The intricate craft of narrative writing can make a happy story feel exuberant or a sad story feel devastating. With 42 extensive lessons that include poignant discussion questions, standards-aligned self-reflections, engaging writing...

Class members discover what it means to publish their works. Working on a computer, young writers use an online dictionary to edit their spellings and conventions based on the information added to the rubric. From here, and most of the...

And that's a wrap! Scholars create their concluding statement drafts by examining model text with exemplar conclusions. In pairs, they discuss how transitional words and phrases add to sentence structure and consider how their concluding...

Having prepared for an analysis essay about one of the characters from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, tenth graders demonstrate their understanding in a mid-unit assessment. They focus on either Jing-Mei or Waverly in an informative...

High schoolers examine the four major types of speeches: informative, demonstrative, persuasive, and extemporaneous. Groups then select one type and craft and share a presentation highlighting this format's characteristics. Finally,...

Students write an essay from rough draft to final copy about the Underground Railroad. Civil disobedience is researched from a variety of sources. There is a prewriting exercise that is included in the lesson. The whole writing process...

Bring environmental issues into your classroom! Practice writing and peer editing research reports on global warming and the greenhouse effect. Middle schoolers can work on their research skills, their writing skills, and how to...

Aesop's Fables are the focus of this language arts lesson. Young philosophers study and discuss the morals found in the most famous of Aesop's Fables. They write an original fable that teaches a common moral. A "Fable Listening Library"...

Analyze point of view and how it affects a literary work with this lesson. Middle schoolers create a written piece that focuses on point of view. They review the literary term "point of view," and explore examples of the term in text....

Now that readers can see the full scope of Sophocles' Oedipus the King, they can draw connections between the dramatic ending and the textual evidence throughout the Greek tragedy. As they prepare for the unit assessment writing prompt,...

Students complete a final draft of a myth.  In this writing myths instructional activity, students complete their rough drafts, have a one-on-one meeting with the teacher to enhance ideas, and peer edit.  Students use the...

Students explore the rainforest. For this language arts and social studies lesson plan, students discover the importance of the rainforests as they read The Great Kapok Tree and complete an activity.

Third graders read and analyze chapter two of the book "The Chocolate Touch" by Patrick Skene Catling. They compare and contrast a box of chocolates with the chocolates in the book, and write the sequential steps of opening a box of...

Good endings are hard to find. And write. This, the final activity in a six-part series devoted to study of the ingredients of a good story, focuses on crafting endings. Class members draft ideas about what should happen to each of their...

Students create greeting cards from recycled products. They research how paper is recyled and the history of paper. They write free verse and create their own recycled paper. They use Microsoft Word to write their final drafts of verse...

Fifth graders, utilizing a thesaurus to identify alternative word choices and meanings, eat a sweet treat and then list eight different adjectives for each of the five senses. They then describe a sweet with at least then adjectives...

Students identify controversial topics on which they have strong opinions and model their own persuasive opinion pieces after the featured article. They compose persuasive essays on controversial issues that "hit home" for them.

Students plan and write paragraphs while integrating other core subject areas. In this paragraph writing lesson, students complete 5 lessons to practice writing paragraphs. Students incorporate various core subjects into their paragraph...

Seventh graders examine historical perspectives. In this historical writing lesson, 7th graders discuss their definitions of history and then discuss perspectives of history. As a culminating activity, students write narrative stories...

Students create short stories and make stick puppets to act it out. After editing their stories, they glue used CDs or DVDs to popsicle sticks and decorate them as the story characters. Finally, students present their puppet shows to...

Seventh graders create an original narrative story in a diary or journal format involving a fictional character with conflict, plot, resolution and falling action within the story line. They follow the steps of the writing process with...

Ease young writers into the process of writing a story with a colorful presentation on story maps. Viewers use the provided sentence frames to craft a sample story as guided practice. They then draft their own stories to share with the...

Sailboat design requires more than a half-circle and triangle sketch. After viewing a slideshow presentation that outlines the requirements for sailboat design, learners draw a design, perform the needed...