Open Oregon Educational Resources
About Writing: A Guide
Ever wish writing was as easy as 1,2,3? About Writing: A Guide outlines the steps to successful writing. The guide begins by explaining the types of writing and then takes readers through the process. The guide even includes a section...
Curated OER
Writing the Essay
Relate the structure of the essay to the structure of a building. The class compares an essay to a building, with the writer being the architect, the introduction being the foundation, and so on. They use the visual representation of a...
K20 LEARN
A Write At The Museum: Ekphrastic Poetry
Which came first—the painting or the poem? In this case, it is the painting. Scholars closely examine a work of art and then craft an ekphrastic poem in response. A carefully scaffolded nine-page plan leads young poets through the process.
Curated OER
A Seashell Lesson: Writing for Detail and the Scientific Process
Practice descriptive language in this lesson, which prompts elementary and middle schoolers to write detailed descriptive sentences describing a seashell. They write a description of a shell, create an illustration, and other students...
Curated OER
Write a Description
Finding the central idea is the focus of this activity. Middle schoolers write descriptions of different animals using details and descriptive language. They watch a video of kids using descriptive language, and then use showing language...
Curated OER
Best Part of Me
After listening to the story, The Best Part of Me, learners will identify a positive physical feature of themselves, and create a descriptive poem about their favorite feature. Photographs are taken, and a nice final draft of the poem is...
Curated OER
Writing Process- Expository Writing
Expository writing is the focus of the language arts lesson presented here. In it, young writers review what expository writing is through a class discussion and teacher demonstration. Then, learners write expository text that describes...
Curated OER
Further Improvements of Writing Skills
Improve writing skills by finding a personal writing style, using descriptive language effectively, and using precise language. Middle schoolers discuss individual style in writing and formal and informal language. They utilize figures...
Ware County Schools
Simple Directions
When teaching someone how to do something, it's important to give clear directions. Your youngsters can practice their skills by completing these worksheets meant to help learners describe the steps in a process. It's not just any...
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Writing Prompts for Elementary, Middle and High Schools
Work on descriptive, narrative, persuasive, and expository writing with 110 prompts! The writing prompts are organized by type of writing. Several are separated into collections for younger students so you can find prompts for your...
Curated OER
Writing Prompts for High School
Here’s a great teacher resource - thirty-five writing prompts designed for high school writers. Categories include cause and effect, definition, expository/informative, persuasive, how to, descriptive, narrative, biographical narrative,...
Curated OER
Fortune Cookies Motivate Writing
Fortune cookies are used as motivation for a story. In this creative writing lesson, young writers review the six traits process. They discuss interesting characters, setting, problem and solution in a story. Original stories based on...
Curated OER
Use The Polar Express to Develop Rich and Detailed Writing
Bring The Polar Express into your middle school classroom to spark the creativity of your emerging writers.
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...
Administrative Office of the US Courts
Nomination Process
"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States..." Scholars investigate the nomination process of Supreme Court justices when assuming office. Through examination of primary and secondary...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Elaboration, Revision, and Proofreading
Designed to help writers strengthen their elaboration, revision, and proofreading skills, this 48-page workbook is packed with information about and exercises in personal, narrative, persuasive, and report writing.
Curated OER
Texas in the Mirror
Students research their own and others' perceptions about Texas and become familiar with various symbols from other cultures. In this Texas in the Mirror lesson plan, students write a web page with a picture of a Texan symbol. Students...
Curated OER
Identifying Personification in Poetry
Improve your young poets' descriptive writing with this lesson plan on personification. A SMART board and PowerPoint presentation guide your class through the process of identifying human qualities attributed to various non-human...
Curated OER
Bucket List Poetry
What is on your pupils' "Bucket Lists" - the list of things they want to do before they die? Their choices of activities for this list could be very revealing, and is a great source of inspiration for a personal poem. The lesson prompts...
Curated OER
How to Write a Biography
Looking for a great instructional activity on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography....
State University of New York
Going Back in Time Using “George Washington’s Socks”
After reading Elvira Woodruff's George Washington's Socks, young readers and writers embark upon writing their own historically based story, with a focus on developing ideas and details throughout the piece. In small groups, class...
EngageNY
Writing the Children’s Book: Day One
With a brief mini-lesson plan, scholars learn about using strong verbs, sensory details, and precise descriptions. Next, pupils continue working on their children's book storyboards before choosing their strongest pages for peer critiques.
Curated OER
Marvelous Mysteries
Fifth graders explore mystery stories. In this reading and writing lesson plan, 5th graders complete a planning guide for an original mystery. Students use the writing process to create a mystery story.
Project Noah
Writing Goes Wild
Young scientists develop their observation and writing skills as they craft and then post a detailed description of a plant or animal they have spotted and photographed.