Anchorage School District
Writing Effective Summaries
Drafting a strong first sentence for a summary is an important step. Writers can use the formula presented on this handout to get started. The resource lists three steps to put together a strong topic sentence, as well as tips and hints...
Online Publications
Become a Journalist
Explore the newspaper as a unique entity with a detailed and extended unit. The unit requires learners to consider the newspaper's role in democracy, think about ethics, practice writing and interviewing, and examine advertising and news...
Curated OER
Tell Us All: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering
What a scam! Middle and high schoolers pose as journalists exposing consumer fraud. In this lesson, they write an article for a magazine using data collected during previous investigations (prior lessons) to defend their findings that a...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: History of the Periodic Table
Although the article that launches this lesson is about the history of the Periodic Table, the objective is reading comprehension. Using the eight-page informational text, learners answer five comprehension questions and craft one essay....
Scholastic
Lesson 3: Essay Organizer
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,...
Scholastic
Lesson 2: Values and Barriers
Scholars investigate and discuss the importance of values and how they can be used to break barriers. Small groups work collaboratively to examine the text and draw inferences to answer questions. A writing assignment challenges pupils...
Curated OER
Transition Words in Expository Writing
Create to learn! Your class can create posters of transitional words and phrases to help them compose an explanatory text. They work in groups and focus on one type of transition (time, place, importance, etc.). They also create a poster...
Teaching Tolerance
Community Newsletter
What does it take to develop and publish a newsletter? Young academics create a newsletter with original artwork for their school or community. They explore social justice themes and spread messages of tolerance and inclusion. Scholars...
Curated OER
Nellie Bly's Newspaper Club: Introducing the Science of Writing
Students evaluate a video about Nellie Bly, a famous reporter from the 19th century. They consider what makes a high-interest news article, write an essay in pairs and present it a literary tea.
Curated OER
Connotation: Three Lessons for Effective Word Choice
Over the course of three days, middle schoolers explore the concept of connotation. They differentiate between the connotative and denotative meanings of sports team names, develop their own team names, logos, and text, and revise a news...
Curated OER
Breaking News English: Diabetes
In this diabetes worksheet, learners read the article, answer true and false questions, complete synonym matching, complete phrase matching, complete a gap fill, answer short answer questions, answer discussion questions, write, and more...
Baruch College Writing Center
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Workshop
What's the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing? Show class members how to find the main ideas from informational text and condense it, restate it, or quote it directly with a series of educational activities based...
Roald Dahl
Matilda - The Third Miracle
Magnus takes a visit to the classroom in the 20th chapter of Matilda. Or does he? After reading, learners interview the person in the hot seat to get a detailed account of what happened during this chapter. Then, they write individual...
Curated OER
The Critical Period: Ch 1
True or false, the Articles of Confederation is taught in 8th grade? Here are 5 true/false and 5 multiple choice questions asking pupils to consider aspects of the Articles of Confederation.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Extra! Extra! Read All About It?
Remember the Lusitania! As part of their study of the causes of World War I, class members examine newspaper articles and propaganda posters about the sinking of the Lusitania and then craft their own news story about the event.
California Education Partners
Summer Olympics
Quickly get to the decimal point. The last assessment in a nine-part series requires scholars to work with decimals. Pupils compare the race times of several athletes and calculate how much they have improved over time. During the second...
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 4 ELA/Literacy)
Track the progress of your fourth graders' reading and writing skills with this practice Common Core assessment. Based on a collection of six reading passages that include narrative stories, poetry, and a series of...
PBS
Interviewing: The Art of Asking Questions
Interviewing skills are important, even outside of a news reporter's desk or employer's office. Take your class through the process of interviewing people they don't know with a set of case studies featuring journalists and various...
Curated OER
What Weather When and Where?
Students learn the difference between hard news and feature writing. They choose one of these news styles to write a compelling weather-related article based on interviews with local sources.
Scholastic
Wrapping Up the School Year
Students complete a variety of writing and yearbook activities to complete the school year. They write a letter to the student that will sit in their desk the next school year, and a letter to their next year's teacher. As a culminating...
Curated OER
Writing Headlines
Students define the purpose of headlines and practice writing their own. In this news writing lesson, students define the elements of headlines and view examples. Students read a news story in groups and create a headline for it....
Curated OER
Boning Up on Fossil Features
Students investigate a specific dinosaur; produce a poster relating what is known or speculated about where and how the dinosaur lived to the physical features of the dinosaur.
Curated OER
Captions and Graphic Aides
Fifth graders read a book. In this informational text features lesson, 5th graders define captions and their purpose. Students view an article and discuss the graphic aides that assist comprehending the information...
Curated OER
Global News: The Changing Face of Reading
A current and engaging informational text with some superb scaffolding activities, this six paragraph article discusses the release of the iPad from Apple, eBooks, and the history of reading and writing materials. After reading the...