PBS
Lessons in Leadership, Roosevelt Style
It's easy to criticize those in power until you're sitting at their desk, faced with the same decisions. A history lesson prompts secondary learners to research the Roosevelt presidencies through the lens of leadership and...
Curated OER
Lesson: That Long Jakes
Cross-media analysis takes time and attention to detail. The class analyzes the painting Long Jakes and the poem "Backward Bill." They pay attention to the similarities and differences in each piece, looking for details that describe the...
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Third Grade Writing Lesson #1/Descriptive Prompt
Third graders read aloud a book about a favorite place. They make and share a list of favorite places and then use a graphic organizer to write a description of a favorite place so that the reader can imagine being there.
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Precise Vocabulary
Students complete acting exercises as a part of a precise language activity to help them build vocabulary and improve their descriptive writing skills. In this theatre and writing lesson, students create and act out a sentence with two...
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Lesson 8: Settings that Reinforce Characters
The best way to be a good writer is to read good writing. Learners read and discuss an excerpt from a book that will help them comprehend the relationship between setting and character. They will use what they've gleaned from discussion...
Berkshire Museum
Meet a Naturalist: Researching, Writing, Interviewing
Young scholars reach out into the community and learn about different environmental science careers in this inquiry-based instructional activity. Beginning with a short research assignment, children gain background knowledge about...
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Wild Horses of the Outer Banks
Students explore animal habitats. In this cross curriculum animal survival and writing lesson, students view a website about wild horses on Shackelford Island and discuss ways in which the horses have changed to this environment. ...
Channel Islands Film
Magic Isle: Lesson Plan 3
Middle schoolers complete a writing assessment task to demonstrate their ability to craft a narrative based on a variety of informational texts. They view West of the West's documentary Magic Isle, read three print resources about the...
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Discovering Saturn, The Real "Lord of the Rings"
Reading, writing, and rings! A lesson from NASA combines space science with authentic reading and writing tasks. Included in this lesson are pre-reading activities, four mini informational booklets on Saturn, a structured note-taking...
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Story Telling through Photography
Use this writing and photography lesson plan in your descriptive writing unit. Elementary and middle schoolers write and create a story line incorporating photos from Inspiration or their own personal photos. They experiment with...
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Monster Lesson
Fifth graders write a detailed description of a monster or alien they have created. They e-mail the description to another student, and the e-mail buddy draws the monster based on the descriptive writing.
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Holistic Lesson Plan - Potato Writing
Eleventh graders, in groups of three, improve their descriptive writing skills by receiving a numbered potato. They write a description of their potato without disclosing the number. Groups take turns trying to guess which potato is...
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Descriptive Writing
Students write a 5 sentence descriptive paragraph using a variety of writing strategies and images taken from the Pics4Learning site. They utilize a worksheet imbedded in this plan to help guide them in their writing.
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Revision Lesson
Students, through a series of 4 lessons, explore what it means to revise their written work. They revise a bland story together and then practice revising their own papers by identifying the main action and "exploding" that moment into...
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Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers
Students compose a letter to a family member. In this writing lesson, students listen to the book, Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers and identify the parts of a letter.
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Teaching Descriptive Word Usage
Second graders practice their creative writing by using descriptive words. In this language arts lesson plan, 2nd graders utilize their best descriptive writing to elaborate on one of 20 different bean bag characters. Students listen...
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Colonial Writing Project
Fourth graders write from the perspective of a child in the colonial period. In this writing lesson, 4th graders create a fictional character living in the colonial period and write about daily life from their perspective.
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Vivid Verbs
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...
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Hot Dog Writing
Use a hot dog as a metaphor for good reading, and make your class drool! Writers identify the parts of a paragraph, linking them to parts of a hot dog. Then, they translate this knowledge into a well-written paragraph. While a check-list...
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Write a Short Story
Students compare two paintings, depicting urban life in America in the 1940's, answering a series of questions, then create a short story about the paintings' characters. They compare 'Nighthawks' and 'Nightlife.'
Lesson Snips
Lessons from the Holocaust
Connect global examples of attempted genocide with a well-designed social studies lesson. It includes an excellent informational text with background information on the Holocaust, as well as worksheets, book report guidelines, and...
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Writing Descriptions of "My Favorite Place"
Young scholars write a descriptive writing piece. In this writing activity, students use a visualization exercise to add more descriptions to their writing.
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Poppin Popcorn
Young scholars use their senses to write descriptive sentences. In this descriptive writing lesson, students discuss their senses. Young scholars are asked to look at and feel unpopped corn kernels. Students then write descriptions of...
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Car For Sale!
Car For sale! In this GED prep lesson plan, writers develop a classified advertisement to sell a car. After a discussion of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language, sellers draft their ad for review, revision and...