Get your young writers outside of the traditional essay writing mode with Free Write Friday. Free Write Friday encourages your class to use personal experiences or knowledge to write more creative pieces. Young writers could experiment...

Fourth graders read the autobiography "Night" and discuss why Elie Wiesel was ing to relive this time of his life through writing. They write an essay covering Elie Wiesel's purpose for writing the book.

Third graders write an essay which answers the question, "What kind of student do you want to be?"

Students in upper-level college-bound English classes review the editing process and terms such as, tone, diction, transition, and conclusion. They read and evaluate a sample essay and identify parts they feel they could improve on. ...

Eighth graders read a short essay and cull out the directions. Then students rewrite the essay using standard English spellings. They create a paragraph of their own using Euro English and ask fellow students to translate to standard...

Students write an essay on a specific topic but using their own imagination.

Eighth graders are introduced to the mechanics of writing a standard-form essay. They draft, edit and polish a five-paragraph essay about spending the day as an animal of their choice.

Third graders are given an opportunity to create a visual to accompany their presentations of their persuasive essays. They may use the computer or other media as resources.

Explore ethnicity and identity with a research and writing assignment. Class members conduct online research, looking in particular at images and carefully noting down their sources on notecards. They read about identity and compose...

To understand the laws regarding marijuana use in the United States, you can go all the way back to the 1800's to learn about farming hemp, or you can go back to 2018 when California became the sixth state to legalize recreational...

After watching the documentary Dark Water about a traditional Chumash ceremony and reading a Chumash origin story, viewers are asked to create a coat of arms and to craft an essay that details a family tradition or their own origin story.

Have women always had the same educational opportunities as their male counterparts? Young historians read an 1819 essay by Emma Willard on the state of female education in the 19th century before discussing their views regarding women's...

Discuss the themes and events of Elizabeth George Speare's The Sign of the Beaver with a collection of journal topics. Each chapter contains two or three questions for kids to consider and write about, for a total of 24 questions.

Whether it's an election year or not, a unit on voting patterns and political campaigns will awaken the civic pride in your high school citizens. Divided into six parts, the curriculum covers various facets of an election, including...

Test understanding of "The Inn of Lost Time" by Lensey Namoika with an assessment that includes true/false, multiple choice, vocabulary, short answer, and essay questions. The test is not entirely traditional since, for the first 10...

Conduct a close reading of George G. Toudouze's well-known horror story "Three Skeleton Key." This plan breaks up the reading into several steps and provides text-dependent questions to ask along the way. Learners will have the chance to...

Are you enjoying the use of all five senses? Imagine that you have to lose one of them; you can choose which one, but it's gone forever. Work through a lesson based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis that asks class...

Accompany a reading of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea with a thorough literature packet. Although the materials are meant to prepare readers for a timed essay, the background information and the activities are...

Reading snail mail is a great way to go back into history and to understand others' points of view. The resource, the second in a five-part unit, covers the Dreyfus Affair. Scholars, working in two different groups, read one letter and...

Are you one of the 100 million Americans whose ancestors passed through the doors of Ellis Island? Learn about the historic entry point for immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with an informative reading passage. After...

Scholars apply prior knowledge of statistics to write a conclusion. They summarize using correct academic language and tell the story of the data.

Strike a note of hope or despair. Give a symbolic detail. Use a meaningful quotation. These strategies and others are part of a presentation on the purposes of and how to craft a conclusion. Sample conclusions are included for the class...

If you were stranded on a desert island, what items would be the most important to have with you? Decide whether you'd want a five gallon can of water, a radio, shark repellent, or any other item with an activity designed to prepare kids...

Using an article from The New York Times, students answer discussion questions about gun control. They are divided into four groups to research different standpoints on gun control, including the Executive Office, Congress, Gun...