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The "Write" Stuff: Strategies and Conventions for Imaginative Writing
A comprehensive and immersive series of lessons that examines various aspects of story development leads learners into writing a narrative of their own. Writers develop an understanding of the writing process as they use the learning...
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Traditional Writing vs. Collaborative Writing
Students examine language arts by completing a group activity. In this writing styles instructional activity, students define and discuss the differences between collaborative writing and traditional writing while answering questions in...
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Friendly Letter Writing and Sentence Structure
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....
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Magical Creatures Land
The opening of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit provides a model of how to use rich details to create a setting. After reading the description of Bilbo Baggins’ abode, young writers create their own magical home for a fantasy creature. The...
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Character Attributes in Writing
Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances. For this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...
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Writing Pourquoi Tales
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...
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Writing to Learn History: Annotations and Mini-Writes
Students use their critical thinking skills to write about historical events. For this historical perspectives lesson, students read documents about historical events and make annotations and marginal notes. Students then respond to...
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Identify and Write About Cause and Effect Relationships
Young scholars write news reports about current issues. In this writing skills lesson, students report about the weight epidemic in the United States as they focus on fast food consumption and how it relates to poor health.
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Putting It Together in Writer's Workshop
This lesson about writing can be taught in small groups or large group settings. They examine basic writing techniques and practice using them to improve their writing.
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Pourquoi Tales
Lead a web search for information on writers and discuss the craft of purposeful writing as a class. Your students investigate "pourquoi tales" which are "why" stories. and then write their own examples of pourquoi stories to share in a...
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Writing - Combining Ideas to Write Descriptive Paragraphs
Students develop a strategy for combining various ideas into well formed sentences which then combine to produce effective descriptive paragraphs.
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The Great Gatsby Historical Background Using Multi-Genre Research Project
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 a...
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Revising Ordinary Sentences into Strong Leads Using "Crispin: The Cross of Lead"
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.
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Awesome Outlines to Organize Writing
Fourth graders practice writing outlines. Using worksheets imbedded students get lots of practice enhancing their skills writing outlines
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Sequencing
Are you looking for a way to teach sequence of events in your narrative writing unit? Bring this lesson to your middle school class, as it prompts young writers to create a narrative sequence map of events that have happened at school...
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Lead Me On - Writing Lively Leads for Book Reviews
Third graders use the concepts found in a PowerPoint presentation, and write leads for book reviews that attract readers and stimulate book interest. They are graded on their ability to engage the reader with their writing.
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Digital Storytelling
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...
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Narrative Literature Response Letters: Original Lesson Plan
Readers write a formal letter to an author offering an alternative ending to a story the author has written. First, the class reads a story or novel. Upon finishing the reading, they are introduced to the format of a formal letter. They...
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Design a New Dollar Coin
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.
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Career Education: Office Workers
Frist and second graders explore career options. First they will watch career videos and then prepare to interview school personnel regarding their job responsibilities. They will then send thank you cards to the interviewed subjects...
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Game Day
Fourth graders bring in a playgound item, i.e.: ball, jump rope, skateboard and develop a physical activity to go with the item. They describe in writing how to do the activity. They set up their stations on a "Game Day" and lead their...
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The Experience of Diary Writing
Pupils read sections of Mackenzie King's diary. King was the Prime Minister of Canada during WWII. They relate the importance of keeping a diary.
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Historical Background Leading to the Declaration of Independence
Students examine why, when our Fathers, signed the Declaration of Independence they were placing in jeopardy their freedom, property and lives.
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A World of Information
Students analyze data and statistics about countries around the world. They read graphs and charts, color a world map to illustrate the top ten statistics about the world, and write a paragraph to summarize their information.