Curated OER
Listen To Me!
Young learners need practice speaking comfortably in front of others. Post a list of oral speaking tips on the board during this unit. Over a week-long period, they create a story from their interview sheet and present it to the class....
Media Smarts
Media Awareness Network: Hate or Debate?
Discuss the difference between legitimate debate on a political issue and arguments that are based on hate through a science-fiction scenario that shows how a controversial issue can be discussed in both ways. Then learn how purveyors of...
Media Smarts
Cinema Cops
A study of how public perception is both reflected and influenced by film and television, this instructional activity helps students develop an awareness of audience as well as a critical view of media. Depictions of police in television...
Media Smarts
The Newspaper Front Page
Hot off the presses! A perfect instructional activity idea for a journalism class or even a language arts class looking to incorporate some informational texts. Young writers analyze the front pages of various newspapers to determine the...
Curated OER
Thumbs Up For Movie Reviews
If your class loves movies, this instructional activity is sure to interest them. After discussing the purpose and structure of movie reviews, young writers compose a movie review and discuss why people may read a review before they go...
Curated OER
Running Out of Time: Letter to a Character
Once your learners have a firm handle on the characters in Running Out of Time, invite them to write letters to chosen characters about the events of the novel. Pupils then share with others who wrote to the same character.
Curated OER
Radio News
Part of a larger unit from the Media Awareness Network on media literacy, this particular lesson plan focuses on the medium of news radio. Small groups participate in discussions on their radio listening habits as well as the...
Curated OER
Report Writing
The guidelines for writing a report are concisely summarized in a presentation that details the phases (exploratory, implementation, improvement), the revision process, and the formatting for this kind of technical writing.
Curated OER
Friendly Letter Writing and Sentence Structure
Explore communication through writing by analyzing individual sentences with young writers. They practice writing compound sentences and identifying sentence fragments. The next step has them learn the five parts of a friendly letter....
Curated OER
Organizing A Persuasive Speech
Have the class listen to a lecture on persuasive speeches. They practice outlining and detailing the components of a persuasive speech. The lecture outline also includes suggestions for researching a topic or thesis, organizing the...
San José State University
Effective Argumentation: Premises and Conclusions
Augment argumentative skills with this handout and brief exercise. This resource outlines premises, conclusions, and joining words, and explains how these make up the foundation of logical arguments. After reading through this...
Curated OER
To Whom It May Concern! Writing for a Variety of Audiences
Elementary learners write friendly letters with the same subject to two contrasting readers or audiences. They choose words and phrases that will be the most effective for the audience they are trying to reach. They read both letters and...
Curated OER
Indianapolis 500 Unit -- Writing
Fourth graders write a narrative from a race car driver's point of view. In this narratives instructional activity students use the narrative writing format to write about a race car driver's experiences in the Indianapolis 500. The...
Curated OER
Planning Chart
For this planning chart worksheet, students write down the topic on the line provided, circle or write their purpose for writing in the first column and answer the four questions in the second column.
Curated OER
Athletics Datafile
In this computer worksheet, students load and open a copy of ViewPoint and Olympics. They explore the data by identifying how many men and women are contained in the file and which country has the most files. Then they plot a bar graph...
Curated OER
Written Document Analysis Worksheet
In this writing and reference worksheet, students identify and name the physical qualities of a document of their choice. Then they identify three major things the author stated that are important and why they believe the document was...
Curated OER
Voice, Audience, Purpose Worksheet
In this essay writing activity, students complete six short answer questions related to the audience, purpose, voice, theme, and the thesis of their essay.
Curated OER
Fish food Comercials
Fifth graders, working in pairs, create 30-second commercials for fish food products. They create slogans and incorporate props, music, costumes, or illustrations in their spots. The commercials are videotaped and parents are invited...
Curated OER
Poster Points!
Students interpret non-literary texts, investigate how language works, and how information is conveyed in a range of texts. In this poster critiquing lesson, students identify stylistic features and main points of a variety of posters...
Curated OER
Powerful Images
Middle schoolers discuss and define the idea of a powerful image. In groups, they use the Internet and magazines to search for images they deem as powerful. They develop a hypothesis to why some people believe an image is powerful while...
Curated OER
Audience-Smash Hits case study
Students become familiar with the term audience after examining a story about the magazine Smash Hits and its decision to quit publication. After students study the magazine and methods currently used to receive music news, they design...