Curated OER
A Persuasive Writing Project That Aligns to Common Core Standards
Create a writing project that focuses on the Common Core ELA Standard for writing an argumentative essay.
Curated OER
Shakespeare and Poe Teach Six-Trait Writing
A Six-Trait Writing instructional activity helps your middle schoolers liven up their word choice and shows them how to evaluate their own writing. Class members take a close look at the language used in poems by Shakespeare, Kipling,...
EngageNY
Evaluating an Argument in The Big Thirst
Don't argue with me! Scholars first evaluate the argument in The Big Thirst. Learners work with partners to determine if the text supplies enough evidence to support the claim. They then complete a Tracing an Argument Note catcher for...
ReadWriteThink
Scaffolding Methods for Research Paper Writing
Rome wasn't built in a day, but researchers can be with proper scaffolding. This writing unit has scholars write a research paper through scaffolding of various parts of the process. Learners begin with identifying a topic and crafting a...
Curated OER
Reading and Writing Skills Activities
A straightforward and thorough packet of reading exercises would be a solid addition to any reading unit. With worksheets that address various writing and reading skills, including word roots, narrative writing, evaluating text, and...
Fluence Learning
Writing Informative Text: Did Shakespeare Write Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare penned some of the richest and most fascinating works of literature—or did he? Middle schoolers read three brief informative passages and conduct additional research to evaluate the claim that Shakespeare did not...
Curated OER
Writing the Essay
Relate the structure of the essay to the structure of a building. The class compares an essay to a building, with the writer being the architect, the introduction being the foundation, and so on. They use the visual representation of a...
Curated OER
Persuasive Writing-"Those Whales"
Use an article about an Orca killing a trainer to help writers complete a persuasive essay. The article, other templates, and models are attached. Scholars divide up into groups of three where each person takes a different role,...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Common Core Writing Strand: The Research Paper Template for Standards 7-8
Considering a research paper for freshman and sophomores? Here's a template designed to meet the W.9-10.7 and 8 Common Core writing standards. Writers outline their research question, claims, counterarguments, support, commentary, and...
Curated OER
Evaluative Writing
Students explore current event issues. In this evaluative writing instructional activity, students collaborate to write summaries of articles they have read. Students focus on writing pieces that avoid pejorative language.
McGraw Hill
Writing Prompts, Student Rubrics, and Sample Responses
Whether you are teaching mainstream, advanced, or intervention language arts classes, you will find something helpful in a thorough writing packet. It includes prompts, rubrics, responses, helpful hints, graphic organizers, and many...
EngageNY
Scaffolding for Essay: Planning Body Paragraphs for Position Paper
Let's make a plan. Scholars work on the plan for their papers using a Position Paper Planner. They talk with a partner about counterclaims and think about counterclaims to include in their papers. As learners begin to write, they work...
Curated OER
Final Papers: Writing Prompts for Evaluating Team and Individual Performance
To be used in connection with a group project or at the end of a unit, this handout contains two essay writing prompts. The first prompt asks a group of learners to work together to evaluate their groups' performance as well as each...
Curated OER
How To Use the Six Traits of Writing
Use these reference tools to plan and organize the Six Traits of Writing Program.
Curated OER
Revisiting Writing through Revision
Strategies to teach and motivate your students to revise their writing.
Curated OER
But I'm Not a Writing Teacher!
How teaching writing skills in the science classroom will benefit your students as they transition to Common Core.
University of North Carolina
Evaluating Print Sources
Not all sources are created equal, so how do you evaluate them? Writers learn how to evaluate print sources based on elements such as audience, tone, and argument in the sixth handout of 24 in the Writing the Paper series from the...
Louisiana Department of Education
How to Write a Memoir
Who are we and what shapes our identities? Seventh graders work to answer this question as they learn how to write a memoir. Full of non-print resources and supplemental texts that range from fiction to non-fiction, scholars write their...
Curated OER
Evaluating Expressions
In this evaluating expressions worksheet, students solve and complete 50 various types of review problems. First, they complete each sentence and define the listed terms. Then, students evaluate each expression for the given values. They...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Workshop (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Bring this lesson into your unit about creative writing and precise language. First, middle schoolers create a piece of writing with the help of their classmates. In the second part of this workshop, they edit their own piece of writing....
Curated OER
Write Right!
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...
Curated OER
The "Write" Stuff: Strategies and Conventions for Imaginative Writing
Fifth graders develop and practice the steps involved in imaginative writing. They follow the steps/worksheets included and write imaginative stories of their own.
Curated OER
Convey Ideas in Writing
Use the platforms of the 2004 presidential candidates to bring persuasive writing to your class. Young voters identify the three issues most important to them in the election and research the issues and candidates' positions. They write...
The New York Times
I Don’t Think So: Writing Effective Counterarguments
When it comes to writing effective arguments, writers must do more than simply make a claim, counterarguments must be considered. Aspiring writers analyze counterarguments in editorials, and then learn how to write counterarguments in...