Curated OER
Reaction Essay
Go through the process of writing with your class. Focus on in-class essays and how to form an outline with clear body paragraphs. A sample topic is given with the outline modeled in detail.
Curated OER
Effective Writing is More Than a Five Paragraph Essay
Groups become experts in one aspect of the six traits of writing, prepare a PowerPoint presentation, jigsaw, and teach others about their trait. Writers then focus on these traits as they compose a persuasive essay about a person they...
Curated OER
Visible Speech: A Short Course in the Fundamentals of Writing/Lesson 3
Focusing on writing an introduction, this presentation provides a variety of techniques for how to begin. Although the question marks on slide six obscure the writing, the other slides are clear and legible and display good examples for...
Scholastic
Choose Your Words Wisely (Grades 9-12)
Words, words, words. The function of words in persuasive writing is the focus of a group activity that asks members to analyze how words advertisers use are designed to influence targeted audiences.
K12 Reader
The Scientific Method
Introduce the scientific method with a reading comprehension activity. Have kids read a few paragraphs that describe the process of making a hypothesis, gathering evidence, and taking notes that will support the experiment.
Curated OER
Writing - Combining Ideas to Write Descriptive Paragraphs
Students develop a strategy for combining various ideas into well formed sentences which then combine to produce effective descriptive paragraphs.
Curated OER
Paragraph Writing
Third graders receive Gummi hamburgers. They discuss parts and structure of a (real) hamburger. Students dissect the gummi hamburger and rearrange the pieces. Students discuss the problems that would be caused by this with a real...
Anchorage School District
Hints for Writing a Conclusion
Writing the conclusion of an essay can often seem like a superfluous or daunting task. Support your young writers in understanding the various types and purposes of a conclusion paragraph, such as summarizing key points of a paper or...
Curated OER
Verb Review 1 (Past Progressive/Past Tense)
Here is a week's worth of bell-ringers for your class! Each of the five short paragraphs focuses on using the correct past progressive or past tense verb to complete the blanks. Each paragraph has around 10 verbs to conjugate.
Terminix
Amazing Insect Facts
Insects are like little aliens living all around us. Explore fun and interesting insect facts by having the class read a short informational paragraph. The paragraph focuses on how we are similar and different to insects and includes...
Curated OER
Thesis Statements
Develop an understanding of main ideas and thesis statements with your class by using this step-by-step presentation. The concepts presented will guide learners through essay focus, main idea, central points, coherency, and proper...
EngageNY
Getting the Gist: Steve Jobs Commencement Address (Focus on Paragraphs 6-8, and connecting to Chapter 6)
As part of a unit study of Bud, Not Buddy, readers compare Buddy's list of rules to live by with those that Steve Jobs enumerates in his commencement address to Stanford's 2005 graduating class.
Curated OER
Future Tense: Regular and Irregular Verbs #2
Ding! The bell just rang. Give your intermediate Spanish language learners this bell-ringer activity to get them started. This short paragraph focuses on conjugating both regular and irregular verbs in the future tense.
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 6: American Revolution
The American Revolution is the theme of a five-week unit that focuses on reading, grammar, morphology, and writing. Scholars read and respond to texts, practice spelling and word work, and write paragraphs. Assessments gauge comprehension.
National Endowment for the Humanities
American Literary Humor: Mark Twain, George Harris, and Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne as a humorist? Really? The three lessons in this series focus on the the storytelling style, conventions, and literary techniques employed by Hawthorne, George Washington Harris, and Mark Twain.
Curated OER
Twisted Textbook
In this paragraph structure instructional activity, learners read an excerpt about Europe and identify the sentences that focus on human characteristics as well as physical characteristics. Students rewrite the selection as two...
Curriculum Corner
Informational Text Graphic Organizers
Examine informational text with a three-page learning exercise that focuses on taking notes, identifying the main idea, and locating supporting details in order to form a summary paragraph.
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: Comparing and Contrasting Characters in Heidi
Scholars read excerpts from the story, Heidi, in a three-part assessment that focuses on comparing and contrasting characters. Each part contains three tasks that challenge learners to discuss, answer comprehension questions,...
K12 Reader
Converting Energy to Motion
Combine science and reading skills with a reading comprehension exercise. Kids read four paragraphs about energy conversion and answer some reading comprehension questions about the information they have read.
Curated OER
Hamburger Paragraphs
Fourth graders discuss who likes hamburgers. Students listen as the teacher compares the hamburger to a paragraph, and the hamburger patty to the topic sentence. The class works together to write a paragraph. The teacher provides gummy...
Film English
Theo’s Story
Encourage your class to consider a beautiful short film about a boy named Theo who happens to be visually impaired. Over the course of the lesson, pupils work in pairs, discuss their ideas and the film as a class, view the film, take...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 2: Early American Civilizations
Fifth graders explore early American civilizations in a four-week ELA unit. Every lesson offers an opportunity to read and discuss a selected passage followed by word work that covers vocabulary, grammar, and morphology. Learners write...
Channel Islands Film
Sa Hi Pa Ca (Once Upon a Time): Lesson Plan 2
What tools do archaeologists and anthropologist use to learned about what life was like in the past. After watching West of The West's documentary Once Upon a Time that details how scientists use artifacts to establish a history of the...
K12 Reader
Galileo and His Telescope
Learn about Galileo Galilei's contribution to modern science with a reading passage that focuses on reading comprehension. After kids read several paragraphs about his life, they answer five questions about the information they have just...