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Composition Teacher Resources
Find teacher approved Composition educational resource ideas and activities
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After reading on the topic of their paper, high schoolers work in pairs to assess how to write powerful, precise thesis statements. The introduction contains three statements: a universal statement, a bridge statement, and a thesis statement. The lesson is designed for research projects, but it could translate well to any essay that involves stating a claim or argument.
Your class participates in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book Julian Secret Agent. They complete a class story chart, examine how to use punctuation for dialogue, write an alternative ending/resolution, and write sentences using dialogue.
After watching part of a Club Write Kids video and discussing the editing process, each group of learners writes a letter to a favorite author. They ask for a copy of a page of manuscript that has gone through the editing process. Prior to sending these letters, they revise and edit them using the processes they learned in class.
Technologically savvy kids demonstrate how to use a word processing program to write a letter. Bring your class to the computer lab and have your kids use a word processing program to indent, change a font size, spell check, and print friendly letters.
Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members brainstorm a list of friendship traits, and then they use graphic organizers and journals to write about one of their good friends.
Your middle and high schoolers have written tons of summaries, but can they give a strong critique of an article they've read? Identify the differences between summary writing and critiquing. Choose an interesting article and have learners first write a summary on the information. Then, encourage them to write a critique. How do they differ?
Here is a great way to explore narrative writing! Learners review a previously constructed story map and identify the characters, setting, and main events in the book Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock retold by Eric A. Kimmel. They complete a summative assessment which includes writing a narrative story that teaches a lesson plan.
Beyond Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, tall tales can be a great way to teach young writers about word choice and voice in their writing. Using Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee and the Six-Trait Writing process, they begin to write their own modern-day tall tales placing emphasis on exaggeration, metaphors, and similes. The lesson plan includes all necessary worksheets and resource links.
Presented here is a week-long schedule for creating a chronological text. Start by using strips of card in a reorder activity. If the sentences are jumbled, can your learners still identify the correct order? Other activities throughout the week encourage writing reports.
A talkative old man? A naïve believer in Human Perfectibility? A Sage? Who is this guy, anyway? The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin launches a study of the way Franklin uses structure, style, and purpose, as well as different personas, to build our perception of him. Not only is this a good literary analysis and writing lesson, it also lends well to a cross-curricular activity with an American history class. Expand the lesson to individual autobiographical writing.