Spice up your writing! Your amateur writers will benefit from concentrating on understanding and improving verb use in writing. An introductory activity addresses weak verbs. A second exercise helps them see the importance of strong...

Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...

Students discover how vocabulary fits into different categories depend on its usage. Given a recipe with blanks in place of the verbs, student pairs are asked to fill in the blanks with the correct action to complete the recipe. ...

Add many seconds of beauty to your class with a short film and related project. The resource centers around a competition based on one-second segments of film, and the final compilation that came from the contest. Pupils identify...

Students explore the parts of a sentence through analysis, design, and drawing in this nine lessons unit on Grammar. The diagramming of sentences comprises the main thrust of this unit through the utilization of higher cognitive skill...

Help your class find their writing voices with this instructional activity 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...

After reading the book Jack of All Tails, learners complete vocabulary activities, play charades, consider a list of questions, and complete a list of verbs. There are also several suggestions for how to connect this language...

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...

After each of three viewings of a 45-second video, aspiring writers employ vivid adjectives and precise, strong verbs to "show, don't tell." First they compose a single sentence, then three, and finally a five-sentence paragraph. Repeat...

Learners read the poem Bluebottle and discuss the use of the simile in the poem.  In this Bluebottle poetry lesson, students analyze the use of verbs and the energy created by that use.  Learners text mark all the similes in...

Students listen to the song and fill in the lyrics on a worksheet. They translate the meaning of the song into English. They concentrate on the correct verb tenses in the song. This activity is used as a warm up for a verb Spanish...

Students demonstrate the eight parts of speech with personal photographs. In this parts of speech lesson, students take photographs and label them with the appropriate concrete example of each part of speech. 

Dive into journalism with your high schoolers! The resources provided here will help your learners write unbiased, clear, and succinct newspaper articles. First they spend time sifting through stacks of articles, filling out a graphic...

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...

Young scholars complete a variety of activities related to poems from the book "It's Thanksgiving" by Jack Prelutsky. They create a Thanksgiving turkey using construction paper, identify what they are grateful for, and create a Thank You...

Students read the article "Disabled Skier Designs His Way to Be a Daredevil." They discuss using the questions on the lesson plan. Students create large sized baseball cards featuring competitive, disabled athletes.

Twelfth graders analyze Ray Bradbury's use of techniques and elements of fiction as well as nonfiction in the novel Dandelion Wine. In this novel analysis instructional activity, 12th graders analyze the sensory techniques in Dandelion...

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

Students write five-line, diamond shaped poems that are very easy to write then submit one through an automatic PIZZAZZ form.

Students explore how emotions affect the decision-making of peacekeepers and design simulators for training emergency-response personnel.

Students examine scenarios in which misspelling words may have unfortunate results. They create tightly written public service announcements convincing others that spelling matters.

Students create their own baby pets based on the genes of the two parents.

Students study the chemical elements in a computer generated cartoon format. In this computer animation and chemistry lesson, students learn how to animate using computer programs. Students use animation to learn about the Periodic Table...

Learners write a fictional story into a comic book format. In this creative writing activity, students analyze example comics and discuss the format. Learners create a comic book using imaginary characters that find a solution to a problem.