In an ideal world, sentences in a college-level essay should feature a variety of sentence types. In reality, most papers stick to simple and compound sentences, two of the types a handout on sentence patterns discusses. Part of a larger...

Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and a song from the musical "Hamilton" allow middle schoolers to practice using punctuation to indicate whether sentences are indicative, imperative, or interrogative. 

English teachers around the world cringe when they come across fragments and run-ons in papers. A handout on these poor imitations of sentences helps bring relief by reviewing the basics of sentence construction and by offering...

Sixth graders identify parts that make up different types of sentences with a grammar presentation. The last few slides prompt learners to complete 10 exercises in which they indicate whether each sentence is simple, compound,...

It's time to put pen to paper. Scholars complete the first part of the mid-unit 3 assessment, writing a short constructed response about international aid following a natural disaster. Next, pupils use informational texts and note...

Everyone is good at something. Scholars receive their mid-unit assessments with feedback. They look over their papers and write their strengths as a writer and goals on index cards. The class then has a mini lesson in using sentence...

A three-minute exercise warms-up scholars' writing abilities in order to follow a writing process that ends in an essay. The essay's topic is a barrier and the values used to break it. Four steps include choosing a topic,...

The last unit in the series by Core Knowledge focuses on alternative spellings, nouns, verbs, conjunctions, subject-verb agreement, using commas in a series, constructing sentences, and following the writing process while writing...

Greed is the theme of the West African folktale, Anansi Goes to Lunch and this multidisciplinary collection of lessons. First, scholars listen to a read aloud and participate in a grand conversation about the book's key details and...

Twitter has helped people learn to express their ideas in as few words as possible, but away from the 280-character limit, writers still struggle with keeping their writing short and to the point. Conciseness is the focus of a writing...

Young mathematicians construct their own understanding of integers with an inquiry-based math lesson. Using colored chips to represent positive and negative numbers, children model a series of addition and subtraction problems as...

Immaculate, accumulation, dissipation. Vocabulary drawn from chapter 16 of James McBride's memoir, The Color of Water, can prove to be challenge for readers. To help kids understand the meaning of these words and what they add to the...

Spring is the theme of this unit of extra support lessons. Your early readers enhance their skills using chants, practice worksheets, picture cards, and alphabet cards. Topics include identifying syllables, beginning sounds /w/, /g/,...

Why was the road crossed by the chicken? Because the writer forgot to write in active voice. Many myths surround the use of passive voice. Thankfully, an informative handout explains how to recognize passive voice and when it's okay to...

Present the class with a slide show that will give them a great head start in writing expository and narrative texts. The information is highlighted for easy note taking, well organized, and presented in a kid-friendly manner. It...

Here's a resource that provides debaters with the background information and worksheets they will need when planning a policy debate. Templates and sentence frames, as well as a rationale for using debates in the classroom, are...

Strengthen your pupils' understanding of Dolch sight words with a packet of ideas. Kids can create stories, play bingo, make booklets, compose silly sentences, alphabetize, and much more.

Test your pupils' reasoning skills with several activities and a quick mystery to solve. Learners watch and analyze a few video clips that demonstrate reasoning in action, practice deduction with an interactive and collaborative...

After examining a piece of art, scholars discuss what they see, paying close attention to details and space. A read-aloud introduces the topic of family traditions. Pupils interview their family members about a tradition in preparation...

Sometimes summarizing keeps a writer from going deeper into their analysis—don't fall into that trap. Learn the difference between summarizing and analyzing using an insightful resource. Focusing on introductions, the lesson shares...

The second lesson plan in a five-part poetry unit asks seventh graders to construct a metaphor poem. First, pupils examine Emily Dickinson's "The Railway Train" and identify the metaphor. They then select an object and an animal and...

Passive voice and participial adjectives are the focus of an 11-page resource packet designed for ESL/ELD classes. Language learners engage in activities and complete exercises that give them lots of practice with these constructs.

Get energized by being organized! Budding business scholars construct professional letters in the seventh of nine career education and skills lessons. The resource covers proper greetings, writing requests, and explaining reasons for...

Plagued by punctuation or stymied by spelling? Lesson eight in a nine-part series of career education and skills activities introduces the importance of proofreading. Learners categorize common writing errors and construct error-free...