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Writing a Letter of Recommendation
Students compose letters of recommendation. For this written communication lesson, students read sample letters of recommendation and then write their own letters.
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The Writing Process
Students engage in the various steps involved in the writing process. The lesson plan is written as a guide for the teacher to write more in depth lesson plans for specific activities. This is a good model plan to follow.
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Capitalization and Punctuation
First and second graders explore writing conventions. They add question marks or periods to the end of teacher generated sentences on sentence strips. They locate punctuation marks in poems and write original sentences using appropriate...
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K-W-L Chart
After choosing a topic of interest, young learners use the K-W-L thinking process to create an informational, illustrated, big book. K-W-L, a three-part thinking process, asks the learner to respond to three questions: What do we know...
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The All About Me Poster
First and second graders become familiar with the components of a biography. In this language arts lesson, pupils create an "All About Me" page using components of a biography. They also create an interractive poster, and work with a...
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Map Me a Paragraph
There are so many great reading strategies. In this instructional activity, learners practice decoding. They break down two paragraphs to analyze and determine main ideas and details. They each observes ways to model as they map their...
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Magical Creatures Land
The opening of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit provides a model of how to use rich details to create a setting. After reading the description of Bilbo Baggins’ abode, young writers create their own magical home for a fantasy creature. The...
San José State University
Essay Outline Template
Inspire essay organization with this handout and exercise about outlining. Writers read through a brief outline model and then practice writing their own outline by completing a second model. Scholars not only complete the outline, they...
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Stories
Read, discuss, and write short stories with your primary class. They read a short story and complete worksheets for the story. They also brainstorm ideas for a class story and choose an idea to write 3 ideas and then write the story as a...
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Using Details from Text to Identify Author's Purpose
Explore writing techniques by analyzing newspapers and magazines with middle schoolers. They will collaborate in small groups to read local news stories and identify the main ideas and author's intent. They also utilize an information...
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Spelling, Capitalization, and Punctuation
Elementary schoolers explore writing conventions. First they play a ball toss game to practice spelling high frequency words. (A link to a 2nd grade list is attached.) The class works together to correct spelling, punctuation, and...
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Persuasive Essays
Follow this outline to write persuasive essays with your 11th grade college prep classes. Using the internet, they research a topic, citing their sources correctly. They work with a partner to peer edit their rough drafts, checking for...
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Counting Sentences' Words
Explore language arts by completing a worksheet with class. They read the story Owl Moon and discuss the rhythm of the writing and how action verbs are used appropriately. Then complete a writing worksheet which discusses writing...
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Phonemic Awareness: Blending
First graders listen closely as their teacher sounds out a variety of words, one phoneme at a time. They then practice blending sounds to create words on their own. Tip: While you sound out words have your class write down each phoneme...
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Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
Do your young readers know that poems can be performed as a team? They listen to a few examples from Paul Fleischman's book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, paying attention to how the how readers work together. They examine the...
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Compare and Contrast Nonfiction Texts
Explore nonfiction writing by comparing and contrasting two different texts. After reading two nonfiction books, articles, or magazines, students utilize a graphic organizer to record their similarities and differences. They answer study...
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Vocabulary: Identify and Define Multiple Meaning Words in Context
Context can make all the difference. Early readers discover the importance and usefulness of context by examining the word bark in a variety of sentences. Each sentence provides learners with a context they can use to determine the...
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Edgar Allen Poe And The Art Of Composition
High schoolers evaluate several works by Edgar Allen Poe based on the criteria in his essay, "The Philosophy of Composotion" Their analysis is documented using a graphic organizer. Learners begin the pre-writing process for their own...
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Marine Habitats of Galveston Island
Four lessons introduce elementary ecologists to salt marsh and sandy beach habitats. In the first lesson plan, they place shells and other materials in vinegar to determine if they contain calcium carbonate. In the second lesson plan,...
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Building a Case for Clues
Here's a strategy that can be used with any narrative, whether read by the instructor or as independent reading. At the end of each chapter, learners predict, using prior knowledge as clues, what will happen in the next chapter. Readers...
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A Creative Presentation
Bring writing to life with this lesson plan in which elementary and middle schoolers create a display of the imagery they identify in a series of Gary Paulsen books. They read the suggested materials, identify imagery and descriptive...
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Venn Diagram for Compare/Contrast
Use this lesson to focus on a compare and contrast writing structure in your middle school language arts class. Here, young writers compare and contrast two texts using graphic organizers. They use a double bubble format for their...
E Reading Worksheets
Don't Tell. Show!
As part of a study of narrative writing, young story tellers are asked to revise 20 telling sentences and create showing ones.
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Introduce Vocabulary: I Hate To Be Sick
Engaged in a read aloud, kids use the story to define new vocabulary words, raising their hands when they hear new words in the story. Additionally, individuals refer to the text to show how the word was used in context. Vocabulary words...