Curated OER
It's a Matter of Opinion
Dissect the parts of an advertisement with your class. Middle schoolers discuss advertisements and locate the hook in them. Then, they create an advertisement for a business, in which they include the name of the business, an...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Essay Outline
Here is a resource intended for a social studies class, but great no matter the subject. It's a complete outline for an essay. It includes space to write ideas related to the thesis, supporting details, transition sentences and words,...
Tech Coach Corner
The Hook
A fishing hook inspires this presentation about different methods for starting a composition. Have class members take notes or edit current drafts while viewing the slide show. The animation is entertaining, but gets repetitive by the...
Curated OER
Writing the Five Paragraph Essay: Some basic rules for writing that you should always follow!
Need a quick review of the format of the five-paragraph essay? The strength of this presentation is in the color-highlighted examples used to illustrate the terms. Consider adding additional slides that provide a model of a complete essay.
Curated OER
The Five-Paragraph Essay: Template for College Writing
If your writers have already mastered the basic five-paragraph essay, consider introducing them to a broader application of this format. Writers consider sections instead of paragraphs, context/claim, and synthesis. Although no models...
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
The Lead Paragraph - How to Hook the Reader in 25 Words or Less
In this reading and writing analysis worksheet, students read a sample letter that hooks the readers. The students then discuss and adjust three other writing samples to make them more interesting.
Curated OER
Terrific Topic Sentences
Capture the interest of your reader with terrific topic sentences. To practice hooking the reader, your class will be given writing prompts, and they must create topic sentences for each prompt provided. Encourage them to use different...
SMART Technologies
Smart: Intro Paragraph
How to write an introduction paragraph, including hook, background information, and thesis statement.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Power First Paragraphs
After reading an engaging paragraph from Brave Margaret: An Irish Adventure by Robert D. San Souci and then work on writing good opening paragraphs for their own stories. Teacher and student instructions are provided along with student...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Writing Leads in the Middle School Class
Great lesson plan in which students read various examples of "leads," or attention-grabbing introductions, in literature. Students then contemplate and develop their own interesting "lead" for a short story and share it with the class....
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: In Search of the Novel
Eight one-hour workshop videos for middle and high school teachers wishing to bring novels to life in their classrooms. Features the works of ten famous novelists, including Charles Dickens, J.K. Rowling, and Toni Morrison. Free to all-...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Hypophora
This lesson introduces hypophora as a rhetorical device. This tutorial lesson shares a short slideshow with the lesson's content.
City University of New York
Write Site: Engage Your Reader
Learn about different hooks to use when writing a good introduction including: telling a story, providing interesting background information, setting up a contrast, and using a combination of approaches.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Clarity: Introductory Sentences: Lesson 2
This lesson goes over the importance of clarity in the first sentence of a paragraph.
TES Global
Blendspace: 2016, Term 1, Week 4 Writing Sizzling Starts
A six-part learning module with links to images, videos, and websites about using sizzling starts to grab the reader's attention at the beginning of a writing piece.