Ease young writers into the process of writing a story with a colorful presentation on story maps. Viewers use the provided sentence frames to craft a sample story as guided practice. They then draft their own stories to share with the...

Here is a fire safety lesson specifically designed for blind or visually impaired teens. They will attempt to exit the building safely, feeling for hot spots, heat drafts, and obstacles. A hairdryer, tape recorded fire sounds, and verbal...

Clearly written as an assignment for a higher-level education class, this formal lesson plan contains some fun and well-researched strategies for teaching the novel Tuck Everlasting  by Natalie Babbitt. Among the best ideas...

Close the unit on Esperanza Rising with an in-class analytic essay on how Esperanza changes over the course of the novel. Writers can use any of their notes and work from the unit as well as their drafts of the first two paragraphs of...

Looking for a great lesson plan 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. They follow a...

Grading essays after reading a novel written by a lyrical master (think Nabokov, Morrison, Chabon) is a deflating experience. Why can’t your student’s display the same skill in diction as your favorite writers? Because you did not use...

Ask your learners to synthesize what they know about Waiting for the Biblioburro by writing a well-organized paragraph. Young writers focus on using transition words and including specific details in their paragraphs. The plan allows for...

Using everything they have learned about writing paragraphs over the past few lessons of the unit, class members compose an informative paragraph independently. This is an authentic assessment of their ability, since learners have...

To celebrate National Poetry Month, young writers focus on the role letter writing has played in the development of poets. They begin by journaling three to five associations to a writing prompt that requires them to identify their...

Tap into the imaginative minds of young learners with a creative writing activity. After reading the myth Giants and Mosquitoes, this student guide supports young writers as they brainstorm and develop their very own creation myths....

The possibilities for effective collaboration, editing, and peer review are endless with Google Docs! This organized lesson plan details how to walk class members through establishing their Google Drive accounts, creating and sharing...

Set up your writers for writing strong introductions with a formula for putting together supported thesis statements. This reference page breaks the process down and provides an example of how to compose a thesis statement, develop a...

How should America respond to acts of domestic terrorism? What motivates or prompts a terrorist attack? After reading an opinion piece on the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, your learners will critically analyze factors that could have...

What would happen if you took a trip in a time machine? Have kids craft narratives about a trip to the past or the future. The prompt includes questions to consider in the writing, as well as lines for kids to jot down ideas on or use to...

Introduce drawing students to perspective with a series of lesson that detail how to draft images in one-, two-, and three-point perspective. Each exercise includes step-by-step, illustrated directions and examples.

If you could build your own world from the ground up, what would you include? Ask your pupils this question, and have them write about their worlds and share with partners. Then, show the short film, which includes some impressive world...

To demonstrate their understanding of a main idea and of text structures, learners read six paragraphs, draft a sentence explaining the main idea of the passage, create a title for the passage, and form a graphic organizer that...

How well do your pupils know My Antonia by Willa Cather? Take some time to create questions about the text. After examining a teacher model, individuals write questions that match each level of Bloom's Taxonomy and draft answers to these...

As you read a story or novel, have your class members put together and fill out a journal. They will have the chance to illustrate a cover page, draw and write about various topics, respond to a focus questions, and draft a paragraph.

After discussing Haley's techniques in his conclusion of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, class time is devoted to drafting, sharing, and getting feedback on writers' college essays.

After discussing the narrative structure, intended audience, and purpose of Chapter 1 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, class members draft their statement of purpose for a Common College Application prompt that distinguishes them from...

Writers use class time to develop the draft of their personal narratives, drawing on techniques Haley uses in The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Chapter 12 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X discusses Haley's narrative techniques, mainly how he uses point of view and foreshadowing to build interest and suspense. Class members read and annotate chapter 13 of the text as homework...

Class members take a break from discussing The Autobiography of Malcolm X to focus on their personal narrative essays. Before working on their drafts, they review what they have learned from their study of Haley's narrative about...