Curated OER
Getting to Know You
After going over the five steps of the writing process, pupils fill out "Getting to Know You" worksheets. They trade papers with each other, and have the task of writing a descriptive paragraph about the person whose worksheet they...
Curated OER
Memoir
After reading and analyzing two narrative memoirs, middle schoolers engage in a variety of activities, including writing an essay, developing a story map, and creating character charts. They then compare and contrast story maps, and...
Curated OER
Massachusetts Vocabulary
In this matching terms and descriptions worksheet, students use the names of people and places in the word bank to match their descriptions. Students match 10 answers.
Curated OER
Figurative Language: Part Two
Help your young writers make their writing more descriptive and exciting in this figurative language lesson. Middle schoolers review their figurative language examples from Part One (linked to this lesson), and then write a paragraph for...
Read Works
The Language of Setting
Examine the connection between descriptive language and emotional impact. For the first few chapters of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, learners record the descriptive writing the author used to vivify the woods in...
Read Works
The Language of Setting
Descriptive language can be used to create a vivid and imaginative setting. Create the chart suggested in this plan to track the descriptive language found in The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The class discusses the land beyond...
Curated OER
The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch
What a creative way to discuss adjectives in your classroom! Learners listen to a short story about a lighthouse keeper and his wife, identify adjectives, and write their own description about a sandwich. This is a wonderful and...
Curated OER
Synonyms
Use this resource to help learners improve the quality of their writing. Discuss the importance of using synonyms for commonly used words. Class members also learn to use a thesaurus, and revise a writing sample to include more...
Curated OER
The Paragraph
Review the components of a well-written paragraph with your class. Be sure your writers include a topic sentence supported with main ideas and followed by a conclusion. Unity, coherence, and transition words are emphasized. Experiment...
Curated OER
Reading a Dialect
Reading a dialect can be difficult; show readers that it can also reveal fascinating details! They read two extracts from Jane Gardam's The Hollow Land, which is written in a British dialect. Readers answer comprehension questions,...
Curated OER
Similes
Similes are a great way to get your writers thinking about descriptive details. They read a brief explanation which covers clichés and the general wording of a simile. Then, learners try a few on their own. First, they complete nine...
Curated OER
Grade A: The Market for a Yale Woman's Eggs by Jessica Cohen
What would it be like to sell your eggs to a couple who can't have children on their own? Could you even imagine it? As most of us have never been in this position, this descriptive essay is really quite interesting. The reading itself...
Curated OER
Under the Influence: Paying the Price of My Father's Booze
Alcoholism affects more people than your high schoolers might think. Whether they have any personal experience with alcoholics or if this world is entirely unfamiliar with them, they'll get a closer glimpse with the descriptive essay...
Curated OER
Setting Worksheet
Set your class up for success with writing descriptive settings with these two graphic organizers. On the first page, writers note specifc details about their chosen setting and comment on how each character views the setting. The second...
Scholastic
Selecting Favorite Poems From Historical Poets
Here is a poetry lesson that begins with a free-association activity focused on the word voice. Learners each sit alone for a moment and make sounds that express how they are currently feeling, and then turn to their partners to share...
Reed Novel Studies
Wolf Hollow: Novel Study
Annabelle, a young character in Wolf Hollow, discovers one bully can ruin everything when Betty walkes into her classroom. Betty bullies others and targets a war veteran. Individuals read how one person changed Annabelle's life. They...
Open Oregon Educational Resources
Digital Foundations: Introduction to Media Design with the Adobe Creative Cloud, Revised Edition
How can Adobe Creative Cloud enhance digital art and media design? Readers explore just that with the Digital Foundations eBook. They learn how to source images and how to create symmetry and asymmetry in their digital designs. They also...
Curated OER
Magic Mountain Mansion Lesson Plan
Students think about and discuss what their personal dream mansion in the mountains would look like. They decide on adjectives that would best describe their building which they write on a chart with markers. Using art supplies, they...
Curated OER
Regular or Irregular: Two Kinds of Verbs
The two kinds of verbs, regular and irregular, are the focus of this language arts activity. After a thorough, two-page description of both types, young grammarians fill in the present tense verb given the simple past and past participle...
Curated OER
Principles of Design
How to use the many design elements such as color harmony, percentage of size combinations, and lines of design are described. Composition of an attractive arrangement with a focal point is addressed. Also included, many descriptions. ...
Pearson
Catching the Sun: Tales from Asia
Explore the folklore of Asia and the South Pacific with this language arts lesson series. Complementing a reading of Catching the Sun: Tales from Asia by Jan M. Mike, this resource supports learners with understanding cause and effect...
Scholastic
Quick as a Cricket Lesson Plan
Teaching young learners about similes is easy as pie with this primary grade language arts lesson plan. Following a class reading of the children's book, Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, young readers learn the definition of a simile...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 15
How much progress has Claudette made at the end of "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves"? Ninth graders note evidence for and against Claudette's successful adaptation into human society with a graphic organizer. Additionally,...
EngageNY
Preparation for Performance Task: Using Writing to Make Prompt Cards
Writing becomes dynamic in a presentation. Presenters transform a piece of writing they have already composed about the Little Rock Nine into a presentation. The focus is transferring ideas from their writing into short prompts on cards...