesson teaches you how to check a completed draft for relevant...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will learn about Sam's three tricks: parallel structure, the rhetorical question, and transitional words and phrases.

This lesson plan includes activities associated with the book Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride. Because Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt were both a great deal alike, it made perfect sense that the two women were friends. In April...

This lesson focuses on the writing in high school. Whether you write expository and persuasive essays or short stories, your first steps are to determine and define your audience. After that, you will begin to generate ideas and...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will expand on your ability to read texts, synthesize them, and make choices based on the information you read. Finally, you will learn how to use textual...