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Kiwi Story Chain
Write a story as a class. In this writing lesson, each person takes turns writing one to two sentences onto the paragraph given about Kim the Kiwi bird, including characters and events. Altogether, brainstorm a title for the...
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The Learning Network: Re-envisioning Classic Stories
Readers reflect on enjoyable stories they know, brainstorm criteria that make a story "good," analyze a New York Times article about innovative children's performances, re-envision classics on their own, and peer edit drafts. Use this as...
Curriculum Corner
May Writing Ideas
From Cinco de Mayo to Endangered Species day to National Hamburger Month, May is full of ideas to write about. Give young writers prompts that have everything to do with the month of May. Topics include writing a story, conducting...
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Create a Book with Student Treasures
You can't publish a story until after it has been revised and edited! Budding authors investigate the writing process while drafting an original story. They select a topic, complete a rough draft, edit it, revise it, and finally publish...
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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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Stories
Read, discuss, and write short stories with your primary class. They read a short story and complete worksheets for the story. They also brainstorm ideas for a class story and choose an idea to write 3 ideas and then write the story as a...
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Science Fiction Stories
Learners write a story. In this genre lesson, students read a science fiction story and discuss its characteristics. Learners brainstorm a list of things that if scientifically changed would alter the way we live our lives. Students...
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Developing a Topic for Writing Using an Idea Web
Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members...
The New York Times
Looking for Answers: Making Sense of the Boston Marathon Bombing
How should America respond to acts of domestic terrorism? What motivates or prompts a terrorist attack? After reading an opinion piece on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, your learners will critically analyze factors that could have...
Curated OER
Science Fiction Stories
Students review the story writing process and the elements such as prewriting, drafting, editing, revising, publishing, and assessment. Next students write a science fiction story that contains a title, the requested number of...
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Making a Magical Story
Students create their own magical story. In this story writing lesson, students listen to the story The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe b C.S. Lewis to find the basic elements of a story. They come up with their own magical...
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What Can I Write About When I Can't Think of Anything To Write About?
Third graders write, illustrate, and publish a collaborative story. In this writing lesson, 3rd graders review story elements by reading stories written by professional authors and other students. They work in groups to write a...
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Silly Story Starters
Fifth graders brainstorm some ideas for each of the columns. As they call them out, write some on the sticky notes until each sticky note is used for each column They stay in the same groups; have each group draw one sticky note from...
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Critical Thinking & Writing: Brainstorming
Have your young writers organize their thoughts before writing. They generate ideas through various brainstorming activities prior to writing a mock feature news story for USA Today. A series of USA Today articles debating the level of...
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Telling A Story
Students brainstorm all the possible scenarios that would help them tell a story in detail with the whole class and with partners. They create web outlines to create a name story and then illustrate it with creative grammar usage and...
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Peace Brainstorming Activity
Students study the topic of peace and use brainstorming techniques to create a clustering diagram. In this peace brainstorming activity, students organize brainstorming material to complete a writing assignment. Students create...
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Acting as a Pre-write Tool
Second graders use acting to help them in a prewriting activity to develop a story. In this prewriting lesson plan, 2nd graders form a character map and brainstorm ideas for their story.
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Developing Story Ideas
Learners complete activities to learn how to develop story ideas in journalistic writing. In this story ideas lesson, students learn news value judging criteria, identify language to ask beat sources for story ideas, distinguish story...
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Father Knows Best, Write a Father's Day Letter
Young scholars write a Father's Day letter. In this friendly letter writing lesson, students brainstorm a list of parent responsibilities, then write three specific ways their fathers care for them. Young scholars share learning...
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The Rest of the Story
Third graders make predictions about the story "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" based on background knowledge. They read the story, stopping to verify or reject predictions. They write their own opinionated fairytales.
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Noisy Nora, Studious Students: Story Elements
Alliterative adjective nicknames generate stories inspired by Rosemary Wells' book Noisy Nora (also a thematic complement to any class with children who make a ruckus to get attention). Class members explore basic story elements --...
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Assessing the Traits: What is Good Writing?
High schoolers examine samples of writing and discuss the score it received. They brainstorm what qualities make a good writer and stories.
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Journal Writing Idea - Pets
Carve out some time for your youngsters to write in their journal. Today, they write a story about pets. They learn the value of a journal and how to keep up with it, and they enhance story development by planning their story before...
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How to Write a Biography
Looking for a great lesson on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography. They follow a...