Can animals think? Learners develop their thinking abilities by reading Linden's essay and constructing an evidence-based response. Complete with rubrics and exemplars to evaluate writing, the resource also has suggested pre-, during,...

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,...

Now that your new novelists have finished their first draft, it's time for them to unleash their inner editors! As part of the National Novel Writing Month program, this worksheet is one of the last of a series guiding writers through...

Some words leave a lasting impact. After reading paragraph 11 of the text "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," scholars take a close look at how Du Bois describes the impact prejudice left on the African American community. They discuss the...

How does Shakespeare develop the main ideas in Hamlet? Using the resource, scholars continue analyzing the famous soliloquy from the play. They identify a central idea from the passage and write to explain how it relates to other central...

Reading a scientific article about cross-species synchronization may sound like a yawner. But "Monkey See, Monkey Do" is a fascinating tale that just happens to be about yawning, within and across species. After a close reading, class...

How do scholars prepare to take their next big step? The second in a series of six career and college readiness activities focuses on making a smooth transition from middle to high school. Groups research the resources available at their...

When it comes to comparing and contrasting in an essay, looking at a chart and picking a random transition word may not do the trick. As explained in an informational writing handout, the words writers use to move from one idea to...

Ideas don't naturally flow from one to another. They need transitions to help them connect. Part of a larger Writing the Paper series, the resource introduces writers to the concept of using transitions in their writing. Topics covered...

Can your class explain the changes in energy during a chemical reaction? Map them out with a video from JFR Science's playlist. The narrator discusses in detail how to create, manipulate, and use a potential energy diagram.

Print out this handy reference page double sided and distribute it to your class. Individuals can use the page to aid them as they work on their topic sentences, transitions, conclusions, and paragraph structure. There is plenty of...

If you're looking for a detailed lesson on event sequencing from informational text, you've found it. There is an entire script for you to draw from as you explore order of events and sequence words. Scaffolding is key here; learners...

Explore organization and sentence fluency in this Six-Traits lesson plan. After reading chapter three of Robert McCloskey's Homer Price, young writers work together to construct a paragraph inspired by the donut-making machine that is...

Having a firm grasp on organization can help young authors write with purpose. Using this resource, they list the components of a narrative which include an introduction, body, and strong conclusion. They discuss how to implement these...

Begin the lesson by modeling how to connect two sentences with a transition word. After doing five examples together, have learners work together to correctly edit a list of sentences provided. Finally, learners look back at their past...

Compare and contrast while challenging your class with this higher-level thinking and reading comprehension instructional activity. After observing the teacher model comparing and contrasting bats and birds, learners read passages about...

Signal words are one way that authors make the relationships between their ideas clear. Allow your learners the chance to investigate cause and effect in texts by identifying signal words. They locate and analyze cause-and-effect...

Persuasion, when used effectively, is a powerful and effective tool. In groups, young writers develop a persuasive letter about something that they would like their parents to allow them to do. Then, independently, they use proper...

Create a five-paragraph essay easily with the bing, the bang, and the bongo method! Learners write an introduction with the thesis containing three parts. Your three body paragraphs then expand upon each part of the thesis. An example is...

This St. Patrick's Day, young writers imagine they found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. After a class discussion and brainstorming, scholars compose a narrative essay making sure they incorporate transitions and at least three...

Are you working on an essay in your class? If so, consider this resource, which provides some information about a concluding paragraph. Writers might use one of the provided transition words to begin their concluding paragraphs in the...

What is a paragraph? This question drives the PowerPoint. Viewers discuss important elements of a solid paragraph, transitions between paragraphs, and strategies for editing. Show this presentation and then look at an example paragraph...

Looking for a PowerPoint presentation that models the framework for the traditional five-paragraph essay? Look no further. Here, the brief explanations are clear and concise, and color codes indicate the thesis sentence, the topic...

What's your favorite memory? Work on writing narrative essays with this resource, which helps middle schoolers sequence necessary events about a special day that they remember. The lesson demonstrates an organizational pattern having a...