Other
Building Characters With Adversity
Extensive and very interesting article advising the reader on how to develop characters through adversity.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Elements of a Story Interactive
Explore different ingredients, or elements, that go into stories and make them so much fun. Read the story, "Cinderella," and look at all the different pieces of the tale to see how they all fit together.
University of Washington
University of Washington: Patterns of Organization
In addition to defining and describing various patterns of text organization, this website provides outlines illustrating each pattern. RI.11-12.3 Text development
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Writing to a Particular Audience and Purpose English Iii Writing
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] You will learn various rhetorical strategies you can use in writing for a particular audience and purpose.
Other
Storyboard That
Create your own storyboard with this interactive tool. The storyboard framework is a graphic organizer that helps structure students work into a linear and concise story. Although it feels easy at first, breaking down ones thoughts into...
Other
Hong Kong Polytech: Functions in Academic Writing
Provides a wealth of interactive exercises dealing mainly with the structuring of sentences in different kinds of academic writing.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: How to Write a Personal Narrative (English 7 Writing)
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will learn how to write an essay that has only one purpose: to tell a story about you. It's called a personal narrative, personal because it is all about...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Developing Characters and Experiences With Sensory Language
Adding sensory languages makes your writing so good you can see, hear, smell, taste and touch it. This lesson will show you how to use descriptive sensory language in order to develop and capture the experiences and characters in a...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Collaborative Booktalk: Sharing and Writing Development
Are dark themes in young adult novels harmful or helpful to teens? Students will explore this question and will create an argumentative writing piece based on textual evidence. Videos of the lesson in action, examples of student work,...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Tie It Up With Transition Words to Write a Story!
Read, write, and present a digital narrative with transition words to help us put the events in order! After modeling the lesson, groups of students will write narratives to recount a short sequence of events, they will include details...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Storytelling With Words and Pictures
In this interactive lesson plan, students learn the basics of how stories are structured, gain vocabulary about storytelling elements, and explore how the arts, specifically drawing, can be a valuable way for students to tell stories.By...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Writing: How to Write a Personal Narrative
A learning module that teaches students how to write a personal narrative with five mini-lessons: Introduction, Consider a Slice of Your Life, FOCUS!, Develop Your Central Idea, and Wrap Up and Springboard to Writing.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Writing Literary Text With an Engaging Story Line
A learning module that teaches students how to write an engaging literary text in six lessons: Introduction, The Narrative Hook, Setting, Conflict, Plot, and Ending.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway:writing an Engaging Story With Literary Strategies to Enhance Plot
A learning module that teaches students about writing a short story with a strong plot in seven mini-lessons: Introduction, Choose the Point of View, Figure Out What to Say, Suspend Readers in Midair, Write about a Central Theme, Read A...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Reach: Recipe for Writing!
REACH for more! Be an author! Write and illustrate your very own story by mixing up a simple recipe of WHO, WHERE, WHAT, and ENDING.
University of Oregon
Pizzaz, Creative Writing & Storytelling: Creative Writing via Basket Stories
This PIZZAZ (People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling) lesson plan will engage young scholars in creative writing about items found in a basket. Examples of creative writing are provided. Examples of springboard ideas are included.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Short Adventure Stories
Inspired by the interactive plot ideas here, writers will create an original three-paragraph adventure story. First, each writer will create an original adventurer. Next, each writer will place the adventurer in a brief, organized...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: The Sum of Its Parts
Inspired by Julianna's understanding (from the novel Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen) that "A painting is more than the sum of its parts," learners will describe a memorable place that evokes a certain feeling or emotion. Students will...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Historical Journal Entries
In this lesson plan, writers will create a detailed journal entry from the point of view of a character who never actually existed. The journal entry will be for a day in history that the writer has researched and found interesting...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Your Own Faraway Place
For this lesson, students will build background by hearing an excerpt from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, an excerpt where the main character, Milo, travels to a distant land that has a distinctive mood: melancholy. Next,...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: 5th Grade Narrative Prompt: School Scenes in "Slow Motion"
This exercise was designed to serve as a pre-writing activity for one of their three designated fifth grade practice prompts for the state writing exam. The prompt is: Think about a time when something special or unusual happened at...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: 5th Grade Narrative Practice Prompt: Relevant Setting Details
This exercise was designed to serve as a pre-writing activity for one of their three designated fifth grade practice prompts. The prompt is: Remember a time when you did something that made you feel proud of yourself. Think about what...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Unique Imaginary Friends
The writer will first create an original imaginary friend, inspired by Ted from Tony DiTerlizzi's wonderful picture book. The writer will then think of an ordinary activity done on a daily basis, like feeding the family dog. The writer...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Organizing a Story With Purposeful Paragraphs
In this lesson, students organize and design a narrative based on three developing ideas.