Curated OER
Determining Author's Point of View: The Sneeches
Determine the author's point of view in a text. Young readers read Dr. Seuss' The Sneeches and identify the author's purpose in the story. They identify persuasive techniques in writing, asking and answering questions to better...
Curated OER
Rave Reviews
A fun lesson that utilizes toys and persuasion! After reading the article, which was written in 2005, pull some advertisements for toys currently being sold. These will be more relevant to your middle and high schoolers. What toy is a...
Curated OER
Letter Writing Basics
Students write a business letter with information regarding specific writing mechanics. In this writing lesson, students learn to write a business letter and they focus on one area of concern. Students follow a business letter template...
Curated OER
"I Can” Common Core! 6th Grade Writing
It is impossible to know whether one has reached a goal without first knowing the goal. Help your sixth graders reach all the Common Core writing standards by giving them a checklist written in language they will understand. As you teach...
Curated OER
The Old Man and the Sea: Guided Imagery
What do you imagine when you think of the sea? Put on some ocean sounds, close your eyes, and listen to a guided meditation based on the imagery from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. After class members listen to the...
Curated OER
Walk in My Shoes: A Shoe's Perspective
Help learners write a creative story from the viewpoint of a shoe. The teacher brings a variety of different types of shoes to the classroom and each person chooses one. They then write a story from the point of view of the shoe,...
Curated OER
Creative Convincing
Young writers will love examining Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type for examples of good persuasive writing. Generally, when we write persuasive pieces, there are common words we use. Encourage your writers to identify these words and...
Curated OER
How Advertisers Persuade
This plan centers around the article "How Advertisers Persuade," although it is not included in the lesson itself. Get your class thinking about advertising, appeals, and techniques that companies use to get their products from the shelf...
Curated OER
Pablita Indian Legends
Scholars are introduced to the characteristics of a legend. They read and discuss Old Father Story Teller by Pablita Velarde. Then, in groups, they write and illustrate a poem based on one of the legends from the book. This lesson plan...
Curated OER
Persuasive Speech Assignment
Practice using concrete evidence from various sources to back up an argument. The lesson emphasizes the use of support in a persuasive speech, as well as the importance of appealing to an audience's logic and emotions. You could modify...
Digital Writing and Research Lab's – Lesson Plans
Teaching Close Reading through Short Composition/Revision
This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...
Curated OER
Preparing to Write
Students practice writing techniques by creating a draft of a story. In this creative writing lesson, students discuss organizational techniques writers use to plan out a story they wish to write. Students have the option to write...
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...
Curated OER
Poetry Beyond Words: Creating Poetry with Linguistically Diverse Students
Models of and directions for how to write 20 different types of poems are featured in an NCTE resource. The introduction to each form highlights the embedded concepts. For example, tongue twisters encourage poets to use alliteration and...
Poetry4kids
Five Ways to Overcome Writer’s Block
Every writer knows how terrible writer's block can feel. Use these five writer's block-busting techniques to help young writers get out of their rut and into a better state of mind.
Institute for Excellence in Writing
A Writer’s Guide to Powerful Paragraphs
When it comes to teaching writing, it helps to start small. A supplementary guide to A Writer's Guide to Powerful Paragraphs provides suggested activities to help writers craft a variety of paragraphs. Each assignment covers a specific...
Scholastic
Persuasive Communication (Grades 9–12)
Before your students reached your morning class to learn about persuasive writing, they probably saw dozens of examples of persuasive communication in the form of advertisements. A short, introductory lesson inspires class members to...
ReadWriteThink
Biography Project: Research and Class Presentation
I Have A Dream ... that after the lesson, all individuals master the reading, writing, researching, listening, and speaking skills the biography project helps them develop. Martin Luther King, Jr. serves as a topic example for a model...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment and Author’s Craft: Narrative Techniques
Scholars work together to compile a list of things good writers do to perfect their craft and write the ideas on a whiteboard. They then discuss the differences between passive and active sentences and use their knowledge to identify...
Curated OER
Writing Lesson 2
Fourth graders examine the English Language Arts Writer's Checklist. They practice prewriting techniques and use clustering as a prewriting technique. They follow specific rules in order to complete this lesson.
Curated OER
Comic and Film Strip Writing
Students write a funny story and illustrate it in a comic strip. In this comic strip instructional activity, students study comic strips and determine the plot of each story. Students then write a short story and illustrate it using a...
Curated OER
Critical Consumerism
What are ads really selling? High schoolers examine persuasive techniques used by print and television advertisements. They generate a list of persuasive techniques they're familiar with, and review other types argumentation and...
Curated OER
Animation Pre-Production
Does your class love reading cartoons? Use their talents and interests to examine the process of writing a story they wish to tell through a cartoon. They develop the beginning, middle, and end of a story based on their original...
Curated OER
Topic Sentences and Transitions
High school writers identify the purpose of both a topic sentence and a transitional statement. They write a topic sentence which denotes the paragraph topic and the author's stand on that topic. Then they write an effective transitional...