Creative writing allows your students to explore their imagination and connect to literature in a personal way. This presentation will help you discuss what a good writing lead, or attention grabber is. Included are a list of lead types...

What is the difference between an adjective and an adverb? Encourages scholars to explore the answer to this question while building a foundation of the English language. The lesson comes complete with an attention grabber, notes, and a...

Help your learners get a good grasp on grammar. An insightful pre-test allows teachers to learn about their young writers' knowledge of the building blocks of grammar, so they can begin building a unit of study. It includes a...

Are you looking to engage your class with logic questions? Here is a simple activity in which learners use critical thinking skills to solve two questions. Use as a center activity or as a whole class attention-grabber.

Students create their own alphabet book using clip art in a publishing program. They are read Dr. Seuss's ABC by Dr. Seuss as an "attention grabber."

Key parts of an introductory paragraph (grabber sentence, connecting information, thesis) are highlighted in a presentation that uses color-coded sample paragraphs to illustrate how these parts combine to form a complete opening paragraph.

Scholars read "Doc-Lap at Last" and participate in a Three Threes in a Row activity in which they answer three questions about the text in their rows. They then discuss the central idea of the text. Readers finish the lesson plan with a...

Considering a research paper for freshman and sophomores? Here's a template designed to meet the W.9-10.7 and 8 Common Core writing standards. Writers outline their research question, claims, counterarguments, support, commentary, and...

Introduce and challenge the essay organization skills of your junior high writers with the paper reconstruction activity in this demonstration.  Theydetermine what the word organization means, and discover the basic organizational...

Was Thomas Jefferson a hypocrite? Tackle this question with primary source analysis and an essay. The packet includes historical background, a writing prompt, a combined outline and checklist, and ten primary documents paired with...

Students listen to the song :King of Pain" by the Police. They identify different instrumentation and different rhythmic accompaniments to the opening vocal phrase and explore the text in-depth, discussing the various poetic images of...

Pupils read the book The Giving Tree and discuss the sense of community the book talks about. In this community lesson plan, students discuss how they can help one another and they can treat each other nicely.

Students read writing samples and discuss the differences between the writing with and without anecdotal examples. They write expository essays that include personal anecdotes.

Ninth graders explore the techniques for writing an effective introduction and concluding paragraph in their academic essay. They create an outline of where they plan to take the reader and explore the methods for creating an...

First graders study their teacher. In this first day of school activity, 1st graders listen to a book created by the teacher that details the characteristics of the teacher (likes, dislikes, who he/she is, where he/she lives, etc). They...

Third graders explore companion planting. For this lesson, 3rd graders listen to the Native American story The Three Sisters about crop planting. Students determine the important roles within companion planting.

Third graders explore animal characteristics by participating in a bat environment game. In this natural habitat lesson, 3rd graders identify the physical anatomy of a bat and discuss their eating and sleeping habits. Students conduct a...

This site shows students how to write an introduction, body, and conclusion to create a complete paper. Students see examples of two different types of introductions, get ideas for attention grabbers, gain understanding of the type of...

A six-part learning module with links to images, videos, and websites about using sizzling starts to grab the reader's attention at the beginning of a writing piece.

After reading an engaging paragraph from Brave Margaret: An Irish Adventure by Robert D. San Souci and then work on writing good opening paragraphs for their own stories. Teacher and student instructions are provided along with student...

Learn about different hooks to use when writing a good introduction including: telling a story, providing interesting background information, setting up a contrast, and using a combination of approaches.