Do your young writers need a little help varying their sentence structure? Have them work on common errors, sentence fluency, and writing patterns with a series of language arts activities. The resource includes reading passages as well...

Students write a scene.  In this creative writing lesson, students read The Lightning Thief and discuss the sentence fluency and word choice in the writing.  Students complete a writing assignment where they create an...

What is on your pupils' "Bucket Lists" - the list of things they want to do before they die? Their choices of activities for this list could be very revealing, and is a great source of inspiration for a personal poem. The lesson plan...

Combine participial phrases and creative writing with this lesson, which is equally helpful for writing skills and conventions. After a mini-lesson on participial phrases and reading the picture book Dancing in the Wings, pupils use a...

If your rockin' writers use Six-Trait Writing, you'll definitely want to include these displays around your classroom throughout the year. Each trait (e.g. voice, word choice, organization, ideas, sentence fluency, conventions) is...

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,...

It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text...

Targeted toward parents, the slides included here could be adapted for classroom use or shown at Back-to-School Night. The focus of the presentation is Six Trait Writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and...

Incorporate sensory details into a piece of descriptive writing. First, elementary and middle schoolers improve a piece of writing by using precise, vivid language, as well as appropriate word choice. They then listen to a variety of...

A great way to bring poetry and parody into your language arts classroom, this lesson mimics famous poems based on Jon Scieszka's Science Verse. The activity not only allows the class to see examples of poem parodies, but to create their...

Put together an English language arts unit on the six traits of writing with this helpful collection of resources. From fun songs to differentiated writing exercises reinforcing each of the traits, great ideas are provided for...

Students practice repeated readings to improve their fluency. They read sentences to practice fluency and expression. They work in pairs using racetrack and racecar graphics to motivate their fluency improvement. They time one...

Young readers can be exposed to the literary works of Mark Twain as they interact with challenging text and gain experience by reading the complex passages of chapter two "The Glorious Whitewasher" from his famous book, The Adventures of...

In this fluency and variety worksheet, students pick a conjunction to fill in the blanks to sentences. Students fill in 17 conjunctions to blanks in sentences.

A brief passage about the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo is accompanied by an array of language activities for ELD: cloze exercise, phrase matching, word jumble, multiple choice, sequencing, interview, group presentation, fluency writing,...

A brief passage about International Dance Day, April 29, is accompanied by an array of language activities based in sound ELD practice: cloze exercise, phrase matching, word jumble, multiple choice, sequencing, interview, group...

Intended for an audience of teachers, this presentation lays out the six traits of writing, the writing process, and the teaching process for traits and strategies. If you are trying to understand the writing process more fully, you...

Explore language arts by completing a worksheet with class. They read the story Owl Moon and discuss the rhythm of the writing and how action verbs are used appropriately. Then complete a writing worksheet which discusses writing...

An overview of the history and tradition of Ash Wednesday in 2 paragraphs is accompanied by an array of language activities: cloze exercise, phrase matching, word jumble, multiple choice, sequencing, interview, group presentation,...

Students read and take notes from Notes from the Trail. In this reading fluency lesson, students read back and share their notes finding 7-10 new words. Students define, write an unrelated sentence and present.

Individually, words have power, but when added together, they can take on a whole other level of meaning. Readers learn about compound words in the 10th of 17 lessons of the Word Recognition and Fluency series. A script provides guidance...

Vary, bury, pull, fit. These tips for improving transitions in writing are found on a template designed as a teacher resource. A clever way to make memorable these suggestions for improving transitions in writing, the language in the...

Students analyze parts of speech, sentence structure, and ver usage in this ten lesson unit on grammar. Through games, activities, assignments, and printed material, the concepts are supported and reinforced in a creative way.

Students increase their skills in word attack, fluency, and spelling of words and research and find information on topics from the Internet. They then use the Quick Cam with the computer and will increase cooperative skills in small...