A site for both students and teachers to explore the writing of a research paper. Find teacher resources, student interactive mini-lessons, and a review of types of research resources.

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] A learning module that teaches students how to generate ideas and questions as a part of the writing process in five mini-lessons: Introduction, Writing the Persuasive Essay:...

This resource explores instructional practices for persuasive essay writing in English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies classes. It uses original content from the Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies: Focus on...

Links to 7 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2c: Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information.

Links to 8 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2d: Provide a concluding statement or section.

Links to 12 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2b: Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details.

Links to 18 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2a: Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension.

This lesson is a review of the unit on types of writing including purpose, audience, tone, the writing process, the four types of writing, and sentence fragments and run-ons. A quiz is provided.

This lesson is designed to help young scholars strengthen their research and writing skills, while learning more about the Civil War, as they produce an expository paragraph. Students will glean information from an article about the...

By using the children's book, Squirrel's New Year's Resolution, as an example, young scholars learn to write responses to the story and explain their own resolutions for the year. Site requires registration, but it is free.

This lesson plan includes activities associated with the book Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride. Because Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt were both a great deal alike, it made perfect sense that the two women were friends. In April...

Working on higher-level thinking skills with your readers is made easier with this lesson. You will have your students connect with and analyze a mystery story at their grade-appropriate level. Lesson plan, printable worksheets, and...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] A learning module that teaches students how to write a strong thesis statement in four mini-lessons: Introduction, A Thesis Should Be Debatable, A Thesis Should Be...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] A learning module that teaches students how to focus on a thesis in an expository text in four lessons: Introduction, Opening Statement: Your Thesis, Maintaining Your Thesis...

Contains plans for three lessons that introduce a nonfiction prereading strategy with the acronym THIEVES, which stands for Title, Headings, Introduction, Every first sentence, Visuals and vocabulary, End Questions, and Summary. In...

Teaching students to pay attention to headings and titles as they read? Here you'll find a practical application for using an expository text to apply the concept of using headings. Geared toward older elementary students, but lesson...

A five-part standards-based lesson plan in which students learn to write a 20 word summary of an informational text by focusing on answering the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. This strategy can be applied to any content...

Lesson plan designed for seventh graders. Students write expository essays that include details, facts, and examples. Includes prewriting handouts, some example paragraphs, some example prompts, and a scoring guide.

This PDF lesson focuses on writing a comparison/contrast essay, which is a great format for helping young scholars think deeply about two ideas or concepts with multiple similarities and differences. This type of essay has four-parts -1)...

Links to 40 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.4.2b: Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic.

In this interactive lesson, students will increase their understanding of the important role that freshwater mussels play in our watershed. Students will learn about freshwater mussel species, how mussels improve water quality in rivers...

Tremendous resource containing six lessons that use Charlotte's Web to teach various life cycles. Includes useful handouts in the appendix.

[Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson plan, students will use What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page to identify the main topic and key details using the illustrations and text. Students will...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will be taking a look at how authors of informational texts, such as expository texts, organize their writing and the effects that organization can have...