Curated OER
The Malnourished Paragraph
Students revise writing to improve style, word choice, sentence variety and subtlety of meaning after rethinking how questions of purpose, audience and genre have been addressed. They recognize the importance of details in writing.
Curated OER
"What is an American?"
Eleventh graders ponder about what it means to be an "American." They discuss the impact of an author's word choice and sentence structure on text. They identify some major themes and development of the Letters... Compose paragraphs and...
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The Words that Surround Us
Students investigate writing that we read daily by analyzing advertisements and articles. In this language arts lesson, students discuss the images and writing they see daily, where it comes from, and what it represents. Students...
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Analyze Your Handwriting
Students explore the science of graphology. In this graphology lesson, students analyze a writing sample using the letter slope, line slope, and pressure to determine the personality characteristics of the writer. Students also analyze a...
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Nudging Questions
Students choose one topic to write about. They brainstorm ideas about their topic or incident. They use sensory details to visualize their topic. They answer a variety of teacher directored nudging question to help them describe their...
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Putting It Together
Students read aloud the book "Courage" by Bernard Waber and discuss the examples that compromise the defintion of courage. They describe another word such as joy and work with a partner or group to brainstorm and write sentences of...
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Irish Eyes: Taking a Look at Local Landscape
Direct your class’s attention to the elements that make their community unique. After examining sample travel brochures, groups select something from their community to use as the subject, and then research, create, and publish a...
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Narrative vs. Expository Texts
Young scholars use examples of narrative and expository text to analyze and compare the two styles. High schoolers read articles on life in Lesotho and Madagascar and use graphic organizers and discussion to compare them. Young scholars...
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Found Poetry with Primary Sources: The Great Depression
Students read a sample found poem and create one together as a class. In this Great Depression lesson, students select a topic, such as miners, and read primary source documents related to the topic. Students select one narrative as the...
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Recreating a Masterpiece
Students analyze and critique various artists and their work. They write research papers on artists and create reproductions of their works, reflecting their earlier critiques of the works.
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Water: Narrative vs. Expository Texts
A reading of vignettes written by Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Lesotho and Madagascar launches a study of the difference between narrative and expository texts. As final products, young writers craft both a narrative and an...
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Photojournalism
High schoolers choose a historical or present-day event to portray through photographs. They narrate this event with photographs and text to communicate its significance in history or our current daily lives.
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Peer Editing
Sudents read and critique three of their fellow classmates' science fiction short stories on three consecutive days for mechanics, short story elements, style, and informational elements.