Freeology
Free Homework Pass
Sometimes even the best pupils forget to do their homework or have too much going on to get all their work done. Individuals can fill out their name on these passes and get the teacher's signature to approve three separate nights off...
Curated OER
Who Is That Ghostly Character?
Eighth graders listen to a taped version of the radio play, "The Hitchhiker". They write a conclusion to the play and work with a partner to evaluate it before a final revision.
Curated OER
Monster Lesson
Fifth graders write a detailed description of a monster or alien they have created. They e-mail the description to another student, and the e-mail buddy draws the monster based on the descriptive writing.
Curated OER
Making a Treasure Your Own: Lesson Two
Students write an essay describing the Curtis Center and what they learned there. In this descriptive writing essay, students discuss the five paragraph essay and review sensory discoveries from their trip. Students draft an outline and...
Curated OER
The Great Paragraph Race
Students construct and analyze paragraphs. In groups, students place given sentences in order to form a paragraph. They determine the main idea of the paragraph. Students perform activities to determine the concept of topic sentence,...
Curated OER
What is a Magnet?
In this magnet worksheet, students will write a main idea describing what is a magnet. Then students will write in four supporting details for their main idea.
Curated OER
Story Pyramid and Summary
Learners read a short selection of a story individually or as a class. On their own, they create a story pyramid for the selection and write a one page summary. They use text from the story for their supporting details. To end the...
Curated OER
What Are Plant Life Cycles?
In this plant life cycles worksheet, students will write in the main idea of the life cycle of a flowering plant. Then students will write in 3 supporting details.
Curated OER
Someone is Summarizing
Young scholars practice summarizing text using James E. Knight's, "Boston Tea Party, Rebellion in the Colonies." They read the story silently before summarizing it using main ideas and supporting details and deciding what type of...
Curated OER
Lesson Refresh: Plan with the END in Mind
Fourth graders identify literary techniques by participating in a class discussion. In this organization lesson, 4th graders practice public speaking while presenting ideas for a story to their classmates as well as critiquing the ideas...
Curated OER
Five Paragraph Essay
Eighth graders are introduced to the mechanics of writing a standard-form essay. They draft, edit and polish a five-paragraph essay about spending the day as an animal of their choice.
Curated OER
Social Studies: Towne Planning in Tidewater
Students discover how European values dominated colonial life. They also examine the effects of slavery in the Americas. Students compare the planning of their home town with that of colonial Williamsburg. They locate key sites such...
Curated OER
A Quest for Author Importance
Class members discover information about an author through a WebQuest and a brochure project.
Curated OER
Creating Historians: Giving Scholars the Answers
How allowing index cards on tests can empower critical thinking; part one of a series on approaching social studies as a group of historians.
Santa Barbara City College
Structure of a General Expository Essay
A great student reference tool and graphic organizer in one worksheet! Young writers can read a detailed description of each section of a standard five-paragraph essay before completing a graphic organized with their own writing. The...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Songwriting Skill - Elaboration: Jesse McCartney - “How Do You Sleep?”
The practice of developing lyrics by elaborating with sensory details and examples continues in the third lesson on songwriting. This time class members examine Jesse McCartney's "How Do You Sleep?" Using procedures established in the...
Curated OER
Left-to-Right Reading
Left-to-right, left-to-right, that's the way we read and write! Watch this short video clip and teach your young learners this chant before they start writing!
Curated OER
Who Invented English Anyway?
In these English lesson plans, students use video, the Internet and non-fiction essays to research the history of the English language. They write a short research paper and design a PowerPoint presentation showcasing their findings.
Curated OER
Character Impressions
Whether you are planning a unit on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, or simply want to improve your pupils' descriptive writing, this lesson could be a good addition to your class. Using the Six-Trait Writing process, pupils use...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2
Identifying the theme or central idea of a text is a skill many young readers struggle with. It is also the second standard for reading literature in the Common Core. This resource, one from a series of Common Core lessons, can provide...
Curated OER
Moore vs. Livingston:Who Really Wrote 'The Night Before Christmas'
Students research an author and gather information that seems to support that person as author of The Night Before Christmas. They work in groups to gather the most solid evidence and they write a persuasive essay presenting their argument.
Classroom Adventures Program
Creating Characters
Examine character in depth. Over the course of these six lessons, learners explore their own character traits, determine the traits of characters in the books they read, practice comparing and contrasting, and collaborate in small groups...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 14: Dedication
Connect Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, "I Have a Dream," to The Cay by Theodore Taylor. Taylor refers to the speech in his dedication, which creates a natural segue into talking about the speech and how it relates to the novel....
Curated OER
Lord of the Flies Anticipation Guide and Activities
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” Ah, the central question of Lord of the Flies. As part of their study of William Golding's riveting novel, readers complete an anticipation guide and respond to a series of survey questions...