Curated OER
From Memoir to Expository Writing with Advanced English Language Learners
Young scholars create a memoir. They compare writing with story telling and personal experience. They analyze how they learn, so they can begin to look critically at their own learning.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
A Mini lesson on Semicolons
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-lesson on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how this...
Curated OER
Using Each Trait to Improve Student Writing
Students study examples of each trait in literature. They discuss how each trait adds to the craft of writing and practice revision of a writing piece with a particular trait in focus. They rate their writing on the trait of Ideas using...
Curated OER
Narrative Lesson Plan Ideas
Narrative writing lessons can inspire students to write about and share their experiences.
Santa Ana Unified School District
The Power of Point of View
Sometimes a whole story can change based on the perspective of the person telling it. Practice identifying and analyzing point of view in various reading passages and writing assignments with a language arts packet, complete with Common...
Curated OER
It's Opposite Day
Celebrate Opposite Day by using a Visual Thesaurus to match words to their antonyms. They match a list of vocabulary words to their antonym counterparts using the Visual Thesaurus, and then they play Antonym Bingo with the words from...
Curated OER
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...
Smithsonian Institution
Solomon G. Brown: Letter Writing
Personal correspondence in the form of letters is not as common as it once was. This resource presents an opportunity for you to introduce your class to letter writing and cover topics in social studies. Learners read a letter written in...
Curated OER
Readers as Individuals
Sixth graders set and are encouraged to meet their reading goals and demonstrate knowledge of literary elements in this lesson.
Curated OER
Similes and Metaphors
Reward your class with tasty treats while teaching them about simile and metaphor. After a teacher demo and explanation of simile and metaphor, pupils read books, looking for examples of these literary devices and copying them down....
Curated OER
Fostering Creative Writing
There are many interesting ways to help students develop their creative writing skills through writing prompts and games.
Curated OER
Introducing Biographies-Getting to Know You
Learners study biographies as a nonfiction genre while examining a variety of examples. Next, they access and complete an online tutorial about biographies. They choose one person that interests them to conduct further research using a...
Curated OER
The Nature of Haiku Poetry
Students brainstorm elements of nature art prints and photos. They identify the syllable count of Haiku and take a nature walk. They write Haiku poems while practicing the use of simile, alliteration, metaphor, and analogy to describe...
Curated OER
Putting It Together
Students read aloud the book "Courage" by Bernard Waber and discuss the examples that compromise the defintion of courage. They describe another word such as joy and work with a partner or group to brainstorm and write sentences of...
Curated OER
Metals, Nonmetals, Metalloids
Students recognize that metals, nonmetals, and metalloids have common attributes. They Identify physical and chemical properties. Students define ores and identify where ores can be found.
Curated OER
Why Thank You!
Fifth graders listen to a read aloud of Patricia Polacco's, Thank You, Mr. Falker! students examine the use of voice in the book, discuss the writing and theme ideas. They write a thank you not to their hero.
Curated OER
Lesson Four: Developing a Narrative Writing Piece
Second graders practice writing a narrative piece. In this narrative writing lesson, 2nd graders fill out a Rough Draft Organizer then write a narrative composition. Students then conference with the teacher to show their personal...
Curated OER
Pythagorean Theorem
Students investigate the properties and idea of the Pythagorean Theorem. In this algebra lesson, students identify the different parts of a right triangle and relate it to the Pythagorean Theorem. They do a robotic experiment to...
Curated OER
Roller Coaster Robot
Students calculate the area under a curve. In this calculus lesson, students use Riemann sums to find and approximate the area under a curve. They use the derivative and differential equations to solve.
Curated OER
The Role of the United Nations in Postwar Iraq
Young scholars study the history of the United Nations and answer study questions regarding the role of the UN in present day post-war Iraq.
Curated OER
Writing in Different Viewpoints
Students read and analyze the point of view of a selected classic short story. They take notes while reading the story, select a character, and rewrite the story from a different viewpoint.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: A Left Brained Writer's Notebook: A Pentalogue: 5 Personal Beliefs
This instructional activity has students create an end-of-year reflective pentalogue (five personal beliefs). The list is to be about five different things each student has learned in the past year about what makes good, high-quality...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: For Writer's Notebook: Heart Maps and Writing Topics
A heart map is a visual representation of a student's heart, displaying topics that "live" there; these topics are ones the student would show passion about and interest towards when writing about them. In writer's workshop students...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: A Chapter Book Writing Lesson: Beyond Once Upon a Time
Students are so used to hearing stories that start with the words Once upon a time and when writing their own stories, they often begin with these same words or with variations like One day I. Inspired by the novel Crispin by Avi This...