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All About Me Books
Young authors write books about themselves using one of the identified types of literature and the writing process. They identify the common characteristics among the books in each group, edit, and gift their books to a younger student.
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Our Dinopals with WordArt
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"...
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Writing Novelettes
Students practice their writing techniques by creating a novelette. For this creating writing lesson, students brainstorm and decide on a topic they would like to expand upon in order to create their own novelette. Students...
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Costume Exploration
What a great instructional activity, upper graders are sure to love. They explore costume design and the relationships between theatre, culture, and history. They research three time periods, write a response about two of them, then...
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Make a Memory with Movie Maker
There is nothing more exciting than allowing learners to express themselves through a creative medium. In groups, they write narrative stories, focusing on building a strong storyline and dialogue. Next, they transform their stories into...
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Hands on Essays
Third graders relate the concept of individuality of geometric shapes to the individuality of topic sentences. They write and revise a persuasive argument essay using an established rubric.
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Nellie Bly's Newspaper Club: Introducing the Science of Writing
Students evaluate a video about Nellie Bly, a famous reporter from the 19th century. They consider what makes a high-interest news article, write an essay in pairs and present it a literary tea.
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Word Choice in Writing
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...
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Writing
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.
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Building Original Narratives
Fourth graders act out and write original narratives. In this theater meets writing lesson, 4th graders work in groups to create original narratives; after students act out their story, they write it down as a narrative.
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Scrapbook
Students, using photos as their inspiration, develop six personal narratives, then edit and revise them.
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Crazy Critters Creative Writing
Students brainstorm animals with unusual characteristics such as a giraffe with a short neck or a zebra without stripes. They write paragraphs about their animals and work in peer editing groups to refine their stories.
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Neighborhood Rubrics
Students use a rubric to analyze their neighborhood and write a persuasive essay about changes that should be made. In this writing lesson, students use a rubric to grade their neighborhood and brainstorm improvements. Students write a...
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Dali & Desnos: Surrealism in Poetry and Art
Students research the surrealism movement and its primary artists. Language is also analyzed, and students will create their own original poem utilizing surrealistic techniques.
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Online Collaborative Writing Lesson Plan
Students write poetry and post it on the Internet for others to see.
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"All About Me" Paragraph
Fifth graders write a paragraph titled "All About Me" in the computer lab after they have drawn graphic organizers to fill in background information about themselves and used a "10-Point Writing Checklist" to do peer editing.
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Rainbow Writing
Students examine how to use a rainbow picture as a graphic organizer through the use of color-coding. They produce a writing piece using this graphic organizer. They expand their writing from simple paragraphs to multi-paragraph stories.
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The Poetics of Hip Hop
The Bard, Nikki Giovanni, Mos Def? “Sonnet 18,” Ego Tripping,” and “Black on Both Sides”? Sure! It’s the poetics. Class members compare the lyrics, rhythm, and rhyme in classic poetry to hip-hop in a richly detailed resource that...
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Final Reports
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.
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Dinosaur Stomp
Second graders write a dinosaur poem using information from a research activity. In this dinosaur poetry and music lesson, 2nd graders listen to the book Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp in music class. They work in small groups to...
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Life Cycle of Butterfly
Second graders investigate life cycles of insects by writing a story. In this butterfly life lesson, 2nd graders create a checklist of the many steps a caterpillar takes before growing wings and flying. Students utilize...
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Is That a Bird in Your Hat?
Second graders imagine they find an injured bird. They create a clay bird and nest to stimulate creative writing. The lesson includes an integrated week-long art, science, and writing activity.
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The Poetics of Hip Hop
Students consider the role of rhythm, form, diction, and sound in poetry. In this integrated arts instructional activity, students discuss the attributes of poetry as they analyze Shakespearean sonnets, hip hop music lyrics, and...
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The Elf Project
Third graders research elves and create their own elf description which they use to write back to the first graders Santa letters.