Curated OER
Varied Beginnings: Research Process / Narrative Writing Techniques
What's the best way to start a story? Learners write a memoir using effective openings. They research the process and work through a list of hooks to use in their writing. They use at least two hooks to begin their personal memoir. A...
Curated OER
Writing the Essay
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...
Curated OER
What's My Point: Persuasive Writing
Why do readers need to know an author’s purpose? How do you figure out what that purpose is? Guide your pupils through a series of activities that show them how to identify various techniques and structures used in persuasive writing....
Curated OER
Telling Our Stories of Giving - Writing to Persuade
After identifying the parts of a persuasive piece of writing, young writers explore different prewriting activities for the persuasive essay. They have the option to write a news article, personal narrative, or persuasive essay to...
Curated OER
Dragonwings: Evaluate Chapters 10-12
As your class finishes the novel Dragonwings, use these culminating projects. A vocabulary list is given for chapters eleven and twelve and either an epitaph or letter activity concludes the book. The final project consists of creating a...
ReadWriteThink
Biography Project: Research and Class Presentation
I Have A Dream ... that after the lesson, all individuals master the reading, writing, researching, listening, and speaking skills the biography project helps them develop. Martin Luther King, Jr. serves as a topic example for a model...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 3: Great Book, Gross Book
It's time for your scholars to become book reviewers! Start with a fun review of foods: are they good or gross? Learners apply these evaluation techniques to books, recording their thoughts on large pieces of butcher paper. Simply have...
Denver Art Museum
Tea Gathering Quick-Write
Japanese tea gatherings are the inspiration for a great lesson. Learners are provided with an image of a tea caddy made for thick tea and asked to describe what they notice and what that might mean. This leads into a larger lesson about...
Odell Education
Making Evidence-Based Claims: Grade 6
In order to make evidence-based claims, one must be able to draw explicit information from text. From here, learners take that information, analyze the text to develop a deeper understanding, and connect with the information in order to...
Curated OER
Product Persuasion
Students examine various products and analyze the marketing strategies used to entice consumers. They bring in a product they like to use, and using persuasive writing, they write their own advertisements for their products.
Curated OER
Time Capsule Survey
Here's a fun way to incorporate technology into your curriculum. E-mail each of your class members a picture and 10 questions about the photo. Individuals then imagine the story behind the image and e-mail back their responses. Although...
Curated OER
Reporting from the Front Lines
Students examine the battle of Gettysburg as they write news articles. In this Battle of Gettysburg instructional activity, students become familiar with the job of the news reporter as they report on the events of the Battle of...
Curated OER
Short and Sweet Science
Readers learn how to summarize scientific text and evaluate the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges in writing summaries. They select science-related articles you've pulled and collected from the New York Times and, with a partner,...
Curated OER
Our Nation's Natural Disasters
Sixth graders classify their regions' natural disaster(s). Within this instructional activity students enhance their research skills by utilizing different resources, as well as their writing skills by composing short research papers.
Curated OER
Using Descriptive Language
Students examine the use of adjectives in a product review, then write their own descriptive review. In this writing and word usage lesson, students first analyze the choice of adjectives in a New York Times article about the iPhone,...
Curated OER
Speaker Report
Fifth through eighth graders think of themselves as newspaper reporters as they listen to a presentation by a guest speaker. As reporters, they take notes during the presentation. Using these notes, they create a rough draft and then a...
Curated OER
Taking a Closer Look (Critical Viewing)
Students explore persuasive writing in advertisements. For this advertisements lesson, students evaluate tobacco advertisements for persuasion techniques. Students then create a counter advertisement against smoking.
Curated OER
Making School a Better Place.
Students study the problems in their school and work on solutions for those problems. In this writing process lesson, students analyze a problem and work as a team to find a solution. Students present written and oral work to support...
Curated OER
I Don't Pay Attention to Advertisements
Sixth graders examine the eight persuasive techniques, identifying them in all avenues of media including magazine, TV, Internet, and billboards, and making them aware of how advertising already influences them. They write an essay using...
Curated OER
An Introduction to Poetry Using Color
Students complete a variety of poems that focus on many different literary techniques and styles. As part of this experience, students share their portfolios with adults in the school and at home.
Curated OER
Looking Back to 1980
Young scholars use clustering/mind mapping techniques to generate ideas, graphically represent inferences, organize their conclusions and write a report that presents conclusions the writer has reached, and facts substantiating those...
Curated OER
Stewardship Letter
Students write a persuasive letter. In this stewardship lesson, students discover the basic format for a formal letter and some effective persuasive techniques. Students write a letter to bring about change in the way humans interact...
Curated OER
We Need Cash
Learners describe charitable, religious, and civic services in their community, and argue for the value of these services. They write a one-page explanation as to why this service is important to the community and why it deserves $5,000.
Curated OER
Catepillar Book
Students are to write a catepillar story that has correct spelling, grammar and creativity in a first draft and a final draft. After the first draft is completed and written on every other line, the teacher or the class evaluates the...