Curated OER
Using Opening Lines as Writing Prompts
Help your writers get started with these hooks! Twenty-five opening lines from the "Lives" column in the New York Times Magazine act as prompts for creative writing. Have your learners choose one prompt and write an original essay....
Bright Hub Education
Use Pictures or Artwork to Spark Creative Writing
Art in one form can inspire art in another. Use images to inspire writing in your English class. The instructional activity described here is not detailed; however, the idea is strong. An engaging way to get class members interested in...
Curated OER
Trek Across America
Bring a time machine into your classroom with this writing lesson, in which young writers project themselves back in time and have a variety of choices from that point forward. They either write a conversation with a historical figure,...
EngageNY
End of Unit 2 Assessment: Writing the Analysis Essay, Part 2
Writers have 30 minutes to add the final touches to their end-of-unit assessments for Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass. Those finishing early review their work. After the 30 minutes, learners use the time to review their...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 11: Beginnings
Every good novel needs a solid beginning! Setting the stage can have your budding authors stumped, so use this lesson to get them thinking. After examining the plot rollercoaster image (included) they consider the four places...
Curated OER
Narration about the Mirabal Sisters
Students research the lives of the Mirabel sisters, complete related graphic organizers, and watch the movie, "In the Time of the Butterflies." They write a narrative essay about one event in the Mirabel sisters' lives.
Curated OER
Getting Hooked, Introduction for a Narrative
How can you interest your reader? Here is a great lesson on reading and discussing the characteristics of a narrative. Elementary schoolers explore writing techniques to hook the reader. They identify their hook and share their...
Scholastic
Adding Expository Elaborations
How can you tell if a prompt is expository or narrative? Help your learners identify key words in writing prompts to determine how they should craft their essays.
Curated OER
Beginning With Writing; Convey Ideas in Writing
Walk young writers through the process of creating an initial writing sample for their portfolio. They determine their purpose, organize their ideas, and then create a draft. The lesson includes worksheets and online resources to...
California Department of Education
Telling My Story
Entrance essays are the ultimate sales pitch! Show your seniors how to market themselves in the first of six college and career readiness lesson plans. Pupils discover the do's and don'ts of writing personal statements through research,...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 28
After discussing Haley's techniques in his conclusion of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, class time is devoted to drafting, sharing, and getting feedback on writers' college essays.
Virginia Department of Education
Brainstorming to Write a Persuasive Essay on Demand
Equip your high school writers for the rigors of timed persuasive writing by employing the preparatory ideas available in this exercise. Learners use persuasive essays, provided by the educator, to acquire how to identify persuasive...
Novelinks
The Little Prince: Response to Art Exercise
Depending on your perspective, solitude can be lovely or very, very lonely. Kids take a look at the simple landscape illustrated in Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, and write a short journal entry about their...
Curated OER
Context Clues, Plot Structure, Conflict, and Personal Narrative Essay
What are the elements of a personal narrative? Get your class talking by reading "The Necklace" and "A Dangerous Game." The instructional activity focuses primarily on defining certain vocabulary terms (like context clues, plot,...
Curated OER
Narrative Cartoons
Students create narrative cartoons based on the activities of the Peace Corps. In this narrative cartoons lesson plan, students create comic strips where they draw and write about various activities that the Peace Corps is involved in.
Curated OER
Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Benjy's Sense of Time and Narrative Voice
Students complete a variety of discussion and writing activities that highlight the concepts of time and narrative voice of Benjy by iam Faulkner.
Curated OER
A Year in Review: The Memoir
If you are planning a unit on memoir and autobiographical narrative, you should consider this resource. Using Internet research skills, pupils review works by James Frey and Henry David Thoreau. In response to these works, learners...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 6
After a brief discussion of their independent reading texts, pairs exchange their college narratives and, using the provided peer review tool, give their partner suggestions on how the draft may be improved.
Literacy Design Collaborative
Analyzing Impact of Word Choice and Figurative Language in "Barbie Doll"
After a close reading Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll," class members craft an AP®-style explanatory essay in which they analyze the diction and other figurative literary devices the poet employs to deliver her commentary on modern...
Curated OER
Understanding Types of Writing
Students analyze the types of writing and answer questions about the writing genres. In this writing types activity, students define and discuss the types of writing including expository, descriptive, persuasive, technical, and narrative...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing - The Hobbit
Hobbits, dwarfs, wizards, trolls, and goblins. Readers track these fantastic creatures through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit noting passages of character description and scenery changes. Using specific passages from the novel, class...
Curated OER
Whose Point of View? The Journey of Three Generations
A reading of Whale Journey, a fact-filled picture book by Vivian French, launches a study of the life cycle and migration of three generations of gray whales. The interdisciplinary lesson plan offers opportunities extensions into all...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 7
As an end-of-unit assessment, class members complete the final drafts of their Common Application narrative essay and then meet in pairs to discuss the independent reading selection.
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 4: Unit 1, Lesson 1
Scholars evaluate E.B. White's tone in his narrative. Lessons use turn-and-talk strategies to discuss details of a personal narrative essay, respond to guided questions, and work in pairs to analyze word choice. Learners demonstrate...