Miss Frizzle's class provides the inspiration for your young learners! Read "The Magic School Bus Explores Outer Space," and discuss the solar system. First learners will complete a KWL chart about a planet they're assigned to. Then, as...

Introduce primary graders to the writing process. After reviewing the steps, they practice using the process by writing a book report. Before writing the draft, they complete a graphic organizer. The completed draft is reviewed by peers....

A fishing hook inspires this presentation about different methods for starting a composition. Have class members take notes or edit current drafts while viewing the slide show. The animation is entertaining, but gets repetitive by the...

Students review and brainstorm the signs of autumn through a PowerPoint presentation/ lesson with embedded video clips. After brainstorming ideas as a group, Students use Kidspiration to develop a graphic organizer and follow the writing...

Students demonstrate, in writing, the proper technique to measure, square, and cut a piece of stock to length using a circular saw.

Sixth graders discover word choices to use when writing a conversation. They explore synonyms for "said." Students examine a thesaurus. They create a writing piece using the writing process. Students edit and revise their work.

What does your fortune say? Engage class members in writing complete sentences by first handing out fortune cookies and reading the messages. Pupils will practice writing complete sentences by composing fortunes to put in die cut fortune...

As part of a study of narrative writing, young story tellers are asked to revise 20 telling sentences and create showing ones.

Follow this outline to write persuasive essays with your 11th grade college prep classes. Using the internet, they research a topic, citing their sources correctly. They work with a partner to peer edit their rough drafts, checking for...

Students practice writing open-ended questions about a specific topic. They use proper grammar and syntax in their questions that are typed into a word processing file. A rubric is included in this lesson plan to help with assessment.

Students create an art project and write a process paper  as a response to literature.  In this literature response lesson, students listen to Lynn Ehlert's, Snowballs before decorating a construction paper snowman. They write...

Students analyze speeches for or against continued military presence in Iraq. In this writing to argue lesson, students listen to speeches given before Parliament to identify rhetorical devices used.  Students compare techniques...

In this Tanka poem worksheet, 6th graders analyze a Tanka poem for number of syllables and content parameters, then write one about a journey, real or imagined using the 6 step writing process.

Students, after brainstorming possible problem solving activities, choose from one of the many and write what the problem is and a solution to solve it.

Explore persuasive writing with your middle schoolers. They each choose a place they would like to visit in the United States and do research to determine its features and attractions. Is it worthy of visiting? Using their persuasive...

A variation of a standard graphic organizer for a five-paragraph essay, young writers may find this style of organization helpful while drafting their writing. Some key features of this particular organizer are sections for transition...

This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...

Get even your most reluctant pupils reading, writing, reciting, and maybe even enjoying poetry! A four day lesson, young writers learn about Golden Shovel poems: a poem format that uses borrowed words from other poems as the last words...

Young writers compose a gripping ending to their historical fiction narratives. Following the previous lesson plan, where learners wrote a bold beginning, class members examine exciting endings from a literary text. They then draft their...

Getting tired of seeing went over and over again in student writing? Banish boring verbs with a list of 250 different substitutes for that mundane word went. Organized in alphabetical order, words such as bustled, inched, and tottered...

Esther Forbes' award-winning Revolutionary War novel, Johnny Tremain and excerpts from Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine are used to model how imagery brings alive the setting of a story. The young writers then craft their...

After completing Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose, class members assume the voice of Gemma and craft a personal letter to her granddaughter telling Becca how she feels about Becca’s actions and the discoveries at Chelmno. Complete directions for...

During the eighth lesson in a historical fiction unit, pupils practice thoughtfully transitioning their ideas sequentially. After the teacher models how to add these transitions using the Wheelwright draft created in a previous lesson,...

Ninth graders demonstrate their understanding of a central idea in Oedipus the King with a mid-unit writing assessment. Writers formulate a claim about the connection between prophecy and Oedipus's actions and craft an in-class essay...