Curated OER
Making Magical Creatures Talk
Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.
Turabian Teacher Collaborative
My Favorite Martian: Workshopping Warrants
Sometimes explaining an argument can lead to confusion and miscommunication. Narrow down the details in written arguments with a group activity in which learners pretend to be aliens from another planet, struggling to understand each...
Little Stones
How Can Poetry Make People Think and Care?
Can beautiful words change the world? Literary scholars discover how to paint their visions of change using poetry in a series of three workshops. Each independent topic gives participants a chance to examine their feelings about...
Novelinks
The Little Prince: Request Strategy
Teach your readers how to engage with a text by using the request strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they choose a passage of text and formulate questions to stump their partners or their...
CCSS Math Activities
Smarter Balanced Sample Items: 6th Grade Math – Target I
Scholars apply their knowledge of statistical questions to determine which questions meet the criteria. Grade 6 Claim 1 Item Slide Shows offers a couple of practice problems for scholars to discuss.
Oxford University Press
Language Focus: Imperative Sentences, Future Progressive Tense
Finish your homework! Kids work on imperative sentences with a grammar activity, which also focuses on future progressive tense (going to). After they use a word bank to write instructions for a person going on a trip, they fill in the...
Curated OER
Bringing Household Items to Life
Use folk tales as inspiration for learning about and using personification in creative writing. Learners brainstorm together in order to practice personification before writing their own poems or paragraphs about a household object.
US National Archives
WWII: Western Europe 1939-45 – Deception and Bluff
World War II left the British desperate for help in any form—including in the form of a magician! High schooler conduct research on Jasper Maskelyne, a stage magician who used his talents to deceive the Germans on the war front, before...
University of North Carolina
Plagiarism
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...
Inside Mathematics
Printing Tickets
Determine the better deal. Pupils write the equation for the cost of printing tickets from different printers. They compare the costs graphically and algebraicaly to determine which printer has the best deal based upon the quantity of...
Curated OER
Writing a Report
Young scholars conduct research on a selected topic, organize the research information, and write a report. They read and discuss the rubric, brainstorm to develop criteria for determining credible sources, complete a KWL chart or web,...
Curated OER
Letter Writing and Abigail Adams
Third graders learn the importance of letter writing for communication. In this letter writing lesson, 3rd graders identify how letter writing was important in the life of Abigail Adams. Students understand what a primary source is and...
Curated OER
Writing a Letter to a Friend
First graders practice their letter writing skills by writing to a fictional character. In this formal writing lesson, 1st graders read the books The Jolly Postman and Frog and Toad are Friends to examine the different parts of a...
Curated OER
How can we write a silly story?
Second graders use the writing process and create a silly story. In this silly story lesson plan, 2nd graders will review person, event and setting and complete a chart for each. Students will put a person, event and...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Poem
Fifth graders write poetry using imagery and practice poetry presentation. In this poetry lesson plan, 5th graders listen as the teacher reads a humorous poem using different voice modulations and presentation techniques. They discuss...
Curated OER
Writing in First Person about the Atlantic Slave Trade Lesson Plan
Students investigate the Atlantic slave trade. For this slavery lesson, students watch "Slavery, Society, and Apartheid," as well as "Slave Ship." Students discuss the information presented in the videos, especially St. John's Revolt....
Smithsonian Institution
POWs
Why did Vietnam POWs and their families receive more media attention than POWs in previous wars? To answer this question, class members view artifacts, read articles, and engage in class discussion. Individuals then assume the...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle: Text-Dependent Questions and Vivid Words and Phrases
In the third activity from this unit based on the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, learners focus on using specific details from the text-to-answer questions about the habitat of bullfrogs. While reading the text, young...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Get it Write
In an effort to practice engineering design, STEM classes break out into teams and endeavor to make a working ink pen. To prepare, they read about writing implements through history, patents, and viscosity of liquids. Armed with this...
Curated OER
Asking Questions: Fruits
In this fruit learning exercise, students will focus on writing questions. Students will read 8 given answers and write the question that corresponds with what they have read.
Curated OER
Wh- Questions in Present and Past Tenses
In this grammar worksheet, students focus on the wh- question words. Students read 12 statements and write the question for each, using one of the given question words to phrase the question.
Curated OER
Lesson Exchange: Introduction to Research Papers (Senior, Literature)
Although unlikely in today's English classroom, this lesson focuses on introducing research papers to seniors in high school. It briefly reviews the parts of an essay, and mentions showing learners example essays, but no examples are...
Curated OER
Various Questions
A great exercise for English language learners or youngsters learning how to question, this resource provides practice using pictures to recognize words. After the class has completed the fill-in-the-blank portion, have them walk around...
Curated OER
Learning to Organize Writing
Encourage focus and organization in the writing of your second, third, and fourth grade classes. Learners are asked to select a room in their house and narrow in on how it looks, smells, or feels. After writing a short paragraph...