San José State University
Revising for Clarity: Characters and Their Actions
This handout offers a three-step process for revising sentences for clarity: diagnose, analyze, revise. After reading an example sentence revision with a detailed explanation, learners complete three sample sentences using the three-step...
San José State University
Essay Exams: Common Question Types
Novice writers often struggle to determine what style of essay to write when given a prompt. This worksheet helps to identify an appropriate form based on the language of the question. For example, key words like prove or justify...
Conneticut Department of Education
Instructional Strategies That Facilitate Learning Across Content Areas
Imagine 28 instructional strategies, appropriate for all subject areas and all grade levels. Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (DRTA), Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) activities, KWL charts, comparison matrixes, classification...
San José State University
Sentence Fragments
Work on sentence fragments with your class using this handout and brief exercise. This resource, which could be used as a reference sheet for learners, goes into detail about complete sentences and the different errors that cause...
Edgemont Elementary School
Scientific Method Unit
Four out of five teenagers experiment with science by accident. This unit teaches the five parts of the scientific method through examples, guided practice, independent practice, and then through a hands-on experiment. Each step is...
Walters Art Museum
The Symbolism of Allegorical Art
Introduce learners to allegorical art with four bronze sculptures by Francesco Bertos. After modeling how to recognize bias and allegory in Bertos' Africa, class groups examine the other three sculptures in the series before creating...
Achieve3000
Figurative Language
Similes and metaphors make writing more beautiful and detailed, but can be a little harder to decipher during a first reading. Use a passage from The Man Who Loved Words to show young readers how to think through passages that...
Minnesota Literacy Council
Scientific Method
Here is a resource with a descriptive approach to explaining the scientific method. It's simple, but effective for both introduction and reinforcement of this concept.
The Write Place
Literacy Education Online
Literacy Education Online (or LEO) is a great place to start if you need help with your writing. The homepage is organized around kinds of problems or questions you might have concerning your writing. Find your problem, click on the...
The Write Place
Literacy Education Online: Sensory Details
This site provides several sample sentences which show sensory details and aid students in writing specific rather than general sentences. It is a good site for someone preparing to write a descriptive essay. W.9-10.3d Precise/sensory...
University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina: Writing Center: Handouts: Evidence
What kinds of evidence best support the points you make in a paper? Where can you find the evidence you need? This handout answers all these questions and more, including the difference between primary and secondary sources. You'll also...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Supporting Details: Statistics
This lesson focuses on using statistics as supporting details. It explains why statistics make powerful supporting details, however, these can be skewed to show different outcomes. It suggests looking carefully when using statistics to...
The Write Place
Literacy Education Online: Logical Fallacies
This site from the St. Cloud State University provides many links in this index with general writing help. Under "Development" you'll find "Sensory Details." Under "Logical Fallicies" you'll find a link by the same name. Look under...
SUNY Empire State College
Empire State College: Writing Style Seminar
This detailed resource provides a good tutorial on writing style, whether informal or formal. It explains how to get style through word and sentence choice and includes lots of examples. W.9-10.1d & W.9-10.2e Style/tone/conv,...
University of Ottawa (Canada)
University of Ottawa: Writing Paragraphs
This site from the University of Ottawa provides a wonderfully designed website that not only gives you exhaustive information on paragraph writing. Students will engage in starting with outlines, writing topic sentences, dividing their...
University of Toronto (Canada)
University of Toronto: Standard Documentation Formats
Documenting Internet resources is becoming standardized. You'll find some of the basics here, plus links to more detailed guidelines now included in respected academic style guides. L.9-10.3a Standard Format, W.11-12.6 Technology,...
W. W. Norton
W.w. Norton & Company: Elements of the Essay: Evidence
An explanation of how to incorporate evidence into an essay in order to provide support for the thesis.