Writing Lesson Plans

Embark on a journey of writing several different types of poetry. Fifth graders read several examples, and use the examples to model their own writing. Each poem is to be accompanied by a different art visual representation. In the end, each young poet produces his or her own poetry books for evaluation.

Examine writing using a fun, interactive, format. Young writers will choose a story they have written, to practice looking for capitals and periods they have left out of their writing. They work independently using green stickers to add capitals and red stickers to add periods. The teacher will need 1/2 inch sticky round labels in green and red for this instructional activity.

Kindergartners will write and illustrate a book about insects. First they will discuss their favorite insect. Then sing songs about them as well as read a book titled Benny the Beetle. In the end, they will write and illustrate a book about their favorite insect.

Middle schoolers examine the effect of cuneiform writing on the ancient Mesopotamian civilization. They will also explore various websites, create a timeline, complete an online treasure hunt, and place artifacts in chronological order. In the end, they will have a basic understanding of the development of writing systems. Links to all resources are included. This lesson could easily be incorporated into a unit.

Discuss the importance of a lead in writing with your upper graders. They examine several examples of leads from literature and practice writing leads for pieces of artwork. They then select a topic from a list and write an introdutory paragraph using a lead.

Study the three writing systems of Japanese: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Your middle schoolers will practice writing Kanji and write a mini story in English which uses at least 10 of the Kanji in the place of the English words. Essential questions are given in order to expose students to writing used around the world. Note: Handouts are included.

Elementary learners will participate in a coin-centered writing activity where they will learn the difference between summarization and critical response. They will demonstrate competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process after gathering information for research purposes. Resource links are included in this interactive lesson.

Explore colors in the world around with youngsters and focus on high-frequency sight words. They will read books about color and discuss color in their lives. The class will participate in interactive writing as they compose a large class book with a page for each primary and secondary color. The repeated pattern of "___ is for ___" reinforces sight vocabulary words.

Have your elementary students listen to poems for rhythm and rhyming and then work together to write one line of a poem. They will complete a practice worksheet for rhythm and rhyming before writing their original poem. This is a great "into" activity.

Write and work with authors on the Scholastic Website to promote the recognition of various genres.  Young writers will participate in activities based on the type of writing such as biography, descriptive, folktales, mystery, news, and speech writing. Links to resources are provided and many extensions ideas are offered.