Curated OER
Alphabet Picture Prompt: The Letter A
In this teacher friendly instructional activity, teachers write a word list, short statement, or question and the children use those with the letter "Aa" and pictures of an alligator, ant, and apples as prompts for creative writing....
Curated OER
Marking Time
Two narrative excerpts tell the same story from different points of view. In the first excerpt (first person), sequencing words and phrases are bolded and learners write down what the bold type does. The second excerpt is in third...
Curated OER
Character Attributes in Writing
Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances. In this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...
Curated OER
Our Classroom Constitution
Develop a system of classroom rules created by the kids, for the kids with this three-part lesson series on the US Constitution. After learning about the structure of the Constitution and the government it established, young...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 6
To prepare for drafting their Common Application narrative, class members return to the opening pages of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and examine how Haley engages and orients readers, establishes his narrator and point of view, and...
Curated OER
Create a Book with Student Treasures
You can't publish a story until after it has been revised and edited! Budding authors investigate the writing process while drafting an original story. They select a topic, complete a rough draft, edit it, revise it, and finally publish...
Scholastic
Marijuana: Breaking Down the Buzz
Teenagers get the real information about marijuana use based on the history of tobacco legislation and research. As they read an educational passage about marijuana laws, science, and changing attitudes, they address their preconceptions...
PBS
Primary Source Set: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
What did Jo write her stories with? How did the March sisters dress? A primary source set designed for Louisa May Alcott's Little Women prompts learners to look over images of household items and clothes from the 1860s before...
American Immigration Law Foundation
No Pretty Pictures
Here is a nice set of activities and discussion questions to accompany your class reading of No Pretty Pictures, a memoir of a young girl's experiences and struggle for survival during the Holocaust.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Core Analysis Frame: Fiction
Dig into any piece of fiction with a series of analysis questions. There are two levels of questions provided: basic and in-depth. The basic questions can be copied double-sided onto a single piece of paper, while the in-depth questions...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: Nature in the Writings of John Muir and Emily Dickinson
As an assessment of their skill in crafting a compare and contrast essay, class members read and compare the portrayals of nature in excerpts from naturalist John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and from poet Emily Dickinson's...
EngageNY
Reviewing Conventions and Editing Peers’ Work
Encourage young writers to edit text based on conventions. After reviewing the conventions, fourth graders watch a teacher demonstrate how to revise a paragraph for correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or dialogue. Then, pairs...
National Center for Families Learning
The Summer Fun Summer Learning Poetry Unit
Focus on poetry this summer to enhance those comprehension, fluency, and language skills with a set of resources intended to explore different types of poetry, specifically lyric poetry. The daily activities contain differentiation ideas...
Curated OER
The Learning Network: The First Middle School Chess Champs
Introduce some nonfiction reading into your classroom! This resource contains seven comprehension questions pertaining to an article from The New York Times website about the first middle schoolers to ever win the United States Chess...
Curated OER
Creative Writing - The Five Step Story Process
Using "The Five Step Process," and picture prompts, is a wonderful way to get your students excited about creative writing.
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Early American Novel: Exploring the Emergence of a Genre
Need an extra challenge for your best readers? Check out a unit that uses Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary novel, The Coquette, published in 1797, as the anchor text. The resource is packed with project ideas; each with its...
Curated OER
Painting Places with Words Using John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
Useful in an Of Mice and Men unit, or in a unit that focuses on descriptive writing, this lesson prompts young authors to impersonate John Steinbeck's writing style in the opening passages of the novel. A Six Trait writing activity...
Curated OER
What Makes a Novel a Novel?
They always say to write what you know. This approach is used to get middle schoolers prepared to write novels of their own. Using a favorite book as a model, potential novelists respond to prompts that ask about characters, plot, main...
Jefferson County Schools
A Canned Lesson
Follow the steps outlined in an excellent presentation to create graphic organizers and write persuasive essays with your class. The graphic organizer is effective and translates easily into a final written product. The lesson focuses in...
Curated OER
Families Eat Rice - Lesson Plan
Students participate in a shared writing experience about rice. In this writing lesson, students listen to Norah Dooley's, Everybody Cooks Rice. They write about, and discuss different ways their families and those in the book use...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to Matched by Ally Condie
Even supposed Utopian societies have their flaws. Using an educator's guide, individuals explore the society Ally Condie creates in Matched. Reflective writing prompts double as discussion questions and cover key themes in the novel, as...
Facing History and Ourselves
Choosing to Participate Posters
"A poster exhibit to encourage dialogue, engagement, respect, and participation in our communities..." This is a set of attractive posters that reference influential historical figures, such as George Washington and Albert Einstein, and...
Curriculum Corner
Guest Teacher Plans: 1st Grade
Have you ever gone to work when you needed to stay home but didn't because the thought of making substitute plans was too daunting? Don't feel that way anymore with a template designed for first grade equipped with general classroom...
Penguin Books
A Teacher’s Guide to the Penguin Edition of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
The dry Oklahoma landscape in America's Dust Bowl sent many farmers in search of the promised land. A teacher's guide to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath discusses the characters' desire for a better home along with other themes...