The Grapes of Wrath. The Jungle. Native Son. The Things They Carried. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. To address a current social, political, economic, or environmental issue, class groups pair the reading of a...

How do writers use evidence from literary texts to support analysis and reflection? With instructional activity 17 of 20 from the Grade 8 ELA Module 1, Unit 2 series, learners gather resources to prepare for an end-of-unit assessment....

Conclude a study of The Odyssey with a writing assignment that asks readers to investigate a central theme in Homer's tale. Scholars either provide positive and negative examples of hospitality or look for evidence of how the gods...

Move beyond the five-paragraph essay with a lesson plan introducing young writers to various forms of expository writing. Class members examine description, cause and effect, problem solution, sequence, and comparison forms. They create...

Upper elementary and middle school writers learn how to craft an expository paragraph by following the six steps detailed in a 48-page instructional guide. Learners learn how to write six different types of informational paragraphs:...

Step into a scientist's shoes to go online and discover the Florida Springs Expedition, and participate in two activities focusing on how humans impact the environment. The first activity asks scholars to summarize the six...

Introduce your young writers to the basic five-paragraph essay. The fun part of this presentation is the stance of the essay used to illustrate the format. The writer of the model essay contends that the Twilight series is a terrible...

The great thing about this presentation on the traditional five-paragraph essay is the color coding. Each aspect of the essay is followed by a concise description and an example. Then a complete paragraph is presented with the key...

Twenty prompts reinforce scholars' writing skills of essays and poems. Prompts cover topics such as superpowers, holidays, the weather, and more!

Design an informational brochure to urge people to move to a specific community. The purpose of this activity is to expose pupils to expository writing. After creating the brochure, they write a three-paragraph persuasive or...

Anybody can write a body paragraph! Pupils analyze the development of ideas in a body paragraph from a model essay. Next, using what they've learned, they draft the body paragraphs of their My Rule to Live By informative essay. 

Read like a writer. Scholars read a model literary analysis in preparation for a similar writing assignment before annotating each paragraph for the gist. Next, pupils devise a list of qualities of a strong literary analysis essay. 

A good prompt is hard to find, especially ones that encourage application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of a text. Help is here in the form of a prompt list for George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four that offers essay topics that...

Class members practice their writing skills by completing a prompt about maturity. They develop a constructed response about something they once thought was important, but may not be as important now. 

Winter, spring, summer, and fall! Every season is covered in a 14-page list of writing prompts. Included are story starters, reflection questions, poetry topics, and more.

Ready, set, write! Every great film begins with a script, and every presentation starts with a plan. Directors use their research and experience to compose an essay explaining the rationale behind their film's musical and visual choices...

In expository writing, it is important to back up claims with evidence and details. Help your class to develop their writing with notes on different types of evidence. Once they have the basics down, practice with a sample thesis and...

Class members dig into the expectations for the end-of-unit assessment for A Mighty Long Way by studying the rubric. The Rubric Criteria strips help pairs of readers look more closely at specific rubric points. They share ideas with the...

What's one way to make a good essay great? Revise! Scholars revise their drafts from a previous lesson plan to help write their final polished analytical essays about the universal refugee experience. They also practice properly citing...

To complete a study of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, readers select a well-known quotation or symbol from the novel to use in an essay that analyzes how the quotation or symbol relates to the novel's themes.

Students synthesize information from various resources. In this expository essay writing lesson, students view three video segments and take notes.  Students analyze notes in peer groups and write an expository essay.

The beauty of the way this expository writing resource is structured is that the units can be presented as a complete writing workshop or sequenced throughout a course of study

Prompt your class to write about the spread of Islam. They'll answer three essay questions about Islam. They explain how Islam spread into Africa, Asia, and Europe, compare and contrast Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, then describe...