Help your writers get started with these hooks! Twenty-five opening lines from the "Lives" column in the New York Times Magazine act as prompts for creative writing. Have your learners choose one prompt and write an original essay....

Art in one form can inspire art in another. Use images to inspire writing in your English class. The lesson described here is not detailed; however, the idea is strong. An engaging way to get class members interested in writing, the...

Fourth graders develop their writing skills. In this paragraph structure lesson plan, 4th graders research natural disasters, compile their findings, create mobiles and write stories based on the mobiles.

In this story map worksheet, students write about a story's setting, characters, problem, and solution. The worksheet is organized as a graphic organizer.

In this story map worksheet, students fill out a graphic organizer about a story. Students write about the story's characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme.

Young scholars experience and practice their writing skills during the holiday season. They express themselves in a variety of ways including writing about a favorite part about the holiday break, what's the best gift you've ever gotten...

In this math word problems-writing numbers in words learning exercise, students write the number word for ten numerals listed on the page under one hundred.

Dander from the show Twisted Whiskers and characters from My Little Pony are featured in this three part lesson that explores using story pyramids to scaffold ideas, adding sensory details to enrich writing, and editing using common...

Young historians discover African stories associated with a royal altar tusk from the Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria, read myths illustrated on the tusk, and write a story about the life of an oba using figures depicted on the tusk.

Introduce your class to Inuit prints and use these artworks as inspiration for a printmaking activity. Pupils make stories to go along with the images and then come up with their own heroic moments to illustrate. They take moments from...

Here's a social skills story about getting presents at Christmas. Not only does the story explain what to expect, but also details appropriate behaviors when opening and receiving gifts.

Here's a packet designed especially for those kids who need extra support with the basic concepts in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units on American stories.

Recovery from substance addiction is an ongoing process. The final instructional activity in a series about painkiller abuse and addiction prompts learners to research various recovery options before writing a short story about a...

Compare and contrast reading passages with the ever favorite story of Cinderella. The versions in focus include an Italian version and a Native American story followed by three questions designed to share similarities and...

Focus on plot and the impact-specific events in The Cay. Class members use their double-entry journals, created in a previous lesson in this series, to record their thinking about the guiding question as they read chapters 15 through 17....

The beginning, a very good place to start, is also a very difficult thing to craft. Provide your writers with this handout that identifies, and provides examples of, six different types of narrative leads.

Changes in routines can prove to be difficult for all kids, but especially for autistic learners. Here's a story designed to prepare kids for the change in schedule brought on by spring break.

A lesson allows you to go back in time and see the big bang actually happen. Bazinga! In reality, pupils research the Big Bang Theory and theorize what it would be like to go back in time and see it happen. There are four...

Create your own adventure story ... well, not really. The fifth lesson in a 21-part series has pairs create story contexts for division problems. The lesson presents a step-by-step process for pupils to follow in writing such stories.

Your class can take turns describing a well know location or setting without giving its name, and the rest of the class can try to identify the location, based on the details given.  They chart the elements that helped in the...

Kids who need extra support with the concepts in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic unit on silly stories, will benefit from this packet packed with skill builders, activities, exercises, and practice sets.

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...

With this New York Times "Learning Network" exercise, high schoolers read an article about the death of Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are and then respond to several prompts that require them to shape their own opinions...

"I don't know what to write about!" How often have you heard that lament? Here's a list of 10 prompts that provide a starting place for suspense stories.