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...

Help your middle-schoolers expand their writing skills with this lesson on episodic writing, which focuses on story details, idea development, and organization. After reading "The Eighth Picture: End of Summer" from Patricia Reilly...

Explore communication through writing by analyzing individual sentences with young writers. They practice writing compound sentences and identifying sentence fragments. The next step has them learn the five parts of a friendly letter....

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

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...

Complete research on Pourquoi tales and then lead your students in creating their own. This lesson accompanies another on Pourquoi Tales on our site and deals more with the writing process. Your class will put the tales together in a...

Students develop "Fear Factor" stunts using descriptive language. In this writing lesson, students watch clips from the show "Fear Factor" and develop their own stunts. Students write and explain the stunts in vivid language.

How can you interest your reader? Here is a great lesson on reading and discussing the characteristics of a narrative. Elementary schoolers explore writing techniques to hook the reader. They identify their hook and share their...

Comparing the more modern film Ten Things I Hate About You to The Taming of the Shrew leads to an understanding of how Shakespearean plots can be applied to modern-day situations and characters. As a culminating activity, groups select a...

Before beginning F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, create a historical context of the Roaring 20s with this lesson. Set up a gallery walk with the provided PowerPoint, which features 10 topics related to the 1920s. Then begin...

Students create stories using powerful introductory sentences by creating something other than "Once upon a time...". In this sentences lesson plan, students read The Cross of Lead to base their introductory sentences on.

Scholars of all ages can use the various tools of technology to construct and illustrate a story. Utilizing this resource, learners work with a partner to brainstorm and draft a story based on personal experience. They use computer...

Students create a design for a new coin after researching people who have impacted history. Students must write a persuasive essay about why this person should be memorialized on the dollar coin and present their person to the class.

Pupils write and illustrate a descriptive paragraph entitled "My Favorite Place" highlighting a dominate impression or dominant feeling in their paragraph.

Students examine why, when our Fathers, signed the Declaration of Independence they were placing in jeopardy their freedom, property and lives.

Students explore various careers in science. In this science and society lesson, the teacher leads a discussion on science careers and duties and responsibilities related to the careers, then students work together to create a mural of...

Discuss the history of slavery by analyzing historic photography depicting slavery. Learners write fictional stories based on these photographs. This is a creative and motivating way to launch a discussion of these topics. 

Eighth graders bring early America to life. In this George Washington lesson, 8th graders listen to a lecture about the first president, explore the relationships he had with his slaves, and research the backgrounds of some of his...

Learners examine the serigraph, "Wynton's Tune," by artist Faith Ringgold. They discuss the painting, listen to jazz music, create a drawing that tells a story inspired by their favorite music, and write sentences describing their artwork.

Why not walk in the footsteps of Teddy Roosevelt and become a conservationist? After discussing issues and reasons for animal extinction, the class creates their own conservation plans. Each small group is given mock data regarding a...

Eighth graders are introduced to the mechanics of writing a standard-form essay. They draft, edit and polish a five-paragraph essay about spending the day as an animal of their choice.

Students review letter writing skills and the use of descriptive language, and practice writing persuasive letters, with help from teacher and peers. Letters are then written to nominate friend for Friend of the Year.

Students write about themselves. In this personal writing lesson, students write their name vertically down a sheet of paper and think of a self descriptive word that matches each letter of their name. Students write a descriptive...

Pupils search in newspapers for words that describe them or what they like. They gather the words and use them to create a self-portrait. They read "boring" sentences and rewrite them using more descriptive words. They write 10 word...