Before beginning F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, create a historical context of the Roaring 20s with this instructional activity. Set up a gallery walk with the provided PowerPoint, which features 10 topics related to the...

A lot of writers don't like creating an outline before writing the first draft of their paper. Introduce them to what an effective and organized outline looks like with this presentation. Designed for higher education, you could easily...

Robots and their interactions with their human counterparts are the catalyst for a fun writing lesson. First, the class brainstorms what they'd like to have their personal robot do or be capable of. Then, they each write a humorous story...

How many tallies do you see? Learners examine eighteen sets of tally marks with values from 1-18, writing the number value beside them. Depending on how you want to use this, you may want to cut these out and have learners rearrange them...

As young scholars begin connecting numbers with values, help them grasp this concept with sets of objects like these. They examine five sets (up to 15 in number) and match each to a corresponding digit. Then, they draw a set of their own...

Here's a fresh take on the student writing portfolio. Consider having learners create an electronic portfolio. After examining sample e-portfolios, class members explore various software programs they will use throughout the course and...

Every writer knows how terrible writer's block can feel. Use these five writer's block-busting techniques to help young writers get out of their rut and into a better state of mind.

Examine the key strategies to proofreading a piece of writing for errors in sentence structure, usage, mechanics and spelling. Eighth graders practice putting into correct passage commonly confused words (too, two, to) when writing to a...

Everyone is a writer! Youngsters compose an original piece of writing. For this writing lesson, they come up with their own idea for a piece of writing, revise it, and then publish it with illustrations. This lesson includes three...

Young scholars write a descriptive letter about life in ancient Mesopotamia. Through video streaming, students discover the history of Mesopotamia. They assume the role of a scribe and compose a three paragraph essay using main ideas and...

Spice up your writing! Your amateur writers will benefit from concentrating on understanding and improving verb use in writing. An introductory activity addresses weak verbs. A second exercise helps them see the importance of strong...

It will cost you little to ask class members to engage in a free writing exercise that helps even reluctant writers craft a poem.

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. 

Third graders complete a variety of reading and writing activities related to the book "Flat Stanley." They create an illustration and write a short summary for each chapter, and write a letter and send a "Flat Stanley" to a friend or...

Have your class explore the art of storytelling through this activity on fairy tales and folktales. Learners interact with a variety of fairy tales and folktales. They practice telling stories out loud as well as writing their own. This...

Meant for use with Maya Angelou's first autobiographical volume I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the materials here are designed for a homeschool setting, but they'd suit any classroom or text. Graphic organizers, chapter summary...

For beginners to addition, sets of objects are the ideal way to make this concept understandable. For each of these sets they ring 10 and count the remaining. Then, scholars fill in the addends as 10 and the remaining number. The sums...

What is the difference between summary writing and literary analysis? A 16-slide presentation offers some basic requirements for both types of writing and helps readers identify each based on keywords used in both types of writing....

Intended to supplement your existing cell function and organelle lessons, pairs work together to develop a real-world analogy for cell structures. In addition to writing paragraphs about the comparison, each group will make a short...

Are you working on an Outsiders unit? Use this list of activities to deepen your middle schoolers' understanding of the novel. After reading S.E. Hinton's novel, young readers work on three required activities, including participating in...

Introduce young writers to the process of writing a book. Start by reading a book of your choice and discussing the essential elements of any book such as the cover, story, and illustrations as well as who is responsible for each...

A biography writing lesson plan with a tasty twist! Kids create a "visual biography" in which each pizza slice represents a paragraph, and toppings represent supporting details. They learn research techniques, note-taking skills, and how...

Blogs provide the motivation for this richly detailed writing lesson. After viewing blogs on various websites, class members pick topics, create a blog, and post an entry. Your bloggers then evaluate their work using evaluation sheets....

Enhance your class' writing skills using this resource. It begins with a list of three words that learners have to define in a creative way. Then, they discuss a set of examples of non descriptive writing and make suggestions for how to...