Students analyze the writing process through the ten lessons of this unit. The expository lessons address topic and detail sentences, paragraph organization and development, note taking, reports and letter writing.

Young scholars are introduced to vocabulary words from the story Cows Can't Fly and identify words during the reading of the story. In this introduction to vocabulary words lesson, students recall vocabulary words from the story and...

Students write a paragraph, make lists, draw, and brainstorm things about themselves, their goals, and their past. In this all about me lesson plan, students recall information about themselves, and interview others in order to write...

Students create a picture collage showing the cause and effect of events in the novel Holes. Given a set of pictures from the film adaptation, students place them in sequential order. They write a brief summary of the events and what...

Fifth graders explore sequential dramatization through children's literature. For this drama lesson, 5th graders act out and record scenes using digital and video cameras.  Students create a digital poster using pictures from their...

Learners use their Life Map to write a strong introduction for an autobiography. They apply the Life Map to a written sequence, use guided imagery to visualize the writing process and experience peer editing.

Young scholars engage in the process of problem solving with the help of children's literature story of how the whale was trapped and then freed. The story illustrates the power of teamwork and commitment. The students practice the skill...

While the preparation for this lesson is extensive, the results are well worth the effort. Prior to the lesson, Xerox the pictures from Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin, collect the ingredients for Cranberry Bread, and...

Upper graders explore equality by writing an essay. They read the story Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco, and discuss the meaning of the story and its relevance to Civil War events. Learners investigate the five writing process steps and...

A perfect nonfiction writing activity for the beginning of the year, the Life Line helps you get to know your pupils better and helps the children get to know one another. Later in the year the Star of the Week writing activity...

Bring to life the severity of the Espionage and Sedition Acts through a mock trial. Learners have prior knowledge of WWI and the context of these acts. An anticipatory set gets the class discussing the ethics of wartime dissension, and...

Learners will research what life in Oklahoma was like prior to and after the Oklahoma Land Run. They'll examine photographs and paintings that show Oklahoma before and after the land run, then they'll draw their own representations of...

Young writers examine the world of diaries. They study the diary of the famous Samuel Pepy, and discuss why it's so important. Together, as a class, they create a diary that describes what happened in school on a certain day. The catch...

Young scholars are challenged to make three-dimensional time lines of story events from stories they have read. They practice sequencing events and writing sentences correctly. In addition, they write sentences that correspond with...

Students become familiar with vocabulary related to spending money.  In this economics instructional activity, students participate in activities to learn about spending money and budgets.

Engage conversation and explore the journey as you challenge young readers to interpret the german folktale, "The Fisherman and His Wife" written by literary brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

In this vocabulary and story sequencing activity based on Norman Bridwell's Clifford at the Circus, students are asked to unscramble vocabulary words, perform a vocabulary word search, complete sentences, sequence story events, complete...

Young scholars sequence the events of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, after first being read a biography. The facts are on strips of paper, which are later glued end to end.

Focus on some difficult vocabulary words that begin with f, g, and h. First, match the 10 vocabulary words to their definitions, and then decide which sentence each vocabulary word best completes. Example words include furtive,...

The lessons that come from reading the novel Buddy by Nigel Hinton might be masked by how much you have just enjoyed the story, but don’t let an opportunity for learning pass you by. Let this learning scheme bring clarity to the ideas...

Learners create an art project and write a process paper  as a response to literature.  In this literature response instructional activity, students listen to Lynn Ehlert's, Snowballs before decorating a construction paper...

Comprehension questions for the last chapter of Jeanne DuPrau's book The City of Ember assess factual recall, sequencing skills, and inference about the text. Note: One question about point of view is based on a sentence not related to...

Second graders are guided through the writing process and then given time to use the skills they have acquired by writing a story and publishing it using a computer.

First graders differentiate between different pieces of literary genres by participating in a hands-on activity. This includes a student assessment sheet.