Curated OER
Creative Writing
Fourth graders participate in an observation hike in this instructional activity. They orally share observations from their hike, and develop a paragraph in a shared writing exercise. Finally, the write their paragraph about process...
Curated OER
Color Code Writing
Students form letters and numbers using a technique called color code writing.
Curated OER
If I Were An Ant - Creative Writing
The teacher reads the story "If I Were An Ant" by Amy Moses. The students then each create a page in a classroom book about what a small object would look like if he/she was an ant. The student writes about their chosen object and then...
Curated OER
Writing Letters
Third graders discover that second graders have written them letters and are anxious to receive letters back. They read the letters and review with the teacher the proper ways of writing letters and then write return letters using words...
Curated OER
Numeral Recognition, Matching, and Writing
Students reinforce numeral recognition by matching and writing the numbers from 1-20. For this numeral recognition lesson, students count aloud sequentially from one to twenty, identify numerals 1-20, write numerals 1-20, and match...
Michigan State University
Create an Animal
Think beyond the animals and habitats we've already discovered and allow scholars to dream up their very own habitat and an animal that lives there. Class members present the new habitat and animal on a poster alongside an...
Curated OER
What's a Kid to Do?
Students participate in an environmental action letter-writing campaign. They conduct Internet research on the Global Response website, discuss various successful Global Response campaigns, select a campaign they are interested in, and...
Curated OER
American Civil Rights Movement, Photo Essay
Learners view photographs from the Civil Rights Movement and write an essay from the point of view of someone in the photograph. They artistically represent various aspects of the Movement.
Curated OER
A Year (a Day or a Week) In My Life as a Shorebird
Students describe the basic life history of one shorebird common to their area. They use the writing process which includes brainstorming, rough draft writing, peer editing, and re-writing to create a factually and grammatically...
Curated OER
Picture This!
Students explore and generate story elements for wordless picture books. In this collaborative writing lesson plan, students review wordless picture books and write a story based on the illustrations. Students use post-it notes to...
Curated OER
American Rhythms
High schoolers combine elements of music with poetry. In this creative writing lesson, students examine poems from a variety of authors with varying writing styles. High schoolers explore the different elements of poetry,...
Curated OER
The Diary of Anne Frank
Sixth graders explore journal writing. In this writing lesson plan, 6th graders use the published diaries of Anne Frank and discuss the entries in her journal. Students write in their own journal for a week and create a one page summary...
Curated OER
Charlotte's Web
Students complete a variety of activities related to the book "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White. They create a comic strip based on the characters, setting, and plot of the story, and examine the author's writing process. In small groups...
Curated OER
My Favorite Thing
Students write about their favorite thing using all five senses, where possible.
Curated OER
Adjective? What's an Adjective?
Mount a variety of pictures (fantasy, rustic, portraits, action) on large sheets of paper and post them around the classroom. Groups rotate from poster to poster, adding adjectives to describe each of the pictures. Writers use these word...
Curated OER
Research, Writing, and the 'Isms'
High schoolers research an art style. They create an original short story, poem, or personal essay and illustrate the written work with the style of art they researched.
Curated OER
Reading Meet Writing
Thinking about introducing your middle schoolers to reading log journals? Try the approach suggested by this resource. After reading to the class an article or portion of a novel, demonstrate a Think Aloud and then model how to transform...
Curated OER
Writing: The Perfect Teacher
Pupils explore the topics of respect and expectations by discussing attributes of a perfect teacher. After collecting their written responses, the teacher types them in a list, but changes the heading to "The Perfect Student." They...
Curated OER
Civil War Essay Writing
Students, in groups of three, research a topic about the Civil War. They present thier research to the class in an orally.
Curated OER
Photographic Memories
Explore how photographs can represent a whole story to a viewer. Middle schoolers work on narrative writing techniques in this lesson, focusing on photographs from the New York Times to write first-person descriptive narratives....
Curated OER
Reading Pictures, Seeing Poetry
Students examine the painting, The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan based on a poem by Lord Byron. They compare how Romantic artists and writers made choices about visual elements and language to depict their subjects.
Curated OER
A Whole Lotta Changin' Goin' On
Here's a fabulous lesson on the life cycle of a butterfly. Youngsters are able to identify and understand the four stages of life. They construct models of a caterpillar and write a sequence story about the life of a butterfly. This...
PBS
Does Art Imitate Life?
Write what you know, sound advice for any writer and something many famous authors are known to have done. Use these materials to explore how Shakespeare's life influenced his plays. This resource is packed with readings, video segments,...
Curated OER
Tech Integration Project Lesson Accelerator: Project Overview
Talk about technology in the classroom. This plan has all the resources needed to create a non-linear or branching story. Included is a step-by-step tutorial that walks middle schoolers through the project description, a model of a...