PBS
To Kill a Mockingbird Teacher's Guide
If you're planning a unit on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, don't pass this resource by! It includes thorough discussion questions and vocabulary from the novel, research opportunities, and writing prompts to extend learning...
Penguin Books
One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt - Teacher's Guide
Children in foster care face a lot of uncertainty in their lives. A guide for the novel One for the Murphys introduces a main character, Carley, who is thrust into the foster care system. Chapter-by-chapter questions cover key details in...
ReadWriteThink
A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative
A picture's worth a thousand words—and even more inspiration! A visual activity uses photographs to inspire writers. The process teaches aspects of narrative writing, such as point of view and characterization.
Curated OER
Build Your Dream Science Lab
Would your ideal science lab be filled with bubbling beakers and zapping Tesla coils? Or would it contain state-of-the-art computer technology and data analysis? Dream big with an innovative lesson that connects math and language arts...
Curriculum Corner
8th Grade ELA "I Can" Statement Posters
Eighth grades can master the ELA Common Core standards! Show your learners the connection between classroom activities and assignments and the standards with this set of "I Can" statement posters. Each standard has been rewritten as an...
Curriculum Corner
8th Grade ELA Common Core Checklists
How close are your eighth graders to mastering the ELA Common Core standards? Keep an eye on progress with these charts, which include every eighth grade identifier and full standard text. As you move through the year and teach, reteach,...
Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio, Inc.
Feudalism Play
Using research notes on feudal roles in medieval Europe, learners work cooperatively to write a play about one day in the life of a boy or girl in the Middle Ages.
Curated OER
Writing Short Stories: The Fun Way
Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 6: Introducing the Elements of Plot-Part Two
November is National Novel Writing Month, so if your young authors are embarking on this journey, be sure they understand plot elements. This collaborative lesson fits into the context of the larger NaNoWriMo project; however, the ideas...
Curated OER
Writing a Personal Narrative
What is the difference between a news story and a personal narrative? This plan has learners write a personal narrative using the topic of service projects in their community. Consider completing a cross-curricular extension by bringing...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Walmart Middle School Litercy Initiative
Interactive, student-paced lessons on such literacy skills as categorizing, comparing and contrasting, summarizing, evaluating, determining cause and effect, using text features, connecting, inferring, sequencing, understanding problems...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Writing With Writers: Descriptive Writing
Need help with doing a descriptive paper or personal narrative? Need a writing lesson plan? Meet Virginia Hamilton and follow her step-by-step guide to writing. When done, you are eligible for a certificate signed by this author.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Metamorphosis Stories of Change
The goal of this activity is for students to learn how to tell a story in order to make a complex topic (such as global warming or ozone holes) easier for a reader to grasp. Students realize that the narrative impulse underlies even...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Get the Word Out at Mc Donalds!
Students take part in a hypothetical scenario that challenges them to inform customers at a local restaurant of how their use and disposal of plastics relates/contributes to the Great Pacific garbage patch (GPGP). What students...
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: Predicting the Future
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read an informational text about the predictions of a futurist and answer questions on comprehension, text support, main idea, vocabulary, and more. Links to a paired text and paired text...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Equivalent Sentences
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart is designed to teach students how to analyze sentences for equivalency. It also provides skills in paraphrasing. There is an assessment using Activotes and a lesson summary.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Conclusions
This lesson focuses on writing conclusions; it lists and defines the parts of a conclusion: thesis recap, blueprint recap, and clincher and provides a sample of an effective conclusion with the parts labeled. It also offers a slideshow...
Other
Building Characters With Adversity
Extensive and very interesting article advising the reader on how to develop characters through adversity.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Revising for Effective Introductions and Conclusions
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn strategies for evaluating and revising an introduction, conclusion, and controlling idea or thesis in an essay.
Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
Purdue University Owl: On Paragraphs
A comprehensive approach to writing coherent paragraphs and knowing how to transition between paragraphs.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Analyzing Text Complexity of Non Fiction Sources
This lesson plan will help middle schoolers read and comprehend nonfiction, specifically biographies, through determining criteria for text complexity. Included is a PDF and Smart Notebook titled Determining Text Complexity, and an...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Analyze Texts With Similar/different Purposes
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson is about being able to identify the author's purpose in a specific text. Specifically, it's about looking at several authors' works on the same topic and...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Writer's Model: Advantages/disadvantages Essay
This four-page essay provides an example of an advantages/disadvantages essay. Clicking on the "Writer's Guide" link in the upper right-hand corner of the page enables the user to get tips, directions, and explanations on the essay.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Writer's Model: Autobiographical Incident Essay
This two-page essay provides an example of an autobiographical incident essay. Clicking on the "Writer's Guide" link in the upper right-hand corner of the page enables the user to get tips, directions, and explanations on the essay.