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Activity
EMC

The Inn of Lost Time Reader's Resource

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Introduce "The Inn of Lost Time" by Lensey Namioka to your middle schoolers with a reader's resource page. It includes links to different activities, including a creative writing prompt about losing fifty years of your life, and a...
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Interactive
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Curated OER

Student Opinion: When Did You Have a Great Conversation?

For Students 7th - 12th
Conduct a classroom conversation about communication using this resource as a jumping-off point. For this The Learning Network activity, learners read an excerpt from The New York Times opinion piece, "The Flight From Conversation," and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Descriptive Prompt: Precise Language

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
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...
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PPT
Curated OER

Shorter Writing Task - Year 5

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Young writers are given a prompt to construct a story around: "Imagine you are spending a night under the stars." The following slides invite learners to use all of their senses to help them create an engaging and interesting story about...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: I Am the Wall

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The Maya created amazing stone carvings and sculptures, but what were they for? Kids analyze the significance and purpose of a Maya stela and then write a creative piece. They imagine they are the stela, and write a story about what life...
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Interactive
Curated OER

Student Opinion: Who Inspires You?

For Students 7th - 12th
Inspire your class to write about role models and personal heroes with this resource from The Learning Network. Class members read a New York Times article excerpt about basketball star Jeremy Lin and how he inspired the author. After...
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Assessment
Pearson

Practice Test English Language Arts: Grade 8

For Students 8th Standards
As teachers, it is our job to encourage learners to stand up for what they believe in and help them learn lessons from life's events. A set of practice questions designed for the ELA MCAS assessment features passages that teach positive...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Details, Details, Details

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Writing can become one-dimensional if authors don't involve all their senses. First, scholars observe a strange object which, ideally, they can touch and even smell. Without using certain words (you can create a list or have the class...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Imagine what it was like to be a slave in the United States in 1845. Eighth graders are given an opportunity to experience life from the point of view of Frederick Douglass as they read and discuss an annotated passage from Narrative of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tasty Topics

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students analyze a graphic from an article and predict what the article might be about. After reading an article, they discover a journalist's experience of traveling across the United States to compare fast food restaurants. They...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Activity 3: Composing Personal Narratives

For Teachers 6th - 12th
What was your most (exciting, maddening, nervous, thrilling, etc.) experience in school? A part of a unit on narrative writing, in this lesson class members review the elements of the form and then choose an event when they learned a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan 8: Setting and Mood

For Teachers 6th - 9th
What mood does this story evoke? How are setting and mood linked? Young novelists explore the different emotions brought about by writing, starting by journaling things that inspire their own feelings. Examine the word mood, looking into...
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Handout
Montgomery County Public Schools

Summer Journal Ideas

For Students 2nd - 12th
Twenty prompts, fifteen starters, and ten situations. What more could you ask for from a list of journal ideas?
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sequencing

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Are you looking for a way to teach sequence of events in your narrative writing unit? Bring this lesson to your middle school class, as it prompts young writers to create a narrative sequence map of events that have happened at school...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bucket List Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 10th
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 prompts...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Show Not Tell

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers learn to show, not tell, in their narrative writing. A slide show takes them through the process of choosing strong, descriptive words, and then provides writing prompts for them to use as practice. The first two pages...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Unforgettable...

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Middle and high schoolers remember their most memorable experiences, and then connect their own narrative with an exposition about the topic associated with their experience. This New York Times lesson plan would be a great addition to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Truth Be Told

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Encourage your middle and high schoolers to share their memories of a recent event. After reading a New York Times article, they discuss Elie Wiesel's memoir, Night. They write their own memoir about a significant event that affected...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Minutes to Go and Down by Two

For Students 3rd - 8th
In this creative writing worksheet, learners practice their language arts skills as they complete a writing prompt that begins with a team behind with minutes to go in a game.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The World Around Me

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Combining visual and language arts, here is a resource that prompts middle schoolers to write stories based on pictures of their surroundings. They use digital cameras to take pictures of favorite areas in the school. Next, they choose...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Makes a Novel a Novel?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
They always say to write what you know. This approach is used to get middle schoolers prepared to write novels of their own. Using a favorite book as a model, potential novelists respond to prompts that ask about characters, plot, main...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introducing Jane Eyre

For Teachers 8th - 12th
"How can a magazine reflect a particular time and culture?" Using this prompt, your class explores the Victorian Era as it relates to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. They can also play the "Victorian Women's Rights" game for the year 1840...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Write into Fantasy, Humor and Suspense

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students discuss the characteristics of several different writing genres. They are given a prompt to and work in groups to continue writing in the style of a humorous, fantasy or suspense story. They share their stories with the class.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Precise Vocabulary

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students complete acting exercises as a part of a precise language activity to help them build vocabulary and improve their descriptive writing skills. In this theatre and writing instructional activity, students create and act out a...