Promote collaboration in the classroom with a historical fiction instructional activity. Fourth graders partner up and read the other's narrative to give feedback on vocabulary choice and the accuracy of historical information. After...

Are your young writers unsure of what to look for when asked to edit a draft of writing? Direct them to this simple and attractive printable, which uses two acronyms—ARMS (add, remove, move, substitute) and CUPS capitalize, usage,...

Young writers have written, revised, and peer-edited their historical fiction narratives by the 10th lesson plan in a language arts unit. Fourth graders finally combine their revision notes to create a second draft. The double-spaced...

Put another set of eyes on your class's historical fiction narratives with one of the final lessons in the unit. Fourth graders use feedback from their peers to annotate their drafts for revision, particularly their bold beginnings and...

Encourage young writers to edit text based on conventions. After reviewing the conventions, fourth graders watch a teacher demonstrate how to revise a paragraph for correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or dialogue. Then, pairs...

Youngsters write and construct their own autobiographies based on The Hundred Penny Box by Sharon Bell Mathis. They engage in pre-writing steps, narrative writing, and peer editing. This is the second part of a two-part project lesson.

Young historians use their planning graphic organizer to prepare a personal narrative draft on expert trades. Since the instructional activity is considered the mid-unit assessment, learners respond to a writing prompt related to the...

A standard peer editing activity, young writers get into groups and pass their papers to each of their peers in turn; each person checking their peer's paper for spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes. In a fun twist, your class...

Learners time each other as they read as many high-frequency words as possible in one minute. Peers record progress.

This lesson plan pairs high and low leveled readers together to make partner reading beneficial for both. Learners read a selected text as a team, when the lower leveled reader is stuck, his partner is there to help him out. And by...

Who am I? Pupils work to answer this question through a unit that explores personal narratives and identity. Exit tickets for activities that examine different poems, short stories, and autobiographical writing serve as prewriting for...

After completing three body paragraphs of an argument essay about life's rules to live by from Bud, Not Buddy Christopher Paul Curtis, it's time to begin writing the introduction and conclusion. Independently, pupils draft the final two...

Identify examples of strong voice in popular picture books. Young authors add voice to their writing and revise their own writing. In addition, they share their writing with their peers.

Class members discover what it means to publish their works. Working on a computer, young writers use an online dictionary to edit their spellings and conventions based on the information added to the rubric. From here, and most of the...

High schoolers research the surrealism movement and its primary artists. Language is also analyzed, and students will create their own original poem utilizing surrealistic techniques.

Young scholars build a strong understanding of medial sounds, vowels, and letter sound correspondence while playing Bingo. Taking turns, peers choose a card and say its name and medial sound; all players look for the vowel on their card....

Learners read as many high-frequency words as possible in a given amount of time. Peer one reads a word from a list, and peer two points to the corresponding word as they are seen on the table. This activity is timed and peer evaluated.

Scholars use a T-chart and puzzle pieces to practice saying and recognizing the medial sound in a series of words. Peers take turns choosing a puzzle piece, saying its name and medial sound, then placing it on their side of the chart. 

Here is an interesting take on the old timed-fluency activity. In pairs, learners work together to see how fast they can read two sets of high-frequency words. Peer one reads a word from his list; peer two works fast to find that word in...

An activity boosts readers' fluency in reading common phrases and idioms. Peers time one another and track their progress using phrase cards and record sheets.

Peers work together to boost fluency by timing each other as they read and sort multisyllabic words. Record sheets keep track of participants' progress.

Working in pairs, scholars use picture cards to practice segmenting words into phonemes and blending phonemes into words. When a peer answers correctly they place a penny in a treasure chest. Incorrect responses make the card go back in...

Peers pair up to find, identify and match medial phonemes. Peer one pulls a card or object from a bag, names it, then says its medial sound.—peer two attempts to find a picture or object whose medial sound matches the partner. 

An activity tests the fluency skills of young readers. Scholars match initial sound cards to letter cards. Pairs take turns and work to locate the most matches before the timer goes off. The activity ends with a peer evaluation.