There's a lot riding on good writing! Often, an application essay is the difference between acceptance and rejection. As part of a series on specific writing assignments and contexts, a handout helps scholars craft the perfect personal...

Engage your English learners with this resource. To begin, learners describe a map to a partner. After a vocabulary exercise and a jumbled letter activity, pupils are asked to write their own letter. The letter reading and writing...

A complete page of explanation precedes a sheet with eight confusing sentences that learners revise for clarity. You could show the first page to your class, or just use it as a guide for direct instruction on the issue of clarifying...

Learners participate in Writing with Writer's, a step-by-step set of directions aimed at improving different genres of student writing. They identify the characteristics of different genres and follow a specified writing process to...

In this following directions worksheet, students pay attention to instructions as they respond to 4 questions by categorically following directions.

In this sequencing worksheet, students will cut out sentences about how to write a letter using a computer. Then students will rearrange the sentence strips in chronological order.

In this creative writing instructional activity, students read a prompt and write a 3 page story based on the prompt. The prompt instructs students to consider the situation of waking up one morning as a grown up. Students must write...

A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...

Built around a moving short film about second chances and tough choices, this lesson mixes grammar, prediction, and narrative writing. Pupils practice with adjectives and prefixes before moving on to the film. The resource directs...

Kindergarteners practice prewriting skills in a 10-day unit.  Young scholars blend sounds and syllables, build shapes with playdough, write shapes on paper, and trace their names.

Fourth graders practice writing with description. For this descriptive lesson, 4th graders see the results of a task when the directions are not clear. They come up with descriptive words and write their own instructions. 

Students critique the transition of "Holes" from a novel to screenplay and consider how the details in a book are brought to life in a movie. They then choose a scene in a book and transform it into an original script after brainstorming...

First graders view the object on their desk observing the colors, patterns, and the way the object is put together but not touching it. They then write on paper the directions they would give someone so that they would be able to build...

A three-day assessment challenges scholars to read a passage from an informational text then complete two activities that lead to a writing assignment. Day one and two begin as readers independently read a passage and tag the most...

Scholars determine how two quantities vary with respect to each other. They complete a fill-in-the-blank activity by stating whether the entities vary directly, inversely, or jointly, create equations that match different variations, and...

An assessment takes a close look at the story, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, and tests writing abilities. Over the course of two days, scholars read an excerpt, answer questions on a worksheet pertaining to the author's...

An assessment sheds light on scholars' ability to read, gather evidence, and draft an original written composition. Learners read an informative text twice before taking notes and discussing their thoughts and textual evidence with a...

A three-part assessment tests scholars' reading and writing capabilities. Young readers listen to and read an excerpt from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. After drawing pictures of what is memorable, learners discuss...

Greed is the theme of the West African folktale, Anansi Goes to Lunch and this multidisciplinary collection of lessons. First, scholars listen to a read aloud and participate in a grand conversation about the book's key details and...

Who am I? Pupils work to answer this question through a unit that explores personal narratives and identity. Exit tickets for activities that examine different poems, short stories, and autobiographical writing serve as prewriting for...

What does it take to develop and publish a newsletter? Young academics create a newsletter with original artwork for their school or community. They explore social justice themes and spread messages of tolerance and inclusion. Scholars...

Readers of The Joy Luck Club, use a double-0entry journal to record and reflect on passages from Amy Tan's novel.

Improve high schoolers' public speaking with an engaging activity. Class members select three personally relevant quotes from a list. They then write a short speech for each quote, explaining how the quotes are personally relevant....

Researching facts about owls can be a hoot for your class. Let them wisely collaborate on this writing project. The resource is the second part of three parts. It is best to use all three lessons in order.