Curated OER
The Thrill of Big-Wave Surfing
Students view a PBS Nature program about big-wave surfing and participate in a class discussion about their experiences with surfing, body boarding, or body surfing. Students create a drawing based on a reading and post their art around...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Zines for Kids Multigenre Texts About Media Icons
Contains plans for nine lessons that ask students to create multigenre zines for popular culture figures that include letter, persuasive, narrative, acrostic poetry, comic, and biography/autobiography writing. To accomplish this,...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Suggestions for Memoirs: A Letter & Memoir About a Teacher
After reading the book, Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Palacco, which is about a teacher helping a student overcome a long struggle to learn to read, young scholars write a personal thank you letter to a teacher who helped them. Then...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: A Literature Inspired Writing Lesson: I Never Knew That!
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem discover that their seemingly "feeble" father has an astonishing ability with a rifle. For this assignment, writers will compose a letter to a parent or loved one, asking for a return letter that...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Smart Math and Writing
In this lesson, the poem "Smart" from Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein, is used as the mentor text. Students will write a map of the poem and then analyze it to discover what happened when trades with money were made and...
Patrick McSherry
Spanish American War Centennial: Lt. Eli Al. Helmick: 10th U. S. Infantry: Writes Home
Letter written by Lt. Eli Al. Helmick, 10th U. S. Infantry, during the Spanish-American war expresses the sentiment and attitude on the eve of the Battle of San Juan Hill.
Patrick McSherry
Spanish American War Centennial: Amaziah B Morrison of the Rough Riders Writes Home
Letter written by 40 year old Amaziah B. Morrison, enlistee of the 1st U. S. Volunteer Cavalry, "Rough Riders," while they were preparing to depart for the front during the Spanish-American War.the Rough Riders.
Patrick McSherry
Spanish American War Centennial: William A. Reese Jr. Of the 11th U. S. Infantry Writes Home
Series of letters written home during the Spanish-American War by Willian A. Reese, Jr. of the 11th U.S. Infantry.
Patrick McSherry
Spanish American War Centennial: Corporal James P. Jones: Writes Home From Trenches
Spanish-American War era letter written by Corporal James P. Jones describes events that occurred during the days following the attack at on the San Juan Heights, July 1, 1898.
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...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix:a Right Brained Writing Prompt: Serendipitous Alliteration: Letter S
Students use the alliteration generator to spark an idea for an alliterative narrative using the letter "S" and focusing on word choice and playing with words. An online page and a word choice checklist are provided for students to type...
University of Michigan
Transposed Tales of a French Missionary Among Indians in the Oregon Country
The author of this article writes of how letters written by French missionaries describing their experiences in Oregon in the 1800s, were greatly revised for publication in France, so that the narratives took on far more positive tones....
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Epistolary Narration
This slideshow focuses on epistolary narration, revealing a story through letters, documents, or diaries. It defines the term, explains what to look for to identify them, gives the two perspectives, and offers literary examples: C.S....
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Go West: Imagining the Oregon Trail
A 2,000-mile trek across a continent-with no idea what awaits you on the other side. Tell your students to put on their traveling shoes and prepare for the journey of their lives! In this lesson, students compare imagined travel...
EL Education
El Education: An a to Z Book of Homelessness
This ABC book about the lives of homeless people was created by 3rd and 4th grade students in Washington, D.C. The class took part in a Learning Expedition about homelessness in part because students walked by homeless individuals on...
University of North Carolina
"Life and Times of Frederick Douglass": Text
HTML full text of the "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass," the autobiography of the 19th century African American abolitionist (1818-1895).
Library of Congress
Loc: Nineteenth Century Women: Struggle and Triumph Lesson Plan
Journals, letters, and narratives reveal a part of America's history not revealed in textbooks, the story of women, namely the women of the 1800s. With this lesson, students gain understanding of women and history through various primary...