Ogden Museum of Art Education Department
Literacy and Landscapes
As the saying goes, art often imitates life ... and literature! A series of activities designed to accompany a visit to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art encourage writers to find inspiration in various landscapes. The lesson includes a...
Virginia Department of Education
Counterarguments
Create an urbane battle royal in class with the old Coke vs. Pepsi challenge that develops upper level high school learners skills in developing counterarguments in essay writing. The educator divides the room according to tastes, and...
University of North Carolina
Reorganizing Drafts
Poor organization often destroys an otherwise good paper. After writing a first draft, individuals consider the organization of ideas, a topic discussed in the 16th handout in the 24-part Writing the Paper series. The resource covers...
Curated OER
Water and Sewage Critical reading
Learners read three articles with different points of view on the water and sanitation issues in the Florida Keys. They identify the facts and opinions in each article and write a summary. In addition, they write an essay expressing...
Curated OER
Maven Makeover?
Students reflect on the role of prisons and discuss how they believe sentencing should be handed down. After reading an article, they discover the experiences Martha Stewart went through while in prison. In groups, they share their...
Curated OER
"Killing Chickens" by Meredith Hall
After reading the essay "Killing Chickens" by Meredith Hall, provide your class with these thoughtful questions. After answering the four questions listed, your writers attempt to write their own descriptive essay. Challenge them to...
Curated OER
Grade A: The Market for a Yale Woman's Eggs by Jessica Cohen
What would it be like to sell your eggs to a couple who can't have children on their own? Could you even imagine it? As most of us have never been in this position, this descriptive essay is really quite interesting. The reading itself...
University of Chicago
Using Artifacts for Clues About Identity
Learn about the ancient Near East through a close examination of ancient artifacts. Lead your class into analysis by first observing an artifact as a class. Pupils can then work in pairs to analyze the other artifacts and compile a list...
New York State Education Department
English Language Arts Examination: June 2014
Should companies track consumers' shopping preferences without their permission? Using the resource, scholars write source-based argumentative essays to answer the question. They also answer reading comprehension questions based on an...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment, Part 2: Drafting Introduction and Conclusion of a Narrative
First and last impressions matter. Scholars compose the introductory and concluding sections of their narrative writing assignments. Also, to prepare for an upcoming performance task, pupils watch a modern-day monologue from the movie...
EngageNY
Grade 11 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 8
How does the theme of gender inequality develop in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and Shakespeare's Hamlet? Pupils craft a multi-paragraph response to analyze the relationship between the texts. They use evidence from both works to...
Curated OER
"The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
In this "The Tell-Tale Heart" worksheet, learners write an essay about how Edgar Allan Poe keeps the reader in suspense. The worksheet helps students construct the essay through eleven different scaffolding steps.
Curated OER
United We Stand
Students recreate and simulate the secession of the South during the Civil War by having their class secede from the school. They write an essay comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences of everyday life before and after...
Curated OER
Reflect on this Mote of Dust
Learners explore space science by analyzing a speech by Carl Sagan. In this cosmos lesson, students view an online video of a speck of a "pale blue dot" in the distance of space which turns out to be Earth. Learners write an essay...
Curated OER
Passive Voice Exercises
Strengthen understanding of grammar and syntax with this task. First, grammarians identify the active and passive voices, then they rewrite individual sentences to be in the active voice before manipulating an entire paragraph. Great...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 2, Lesson 4
As a mid-unit assessment, class members demonstrate their understanding of the concepts covered so far by crafting a formal, multi-paragraph essay in which they analyze how Rainer Maria Rilke's word choices develop the meaning and tone...
Curated OER
New York State Testing Program: English Language Arts Book 2
Practice listening and writing skills with this resource. This is a test created by the New York State Testing Program. Learners listen to a passage called "Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa" twice and write responses to the selection. They...
Curated OER
A Day at the Beach: How to Keep Our Planet Clean
Students write a persuasive essay based on cleaning up the coast and other philanthropic values. In this writing lesson, students determine what is needed in order to keep the planet clean, and offer solutions to the International...
Curated OER
Zoo's Clues!
Young scholars determine the difference between major and minor details after researching animals and completing graphic organizers. They write descriptive paragraphs for classmates to guess what animal is being described.
Santa Ana Unified School District
Lord of the Flies Unit
How does a society influence and shape individuals? Class members ponder this essential question as they read Lord of the Flies, as well as primary source materials about the historical background of the novel. As a...
Curated OER
Tell It to the Judge - Persuasive Essay
Young scholars compare and contrast a classic fairy tale with a fractured one and complete a graphic organizer. Then they write a persuasive essay following the steps of the writing process. Finally, students publish their completed...
Curated OER
Living The Life of a Scribe
Students write a descriptive letter about life in ancient Mesopotamia. Through video streaming, students discover the history of Mesopotamia. They assume the role of a scribe and compose a three paragraph essay using main ideas and...
Curated OER
Using Transitions
Transitions, words that reveal the relationship between two ideas, are the subject of a presentation that provides color-coded illustrations to show viewers how this part of speech functions in sentences. The PowerPoint concludes with an...
Curated OER
Writing to Photography/Photography to Writing
Students improve their' writing by incorporating photography into descriptive and narrative writing exercises. They write descriptions of various professional photographic collections. Later they use their own and other classmates'.