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Diamonte Writing
Students discover poetry while practicing their storytelling skills. In this language arts lesson, students read diamonte and acrostic poems written by other students on the Internet. Students create their own narrative...
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Writing Headlines
Students define the purpose of headlines and practice writing their own. In this news writing lesson, students define the elements of headlines and view examples. Students read a news story in groups and create a headline for it....
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Rebus Writing Using Nursery Rhymes and a Book
Students write nursery rhyme rebus songs. In this music instructional activity, students practice writing rebuses as a class. Students then create their own rebus based upon "The Bag I'm Taking to Grandma's".
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Picture This!
Students explore and generate story elements for wordless picture books. In this collaborative writing lesson plan, students review wordless picture books and write a story based on the illustrations. Students use post-it notes to...
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Martin's Writing Model
Students use digital resources to learn about the life of Ann M. Martin, her writing process, and how she develops story ideas. They record notes and observations that might be useful in developing characters and a storyline for a...
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Show Me the Story
Learners examine the elements of a story, read a review of Chris Rock's new sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris" and create original sitcom episodes based on their own lives.
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In 'Other words' Writing Gently Humorous Essays About Stereotypes
Define and understand what stereotypes are by reading an article with stereotyping in it. Students will locate how it shows stereotyping and answer questions about the stereotypes. Finally, they will write their own pieces of original work.
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Tell It to the Judge - Persuasive Essay
Students 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 essay and...
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The Art of Imitation: Writing an Aristotelian Tragedy
Learners, after exploring the history of tragedies and analyzing Aristotelian elements in Greek/Roman tragedies, create their own tragedy set in modern context. They formulate their creations from an Aristotle platform. In addition, they...
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Chinese Puzzle Story
Students study the Chinese form of tangrams. They read the story, "Grandfather Tang's Story," by Ann Tompert and discuss how tangrams are used to tell the story. Using paper and scissors, they create animal tangrams and write stories...
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Witch of Blackbird Pond
Learners utilize their reading comprehension abilities by discussing a story in class. In this story analysis lesson, students read the story Witch of Blackbird Pond and answer questions in their reading journal. Learners...
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"Voicing" - A Believable Account with "The Glory Fields" by Walter Dean Myers
Dr. Seuss and Walter Dean Myers team up to cover the topic of prejudice. Using The Sneeches (about the culture clash between star-bellied and bare-bellied Sneetches) and The Glory Fields (about a boy coming to America on a slave ship),...
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Fifteen Seconds of Fame
A reading of Panic in Paris launches a review of the elements of narrative writing. Class members work in groups to find narrative devices in the book and record their findings on a provided worksheet. Using the completed pages,...
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The Princess's Point of View
Everyone wants to be part of a royal family. Let your pupils experience the privilege of royalty by rewriting the story The Frog Prince from the point of view of the princess. While the story line remains the same, perspective is bound...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: My Robot and Me
Robots and their interactions with their human counterparts are the catalyst for a fun writing instructional activity. First, the class brainstorms what they'd like to have their personal robot do or be capable of. Then, they each write...
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Introduction to Main Events
Identify main events in a text. Readers will read The Kissing Hand and discuss the main events of the story. They will use sentences strips to write down events and place them in order. Alternative books are suggested.
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Lesson Plan for The Little Red Hen
Cultivate young performers while teaching them about helping one another with this interactive storytelling lesson. Elementary schoolers read or listen to the story The Little Red Hen by Mike Lockett and then act out the story while...
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We Are All Authors
Read and discuss a variety of books by different authors and have your class create their own book. They will identify the different parts of a book, then using a story they have already written, they enter their story and information...
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Once Upon a Pop-Up Book
Young scholars design and illustrate a pop-up book of their original writing after studying the book, The Jolly Postman: Or Other People's Letter's. They present their book and complete a self-assessment rubric.
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Listen To Me!
Young learners need practice speaking comfortably in front of others. Post a list of oral speaking tips on the board during this unit. Over a week-long period, they create a story from their interview sheet and present it to the class....
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Explore your Culture through Storytelling
Explore the cultural heritage through of your class through reading, writing, and speaking exercises. They create illustrated mini-books that express their unique cultural and personal experiences. They share their stores with the class...
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Vivid Verbs
Spice up your writing! Your amateur writers will benefit from concentrating on understanding and improving verb use in writing. An introductory activity addresses weak verbs. A second exercise helps them see the importance of strong...
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Fractured Fairy Tales
Through reading and writing, learners explore common elements found in fairy tales. After discussing traditional fairy tales, class members listen to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by John Scieszka, a hilarious retelling of the...
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Literature Through Silent Movies
Young scholars watch Charlie Chaplin films and discuss film elements. They select a story written by Edgar Allen Poe to write and produce a movie of. They film scenes, edit, and create a final iMovie project.