Curated OER
Writing Descriptions of "My Favorite Place"
Students write a descriptive writing piece. In this writing activity, students use a visualization exercise to add more descriptions to their writing.
K12 Reader
Adjectives Add Interest
A world without adjectives would be a sad place indeed! Make sure adjectives stay around by teaching your class about what they are and how using them can make a boring story truly interesting. Learners put this idea into practice by...
Curated OER
Jack-O-Latern Lesson
Have a Happy Halloween and build strong oral language skills. Special needs Pupils functioning at a moderate level can practice sequencing, writing lists, and using oral language by explaining how they carve a pumpkin.
Poetry Society
Tiny by Mandy Coe
Introduce magic and imagination into your classroom with a poetry activity. Learners read the poem "Tiny" by Mandy Coe and use their magic tickets to visit any place they can think of! The final result is a poem describing where they...
Curated OER
Blanket the Plains
Learners discuss vivid imagery in a story. In this figurative language lesson plan, students read samples of sensory language and then discuss the meaning of a piece of figurative language. Learners provide examples.
Curated OER
Describing Paintings: Calm or Stormy
Young writers use nouns, verbs, and adjectives to describe details in two paintings. One depicts a sunny landscape, and the other shows a cloudier view. They write a narrative inspired by the paintings, paying attention to transitional...
Curated OER
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, emergent...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Curated OER
15 Seconds of Fame
Students write an autobiographical essay. In this writing lesson students read a narrative, Panic in Paris, and review the elements of a narrative as a class discussion. Well-known stories are used as examples for writing their own...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing
Fifth graders develop compositions on self-selected topics. They choose a topic based upon their ability. Individual pupils earn points for each activity completed. Students use descriptive writing as they support their composition...
Curated OER
Reflecting/Writing after a field trip or other experience
Students reflect on field trips in writing. In this journal writing lesson, students write about a recent experience by using 4 of their senses to tell what they remember. They turn these into poetry.
Curated OER
The Personal Narrative - Part One
Read to write! The class lists sensory details based on the plot of a story they have recently read. They create a drawing of a bracelet and use the bracelet's jewels or charms to list sensory details included in the story. They then use...
Curated OER
Sense Poems
Students explore 5 senses poetry. In this poetry writing lesson, students visualize a special day and brainstorm related vivid adjectives and phrases. Students create mindmaps of the five senses to go with their visualization and write...
Curated OER
Haiku: Observation and Writing in the Japanese Garden
Learners observe a Botanical Gardens. Upon returning to the classroom, students write their own Haiku based on their observations.
Curated OER
Internet: Writing Friendly Letters Via Email
Pupils view a Powerpoint presentation on writing and sending email. After examining a Website about the parts of a friendly letter, they compose and send their own letters via email. Teachers set up an email/pen pal account so students...
Curated OER
Color Poems
Students describe colors. In this descriptive writing lesson, students brainstorm color descriptions using all of the senses except sight. Students write poems including similes, sensory images, and interesting word choice. Examples are...
Leicestershire County Council
Developing Handwriting Skills for Individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Here is a resource packed with strategies to help individuals with ASD improve their handwriting skills. Intended for the teacher or specialist, the resource provides background information on reasons learners with ASD have difficulty...
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...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Dinosaurs Before Dark
Young readers travel back to the time of the dinosaurs in this literature unit based on the story Dinosaurs Before Dark. Intended for use with upper-elementary special education students, this resource provides reading comprehension,...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 18: Art Project! Design Your Own Book Cover
Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...
Curated OER
Elaborating: Specific Adjectives
Young scholars use adjectives to improve their descriptive writing. In this language arts lesson, students discuss adjectives that can be used to describe objects. Young scholars complete sentences by selecting adjectives.
Autism Speaks
Supporting Learning in the Student with Autism
Learners with autism face many challenges. Help them to meet these challenges with a packet loaded with practical suggestions, activities, and materials.
Curated OER
Dear Diary
Students analyze a piece of writing by creating diary entries based on a character. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, students read an assigned book with their classmates and create a sketch of what they believe the main...
Curated OER
Show! Don't Tell!
Students write a descriptive paragraph. For this writing lesson, students define elaboration and discuss the characteristics of an elaborate paragraph. Students write a paragraph that contains vivid adjectives, strong verbs and exact nouns.