Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...

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,...

Work on narrative writing with this lesson plan, in which middle schoolers analyze the characters from a selected piece of literature and write narrative diary pieces as the character. They work to understand the point of view of the...

A comprehensive and immersive series of lessons that examines various aspects of story development leads learners into writing a narrative of their own. Writers develop an understanding of the writing process as they use the learning...

You can be a success! Scholars learn skills required for successful writing with a step-by-step process. They begin with the basics of parts of speech, such as indefinite pronouns, and writing a simple sentence. Individuals then build...

Looking for guides to help make teaching writing easier? Then this book is worth reading! Writing That Works is a complete guide for teaching technical writing. The guide begins with the what and why of technical writing and ends with...

In high school and college, most writing assignments go beyond simple questions such as "What is your favorite moment from childhood?" To help writers understand complex writing assignments, a short video from a larger series offers a...

Comparing and contrasting goes beyond beyond obvious differences—it includes critical thinking skills, too! Through a short video, writers learn how to organize ideas within a compare/contrast paper. The video highlights different styles...

Is a college education necessary for success in today's world? The class investigates the question, along with others at the end of the sixth workshop in a 15-part series. The lesson has four parts with multiple activities and...

An engaging and quick presentation on writing topic sentences is sure to grab the attention of your elementary writers. The PowerPoint can be modified and includes relevant visual examples.

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...

Budding authors research a US President and persuade the National Park Service to add him to Mt. Rushmore. In addition to the persuasive essay, individuals are required to develop a visual presentation using a web-based software that...

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...

Are you the oldest in your family? The youngest? The middlest? How do you feel about your place in your family? After reading such stories as My Rotten, Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by...

After writing a personal narrative, learners edit their work and that of their classmates. Using the imbedded link, pupils edit their paper. They form small groups and check each other's papers for spelling, grammar usage, sentence...

Middle schoolers use writing techniques worksheets to help them identify the components of the introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs of an essay. After this guided practice, they craft their own concluding paragraphs and exchange...

Elementary and middle schoolers research animal facts and use them in a fable. First, they pair-share to find animal traits to use in writing a fable. They then complete a prewriting worksheet. After going through the writing process,...

Elementary schoolers use the writing process steps to write a descriptive paragraph about a fictional dinosaur. Using a tech tool lesson, they create a graphic title for the paragraph. A nice blending of technology with "old-fashioned"...

Use a quick bell-ringer to interest your class in the art of persuasion. They brainstorm where they find examples of persuasion in their lives and identify who is trying to persuade them. Then they either fish through magazines or look...

Are you working on an autobiographical or narrative writing unit? Bring this instructional activity to your class, as it takes young writers through the process of drafting and sequencing an autobiography. After observing and...

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...

Review story elements with your class. They will use examples from a story to develop critical-thinking questions. Then they use a graphic organizer to describe the setting, character, and plot of the story, focusing on how they...

Bring writing to life with this lesson in which elementary and middle schoolers create a display of the imagery they identify in a series of Gary Paulsen books. They read the suggested materials, identify imagery and descriptive...