Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Strong Descriptive Writing: James and the Giant Peach

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Descriptive Writing: Using Art to Inspire description

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Write with the senses! Try using art to inspire writers to consider all of the senses. Here, the class is divided in half. Each group looks at one of two images, imagines the senses that would be engaged, and records answers to five...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Our Dinopals with WordArt

For Teachers 1st - 5th Standards
Elementary schoolers use the writing process steps to write a descriptive paragraph about a fictional dinosaur. Using a tech tool lesson, they create a graphic title for the paragraph. A nice blending of technology with "old-fashioned"...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing the Essay

For Teachers 5th - 8th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Scripting The Great Train Robbery

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Take writing prompts to another level in this activity, which allows pupils to create scenes of dialogue based on the 1903 silent film, The Great Train Robbery. Useful for a language arts/history cross-curricular activity, the lesson...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Write Your Own Screen Play

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students critique the transition of "Holes" from a novel to screenplay and consider how the details in a book are brought to life in a movie. They then choose a scene in a book and transform it into an original script after brainstorming...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Magical Creatures Land

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
The opening of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit provides a model of how to use rich details to create a setting. After reading the description of Bilbo Baggins’ abode, young writers create their own magical home for a fantasy creature. The...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan: Before and After a Moment in Time

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Think about a moment, frozen in time. Now take a critical look at the painting, Better, Homes, Better Gardens. This painting works to provide learners the opportunity to analyze art, critique artist's choices, and write a story inspired...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Adventurous Magic

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students investigate storytelling by creating their own dialogue. In this writing development lesson, students read the story Jeremy Thatch, Dragon Hatcher in class and discuss their own magical object they wish to write a story about....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ant Writing

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students become effective writers. They need to practice strategies for working through the writing process. By presenting the students with a creative problem, they must choose a position and support it accordingly.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Get Your Mojo Workin': Part 1 Writing Your Very Own Blues Tune!

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Upper graders listen to the blues. They discuss blues scale, read a description of the blues, and work together to write an original piece. A lesson like this ties into American history and African-American musical contributions very...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson: Patience, Practice and Persistence

For Teachers 6th - 12th
First the class analyzes the painting, Rodeo-Pickup Man by Frank Mechau, then they get to work. They explore the painting through verbal descriptions, focusing on vivid language to describe detail. They then compose a written piece using...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Monster Writings

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders practice descriptive writing by describing a fictitious monster they created.  In this language arts lesson plan, 4th graders illustrate an image of a monster character they imagine and practice using their vocabulary...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Final Reports

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students write reports, including a summary of their research findings and their historical journal entries, to be shared with friends and families, and publish their reports.
Lesson Plan
Film English

If At First You Don't Succeed

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
When faced with a challenge, how do your pupils respond? Starting with character analyses, learners participate in a lesson about appearances and perseverance. They watch a short film, talk about common English expressions, and write a...
Lesson Plan
University of Chicago

Using Artifacts for Clues About Identity

For Teachers 6th - 10th Standards
Learn about the ancient Near East through a close examination of ancient artifacts. Lead your class into analysis by first observing an artifact as a class. Pupils can then work in pairs to analyze the other artifacts and compile a list...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Animation Pre-Production

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Does your class love reading cartoons? Use their talents and interests to examine the process of writing a story they wish to tell through a cartoon. They develop the beginning, middle, and end of a story based on their original...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students discover the process of writing,. including the different steps to be taken in accomplishing the writing process to come up with the final published pieces.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Word Choice in Writing

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders explore language arts by writing dialogue. In this vocabulary choice lesson, 6th graders identify synonyms and the importance of using a thesaurus while writing dialogue in their own original work. Students revise and edit...
Activity
Curated OER

Lesson Plan 18: Art Project! Design Your Own Book Cover

For Teachers 3rd - 9th
Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...
Unit Plan
New York City Department of Education

Theater Units for Lower and Upper Elementary Levels

For Teachers K - 6th Standards
Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Picture It-Robot Writing!

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders use their listening skills to sketch draft pictures of robots described in paragraphs read by their teacher. They transfer their robot sketches to word processing documents using software drawing tools.
Lesson Plan
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District

Eric Carle Mural

For Students K - 2nd Standards
Inspire first grade artists to learn about abstract and realistic art while reading Eric Carle's Where are you Going? To See My Friend. Young artists design and make a mural collage by tearing shapes of paper while comparing English and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating Plays from Children's Stories

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explain how individual elements (e.g., plot, theme, character, conflict, etc.) comprise the structure of a play. They write an original one-act play with developed characters, specific setting, conflict, and resolution.