Curated OER
Water Creative Writing
Students red and discuss an example of a biographical essay. They read The Last of the Falling Tide by Car Hiassen, answer factual questions concerning the work, and create their own story about a natural place they are familiar with ,...
Curated OER
Time Travel Writing Assignment using "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury
Students examine the consequences of time travel through the analysis of the short story "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury.  They watch a PowerPoint presentation, conduct Internet research on endangered ecosystems, and create a...
Curated OER
An Irish Blessing
Young scholars explore Irish culture by participating in a creative writing activity. In this good will writing lesson, students define "Irish Blessings" and utilize computer software to create a template for a blessing they will write....
Curated OER
T-shirts Build School & Community Pride
Students explore ways to promote community pride by creating t-shirts.  In this community activity, students utilize a digital camera to take photographs of their hometown and transfer them to a t-shirt.  Students complete a...
Curated OER
Variations of Pain
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...
Novelinks
The Tempest: A-Z Book Project
Create a picture dictionary for one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays. After readers finish The Tempest, they assign each letter of the alphabet to a concept or character, and add a description and evidence from...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: A Guided Tour
Albert Bierstadt's painting Wind River Country shows viewers how a reader progresses through a story. Your class studies the light and dark areas, how the eye moves across the painting, and what attracts the audience to the work, and...
EngageNY
Vocabulary: Human Rights
Your class continues to explore the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to learning about the background of this text, learners work on the skill of identifying and understanding key academic vocabulary....
Virginia Department of Education 
Genetic Variation and Mutations
Young scientists demonstrate their creativity while completing several activities, to assess genetic variations and mutations. Instructors provide a list of options and scientists choose to write a comic strip, create a book,...
National Park Service
A Natural Resource Called Peace
Get your pupils outside and teach them about peace at the same time! Scholars create a list describing peace, hike outside, add to that list, and later create poems. The exercises support differentiation for your individual classes as...
Novelinks
Walk Two Moons: Story Impressions
Story chains connect literary concepts, reinforce context clues, and even help learners predict what's coming next! Using words from the next chapter of Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons, middle schoolers craft story chains to...
EngageNY
Contrasting Two Settings (Chapter 6: "Lost Melones/Cantalouples")
Continue working through Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, by looking into language choices and discussing text-dependent questions. Pupils converse in small groups and as a class about plot, setting, and figurative language. Using...
EngageNY
Understanding Themes in Esperanza Rising
Determining a theme or central idea is greatly emphasized in the Common Core standards. Target that skill though big metaphors and central symbols in Pam Muñoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising. Help your class reach the standard through...
Curated OER
Storytelling
Show young readers how to put some personality and voice into their storytelling with an in-depth assignment. Kids practice saying the same thing, such as counting from one to ten, in different tones and perspectives, and then work on...
EngageNY
Unknown Angle Proofs—Writing Proofs
What do Sherlock Holmes and geometry have in common? Why, it is a matter of deductive reasoning as the class learns how to justify each step of a problem. Pupils then present a known fact to ensure that their decision is correct.
K12 Reader
Expand it! Writing Complex Sentences
Instruct your pupils to make those simple sentences complex! For this exercise, learners are given eight pairs of complete sentences and subordinating conjunctions. It's their job to transform each sentence by using the subordinating...
Digital Writing and Research Lab's – Lesson Plans
Teaching Close Reading through Short Composition/Revision
This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...
Curated OER
Teaching Descriptive Word Usage
Second graders practice their creative writing by using descriptive words.  For this language arts lesson, 2nd graders utilize their best descriptive writing to elaborate on one of 20 different bean bag characters.  Students...
Curated OER
A Creative Way of Reporting on Books
By using creative ways to complete book reports, like using cereal boxes, you can motivate students.
Curated OER
Inspiring Students With the Right Writing Prompts
With the right writing prompts, you can help students produce creative and imaginative work.
Curated OER
Dear Diary
Students analyze a piece of writing by creating diary entries based on a character.  In this reading comprehension lesson, students read an assigned book with their classmates and create a sketch of what they believe the main...
Curated OER
Writing Worksheets Can Help Students Organize Their Thoughts
Teachers can help their students organize their ideas with the use of writing worksheets.
Pearson
End-of-Year Portfolio Guidelines
Go beyond a traditional end-of-the-year survey and have your middle school pupils compile a portfolio of work illustrating their progression as a writer. 
Calculated Industries
Army Survival
Intended as a reference tool for US Army personnel, this application can be used in a classroom that is studying historic and current wars or as part of an outdoor education or wilderness survival course. Some of the subjects addressed...