Whether it's dark, delightful, or somber, set the mood with William Golding's Lord of the Flies. High-schoolers practice descriptive writing by creating the appropriate mood for an original scene, starring one of the book's main...

Poems For Two Voices are a great resource in any language arts classroom, whether you are studying poetry or not. Focusing on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this lesson prompts young authors to write a Poem For Two...

Dr. Seuss and Walter Dean Myers team up to cover the topic of prejudice. Using The Sneeches (about the culture clash between star-bellied and bare-bellied Sneetches) and The Glory Fields (about a boy coming to America on a slave ship),...

Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances.  In this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...

Explore narrative writing by participating in a role-playing activity. In this perspective lesson, learners define first and third person in writing and discuss how it changes the mood of the reader. The first activity has pupils write...

High schoolers determine what grammar is and how they have learned it. In this creative writing lesson, students read "Style' Gets New Elements," and respond to the discussion questions. High schoolers then present grammatical rules to...

Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...

Can your pupils change the world? Explore this question with Ben Harper's song "With My Own Two Hands" and John Mayer's "Waiting for the World to Change." After listening to the songs, they discuss the tools at their disposal for...

After reading Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (and possibly shedding a few tears), middle schoolers work on their own sixteen-word poems with a Six Trait writing activity. They focus on word choice in this activity to capture an...

Put your class in the shoes of someone - or something - else with this lesson, which encourages writers to keep a diary from the perspective of a living creature or an abstraction. Use Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm and the Six Trait...

Are you looking for a way to bring writing into your history lesson plan - or history into your writing lesson plan? This cross-curricular activity is helpful and fun, no matter what class you're teaching! Using "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"...

Students identify the qualities that contribute to effective verbal and non-verbal communication. They use those qualities as criteria by which to judge an in-class political debate on education.

Pupils write an acrostic poem and analyze a work of art. In this art lesson plan, students look at a picture and answer questions about it, write a poem, write about the setting in the painting they saw, and answer short questions about...

What does it take to develop and publish a newsletter? Young academics create a newsletter with original artwork for their school or community. They explore social justice themes and spread messages of tolerance and inclusion. Scholars...

Students read the story A Bad Case of the Stripes and then write their own story conveying a lot of emotion. In this writing lesson plan, students select a title, an emotion, brainstorm, and then start writing.

After completing Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose, class members assume the voice of Gemma and craft a personal letter to her granddaughter telling Becca how she feels about Becca’s actions and the discoveries at Chelmno. Complete directions for...

Students read and write poems for two voices about the Civil Rights Movement.

You have to collect lots of materials (boxes, bags, toilet paper rolls, etc.) for this lesson to work successfully. After modeling how to create an imaginary creature out of the collection of recycled materials, let your class search...

Help your class create collective poetry following a simple, engaging model from Teaching Tolerance (tolerance.org). Each young poet writes five things on an index card: sayings from others, favorite sound, favorite place, favorite...

Students are given an on-screen overview of the Poetry Writing Workshop, including how to access and navigate the 2Learn Site and the web page, prior to signing up for the workshop or commencing work on the site.

Fifth graders work together to make simple menus more interesting by adding descriptive words. This plan works well with the Six Traits of Writing as it covers the trait of word choice. This is a really fun way for students to practice...

Students read the Trail of Tears about the Cherokee Nation removal and write a letter pretending they are the grandparent of a Cherokee child. In this Trail of Tears lesson plan, students understand the changing of boundaries.

Travel back in American history to the era of slavery and abolition. After reading about the Underground Railroad, young historians examine a painting depicting the event, and write a narrative from the point of view of a person in the...

Here's a project that gives academics the chance to share their opinions on social justice with storytelling, creative writing, or art. Scholars choose what they want to create and are assigned buddies to support their efforts. To...