Curated OER
Take the Mystery Out of Building Suspense in a Narrative
Good thing, bad thing; a fun technique for building suspense in a narrative.
Curated OER
Revisiting Writing through Revision
Strategies to teach and motivate your students to revise their writing.
Schoolwires
12th Grade Expository Reading and Writing Research Project
The beauty in this resource is the lengthy list of highly charged, controversial-issue research topics. Categories include issues of race, politics, law, environment, education, athletics, gender, and technology. After selecting a topic,...
Teachers.net
How to Write a Movie Review from a Pet's Perspective
When would two paws up denote a blockbuster film in your classroom? Only when young writers create movie reviews from a pet's perspective in this imaginative expository writing practice. This engaging topic begins with a class discussion...
Curated OER
Writing a Short Story with
In a previous instructional activity not included here, class members read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and then wrote a persuasive letter inviting someone to an island. Young sleuths use these letters as basis for a...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Suspense Writing Prompts
"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.
Pinecrest Preparatory Middle and High School
Short Story Planning Guide
A short story is only as strong as its characters, development, and conflicts. Encourage the young authors in your class to plan their stories based on the elements of narrative writing, all provided in brainstorming graphic organizers.
Curated OER
Round Robin Suspense
Students, in groups, write suspense stories. At the end of a timed period, they pass the story to the next student to continue it. At the last writing session, the papers are returned to the originators and they share the stories with...
Curated OER
Spooky Analysis
Focus on building suspense as well as evaluating web sites through creative writing. After introducing the idea of suspense and holding a discussion, class members complete a WebQuest, during which they find inspiration for their own...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing
Fifth graders study narrative writing. In this language arts lesson plan, 5th graders review how an author uses vivid verbs, imagery, and adjectives to capture reader's attention. Students explore literary devices of foreshadowing,...
Curated OER
How to Write a Mystery
Was it the teacher with the ruler in the supply closet? Find out when you read mystery stories inspired by this presentation. Show the slide show to your pupils to give them ideas that will help them get started with writing their own...
Curated OER
Scary Short Story Writing Lesson
There's nothing like the prospect of writing a scary story to get your middle schoolers' writing juices flowing! In the lesson presented here, pupils listen to scary short stories read to them by the teacher. Then, a discussion ensues...
Curated OER
Editing and Publishing: Horror and Suspense
This sequence of slides leads pupils through an editing process designed for horror or suspenseful stories. The prompts tell your class to look at their writing style; including hints such as varying sentence length, using premier...
Curated OER
"The Lottery"
Designed to open a unit on the suspense/horror genre, this plan hooks readers with an activity that mirrors the action of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" (without the grisly ending). Use either the twenty-minute 1969 film or...
Curated OER
Perfecting My Pal's Poe Paragraph
After analyzing the compelling first paragraph of Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death," high schoolers draft original opening paragraphs using techniques identified Poe's writing. The relationship between suspense...
DocsTeach
Lincoln's Suspension of Habeas Corpus During the Civil War
What is the balance between constitutional rights and security during a war? Young historians debate the question while looking at Lincoln's decision to suspect habeas corpus during the Civil War. After reviewing his order, discussion...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Three Skeleton Key
Encourage your learners to interact with the text as they read. While reading "Three Skeleton Key," class members note predictions, define words and study their meanings, take notes on how the suspense builds, and jot down ideas about...
University of North Carolina
Plagiarism
As many unfortunate journalists have learned, taking someone else's ideas and passing them off as your own is never a good idea. It's called plagiarism—and it's a big deal. Thankfully, a handout helps writers learn how to avoid...
Curated OER
Write, Right
This resource provides the beginning ideas for a lesson on writing a narrative. Learners watch a video, identify story elements, including plot and setting, and then write their own stories. If augmented, this lesson could provide a...
Curated OER
Write into Fantasy, Humor and Suspense
Students discuss the characteristics of several different writing genres. They are given a prompt to and work in groups to continue writing in the style of a humorous, fantasy or suspense story. They share their stories with the class.
Georgia Department of Education
Creating Suspense
Fifth graders practice creating suspense in writing. In this narrative lesson, 5th graders read stories that create suspense through the use of cliff- hangers. They use cliff-hangers in their own writing.
Curated OER
Story Writing
Students examine story writing. In this writing instructional activity, students discuss the structure of a story and create a story using suspense and character description with dialogue.
Curated OER
Creepy Read Week
Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...
Curated OER
I'm All Mixed Up
Middle school scientists compare and contrast heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures. They differentiate solutions, colloids, and suspensions by examining samples of each. Note that the bulk of the lesson plan directs you how to...
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