Curated OER
Personify This
Eighth graders study personification in published works of poetry, then create their own through the use of diamante or cinquain poetry. They read and discuss poetry by Shel Silverstein, William Jay Smith, and Elinor Wylie.
Curated OER
Character Impressions
Whether you are planning a unit on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, or simply want to improve your pupils' descriptive writing, this lesson could be a good addition to your class. Using the Six-Trait Writing process, pupils use...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Poems vs. Lyrics
Combine your pupils' love of music with their growing knowledge of poetry! First, have them bring in their favorite songs for a discussion on word choice and literary devices. Then, use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the...
Curated OER
Creatively Creating Expository Essays
Students, after reading Fahrenheit 451, brainstorm inventions that could have been in the novel. They present their invention to the class and writing an expository essay about their creation.
Virginia Department of Education
Adding Specific Vocabulary
An exercise and activity tackle the struggles young writers have in expressing and adding details and specific vocabulary to their writing. The instructor guides the class with an example paragraph, where the learners discuss what the...
Curated OER
Getway to More Descriptive Writing
Middle schoolers use more precise descriptive words in their writing.
Curated OER
Using Imagery
Show, don't tell! Pairs work together to change a list of telling sentences into showing sentences using picture words that create vivid pictures in the readers’ minds.
Curated OER
A Moment in Time
Eighth graders study poems to see how punctuation, line length, rhythm and word choice can be used to create a memorable moment. They read and discuss poems by Shel Silverstein.
Appalachian State University
Making Your Point Using Dialect
Explore the sounds, importance, and effectiveness of dialect in literature. Active participants read, listen to poetry, and explore dialect by developing a formal definition, discuss the benefits of its use, complete a Venn diagram and...
Curated OER
PhotoStory 3 Lesson Plan
In this lesson, PhotoStory 3, young scholars create a story board of an original poem through the use of PhotoStory 3 presentation. Students write a poem and use it to develop their storyboard. Young scholars publish and share their...
Curated OER
Haiku Poems
Eighth graders study haiku poems. In this poetry lesson, 8th graders write two haikus containing the standard 5-7-5 syllables content about things they enjoy within nature.
Curated OER
If I Could Talk Like the Animals. . .
Students read and discuss a film review of the animated movie Antz and then write a monologue from the perspective of a non-human organism.
Curated OER
Building Believable Characters
Students use descriptive strategies such as physical descriptions, background, and comparison of characters when writing narratives. They develop the topic with supporting details and precise diction to paint a visual image in the...
Curated OER
I See and I Think (It's A Wonderful World)
Students analyze song lyrics (by listening to the song) to pick-out descriptive vocabulary. They use this descriptive vocabulary to create a drawing of the images they "see" in the song. They compare their drawings to find similarities...
Curated OER
Thinking Syntactically: Using non-print text to faciliate generation of syntax and analysis of tone
Students write with a command of the stylistic aspects of composition. They respond to non-print text. Students demonstrate working knowledge of syntactical choices. They construct sentences using descriptive language. Students analyze...
Curated OER
What Makes Time Tick, or Has the Industrial Revolution Really Made Clocks Go Faster?
Students explore the concept of time both historically and in their own lives. Students count the number of times they refer to a clock and the number of scheduled and unscheduled activities in their lives. Students discuss how the...
Curated OER
Said Is Dead
Young scholars revise writing to improve organization and word choice. They check for logic, order of ideas and precision of vocabulary. Students list different verbs for the word "said." They write dialogue in which the speakers tell a...
Curated OER
What's the Story?
Students write a group continuation story after reading the novel, The Giver. They write a continuation of the story of Jonas' and Gabe's adventures in Elsewhere, then share their story with the class.
Curated OER
Crazy Critters Teach Parts of Speech
Students create pieces of writing about a creature they have created. They examine the parts of speech and how they are used in their writing to see how they can write more specifically.
Curated OER
News View
Students read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.
Curated OER
Character Sketch
Students view a PowerPoint presentation about Character sketches, and write a four paragraph character sketch. Emphasis is placed on topic sentences having one main idea per paragraph and elaborating. They study and discuss ways to write...
Curated OER
A History of Conflict Resolution and the Jury System
Students study the history of the jury system in the United States. They enact a number of different types of trials including trial by jury. They complete a worksheet that compares the trials systems before writing a persuasive essay...
Curated OER
The House that Dies Drear Built
Students write a descriptive paragraph, in the style of Virginia Hamilton, describing the landscape around their house.
Curated OER
A Courtin' We Will Go
Students investigate dialect in poetry as an indication of a people's culture in literature. They write a poem about dating in this era.