Virginia Department of Education
Developing an essay: Using specific nouns, strong verbs, and vivid adjectives
Feeling bored and unimpressed with word choice in your class? If so, consider this activity, which focuses on using specific and precise language. Pupils use highlighters, brainstorm independently and in small groups, and create a poster...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Workshop (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Bring this lesson into your unit about creative writing and precise language. First, middle schoolers create a piece of writing with the help of their classmates. In the second part of this workshop, they edit their own piece of writing....
Curated OER
Nouns
In this nouns worksheet, students read 5 sentences and determine which noun in the word bank completes each sentence soundly and precisely.
Curated OER
Precise Vocabulary
Students complete acting exercises as a part of a precise language activity to help them build vocabulary and improve their descriptive writing skills. In this theatre and writing lesson, students create and act out a sentence with two...
Curated OER
8 Parts of Speech
Review the basics when it comes to grammar. Each slide provides learners with examples and definitions of one of the eight parts of speech. A great resource to keep handy for review, to clear up confusion, or to introduce the topic....
Curated OER
Vivid Verbs
Spice up your writing! Your amateur writers will benefit from concentrating on understanding and improving verb use in writing. An introductory activity addresses weak verbs. A second exercise helps them see the importance of strong...
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Grammar Worksheet: Lie vs. Lay
To do something to someone or something or not to do something to someone. That is the question. And it is the source of the confusion between lie and lay. The strength of this worksheet is in the clear, cogent explanation for the...
San José State University
Avoiding Nominalization
Improve syntax with this explanatory handout. It clarifies one way to make writing more precise: avoiding nominalization. This resource provides four ways to find and change nominalization problems and 10 sentences to correct. There are...
Curated OER
Show, Don't Tell: Details to Make Writing Come Alive
After each of three viewings of a 45-second video, aspiring writers employ vivid adjectives and precise, strong verbs to "show, don't tell." First they compose a single sentence, then three, and finally a five-sentence paragraph. Repeat...
Curated OER
Improving Your Style Pronouns
In this writing style activity, students learn to improve their style by replacing nouns and noun phrases with pronouns. Students complete three activities to help them with pronouns.
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American Flag History
Young historians explore US culture by investigating the US flag. They will use their textbooks, prior knowledge, and sources provided by the teacher to research the history of the American flag. They will design and create a trading...
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Awesome Animals
Sixth graders write descriptive narratives about animals. In this descriptive writing lesson, the teacher models how to write a paragraph with interesting sensory words and exciting verbs. Students choose a picture of an animal they want...
Curated OER
Word Roots 7: Spect, Sta, Vert Intermediate-Crossword
Given the clues, can you complete the crossword puzzle for words containing the Latin roots spect, sta, and vert? No word list is given, but using the answer sheet, you can provide your class with the list of words to choose from. This...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing: Using Exact Words
Review the narrative writing process with your emerging story writers. They read a sample narrative and identify five vague verbs that could be replaced with a more exact, exciting verb. Then they write a personal narrative making sure...
Curated OER
MyVocabulary.com: Word Roots PLIC, FAC, and COGN Intermediate Crossword Puzzle
A fun and challenging vocabulary exercise that focuses the learner's attention on word root meanings, this crossword puzzle would make a great homework or sponge activity. Pupils are provided with 12 clues and they must come up with...
Curated OER
Persuasion and Parallel Structure
Discuss the definition of parallel structure with your high school class. In small groups, they read a section of "The Declaration of Independence" to identify examples of parallel structure. Each learner writes an essay explaining the...
Curated OER
Creatively Creating Expository Essays
Students, after reading Fahrenheit 451, brainstorm inventions that could have been in the novel. They present their invention to the class and writing an expository essay about their creation.
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Beautiful Noise Poetry
"What a beautiful noise comin' up from the street; got a beautiful sound, it's got a beautiful beat..." Use Neil Diamond's "Beautiful Noise" to guide your class through a Six Trait writing activity, in which they write an original poem...
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The Wyandotte Constitutional Convention: The Issue of Suffrage
Seventh graders discover details about the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention. In this Kansas history lesson, 7th graders tackle civil rights concerns as they draft persuasive speeches to secure the rights of young voters in the state.
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Outline a Travel Narrative
Fourth graders are taught how to outline a fictional narrative essay. They review the definition and structure of narrative essays. Students use the activity to brainstorm specific ideas for narrative essays. They are given a...
Curated OER
Word Roots SPECT, STA and VERT: MyVocabulary.com
A 12-question crossword puzzle for the roots spect, sta, and vert, to complete this activity pupils must come up with words that match the clue given and contain one of these roots. Crossword, clues and answer key are all available and...
Curated OER
Volcanoes A-Z
Students examine terminology related to the study of volcanoes, geology, or the ecosystems that surround them. They make note of key words while reading exhibits, interpretive signs, or labels, or hearing them from each other, their...
Curated OER
Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
Curated OER
Putting it On Paper
Students locate and print samples of two different business letter formats. They write rough drafts of business letters inquiring when, where, and how math is used.