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Printables
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Suspense Writing Prompts

For Teachers 2nd - 8th
"I don't know what to write about!" How often have you heard that lament? Here's a list of 10 prompts that provide a starting place for suspense stories.
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Revisiting Writing through Revision

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Strategies to teach and motivate your students to revise their writing.
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Activity
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Schoolwires

12th Grade Expository Reading and Writing Research Project

For Teachers 11th - 12th
The beauty in this resource is the lengthy list of highly charged, controversial-issue research topics. Categories include issues of race, politics, law, environment, education, athletics, gender, and technology. After selecting a topic,...
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Lesson Plan
Teachers.net

How to Write a Movie Review from a Pet's Perspective

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
When would two paws up denote a blockbuster film in your classroom? Only when young writers create movie reviews from a pet's perspective in this imaginative expository writing practice. This engaging topic begins with a class discussion...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing a Short Story with

For Teachers 10th - 12th
In a previous lesson not included here, class members read Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and then wrote a persuasive letter inviting someone to an island. Young sleuths use these letters as basis for a suspenseful short...
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Organizer
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Pinecrest Preparatory Middle and High School

Short Story Planning Guide

For Students 6th - 9th Standards
A short story is only as strong as its characters, development, and conflicts. Encourage the young authors in your class to plan their stories based on the elements of narrative writing, all provided in brainstorming graphic organizers.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spooky Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Focus on building suspense as well as evaluating web sites through creative writing. After introducing the idea of suspense and holding a discussion, class members complete a WebQuest, during which they find inspiration for their own...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Narrative Writing

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders study narrative writing. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders review how an author uses vivid verbs, imagery, and adjectives to capture reader's attention. Students explore literary devices of foreshadowing, flashback...
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PPT
Curated OER

How to Write a Mystery

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Was it the teacher with the ruler in the supply closet? Find out when you read mystery stories inspired by this presentation. Show the slide show to your pupils to give them ideas that will help them get started with writing their own...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Scary Short Story Writing Lesson

For Teachers 6th - 8th
There's nothing like the prospect of writing a scary story to get your middle schoolers' writing juices flowing! In the lesson presented here, pupils listen to scary short stories read to them by the teacher. Then, a discussion ensues...
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PPT
Curated OER

Editing and Publishing: Horror and Suspense

For Teachers 5th - 10th
This sequence of slides leads pupils through an editing process designed for horror or suspenseful stories.  The prompts tell your class to look at their writing style; including hints such as varying sentence length, using premier...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Perfecting My Pal's Poe Paragraph

For Teachers 9th - 12th
After analyzing the compelling first paragraph of Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death," high schoolers draft original opening paragraphs using techniques identified Poe's writing. The relationship between suspense...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Round Robin Suspense

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Young scholars, in groups, write suspense stories. At the end of a timed period, they pass the story to the next student to continue it. At the last writing session, the papers are returned to the originators and they share the stories...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Write into Fantasy, Humor and Suspense

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students discuss the characteristics of several different writing genres. They are given a prompt to and work in groups to continue writing in the style of a humorous, fantasy or suspense story. They share their stories with the class.
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Lesson Plan
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Three Skeleton Key

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Encourage your students to interact with the text as they read. While reading "Three Skeleton Key," class members note predictions, define words and study their meanings, take notes on how the suspense builds, and jot down ideas about...
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Website
University of North Carolina

Plagiarism

For Students 9th - Higher Ed Standards
As many unfortunate journalists have learned, taking someone else's ideas and passing them off as your own is never a good idea. It's called plagiarism—and it's a big deal. Thankfully, a handout helps writers learn how to avoid...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Write, Right

For Teachers 6th
This resource provides the beginning ideas for a lesson plan on writing a narrative. Learners watch a video, identify story elements, including plot and setting, and then write their own stories. If augmented, this lesson plan could...
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Lesson Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Creating Suspense

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders practice creating suspense in writing. In this narrative lesson, 5th graders read stories that create suspense through the use of cliff- hangers. They use cliff-hangers in their own writing. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Writing

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students examine story writing. In this writing instructional activity, students discuss the structure of a story and create a story using suspense and character description with dialogue.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creepy Read Week

For Teachers 8th
Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan 8: Setting and Mood

For Teachers 6th - 9th
What mood does this story evoke? How are setting and mood linked? Young novelists explore the different emotions brought about by writing, starting by journaling things that inspire their own feelings. Examine the word mood, looking into...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Pyramids

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young writers generate descriptive words. They use pictures of various landscapes (from books, magazines, or the Internet) and complete a story pyramid. The pyramid (included here) asks to describe the main character, the setting, and...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 10 ELA Module 4: Unit 2, Lesson 8

For Teachers 10th Standards
Shakespeare's Macbeth has something for everyone. Scholars complete a mid-unit assessment. They craft multi-paragraph essays to analyze how the author's structural choices create tension and suspense in the play's first two acts.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing to Analyze, Comment and Review

For Teachers 7th - 8th
In this writing to analyze, comment and review worksheet, young scholars analyze blurbs, comment on the openings and endings of novels, and review a book from their own choosing. Students answer seventy short answer questions.

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