San José State University
Essay Exams: Common Question Types
Novice writers often struggle to determine what style of essay to write when given a prompt. This worksheet helps to identify an appropriate form based on the language of the question. For example, key words like prove or justify...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: Nature in the Writings of John Muir and Emily Dickinson
As an assessment of their skill in crafting a compare and contrast essay, class members read and compare the portrayals of nature in excerpts from naturalist John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and from poet Emily Dickinson's "The...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Opinion Requiring Voting
Challenge writers to compose an essay detailing their stance on, and the history of, voting. Three assignments, each broken down into three parts, requires fifth graders to take notes, read and complete charts, write paragraphs, compare...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literary Text: Wise or Foolish?
A three-part assessment promotes reading comprehension skills. Class members read literary texts and take notes to discuss their findings, answer comprehension questions, write summaries, and complete charts.
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 7: Logical Fallacies
What are the effects of competition in an academic environment? The competition between the main characters in A Separate Peace motivates a series of activities that asks readers to take a stance on competition, and then to develop a...
Fluence Learning
Writing Informational Text: Lemonade Stand
Use a performance task to assess third graders' ability to read informational text. After they plan a lemonade stand business, young entrepreneurs implement that plan through informational writing. The task assumes learners can...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: Beyond the Beyond—Galaxies
Everyone has a different point of view, even when it comes to the enormity of the universe. Two separate text passages explain the scope of a galaxy, prompting young readers to write an essay about each author's argument and how the...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Opinion: Is Pride Good or Bad?
Does pride really goeth before the fall, or can it be essential to one's development? Second graders read two of Aesop's fables that refer to pride in their morals, and write a short essay about whether pride is good or bad, based on...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Argument: Innovation in America
Are American young people prepared to become tomorrow's leaders in technological innovation, or does an obsession with being cool sidetrack essential skills? That is the question freshmen and sophomores must address in a performance task...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: The Dred Scott Decision
Looking for a performance assessment that asks individuals to demonstrate their competency in writing about informational text? Use Frederick Douglass' essay "On the Dred Scott Decision," and an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln's 1857 speech...
Fluence Learning
Writing an Argument: Free Speech
How do you assess whether pupils have mastered certain concepts and skills? Designing a performance task that asks learners to demonstrate their skills and providing writers with a rubric that identifies these skills and provides...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: Political Parties
To demonstrate their ability to craft an analysis of informational text, class members read excerpts from James Madison's "The Federalist No. 10," from George Washington's Farewell Address, and from Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural...
Fluence Learning
Writing a Narrative: Two Frogs
Three options offer young writers the opportunity to read a short story, answer questions, and write a response. A handy language arts resource focuses on reading comprehension and analyziing the story's lesson: look before you leap.
Fluence Learning
Writing an Opinion: Student Council
A three-part assessment challenges scholars to write opinion essays covering the topic of the student council. After reading three passages, writers complete a chart, work with peers to complete a mini-research project, answer...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text The Berlin Wall
On June 26, 1963 President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech close to the Berlin Wall at the Rudolph Wilde Platz. On June 12, 1987 President Ronald Reagan Delivered his famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down...
Fluence Learning
Writing Informational Text: Community and School Gardens
Two informational texts feature community gardens of the past and present and how seeds grow. Scholars read, discuss what they have read, complete a timeline, define words, and compose a brief essay about the texts' main idea.
Curated OER
Writing Exercises: The Byzantine Empire I
Boost expository writing skills while testing content understanding. Here are three short essay questions intended to activate learner comprehension of concepts related to The Byzantine Empire, shifts in Roman law, and geographical...
Curated OER
Writing Exercise: How to Spot a Loser Sentence
In this writing skills learning exercise, class members read sentences about developmental psychology that need revisions and then revise them in order to make them better. The 11 sentences range from the humorous to the incomprehensible.
Fluence Learning
Writing an Argument: Is Electronic Communication Helpful or Harmful?
Technology has undoubtedly improved the lives of people around the world—but has it improved communication? Seventh graders read two informative passages about the rise of texting and emailing versus in-person conversations before...
Fluence Learning
Writing Informative Text: School Days
A three-part writing assessment challenges scholars to think critically about schools of the past and present. Learners read informative texts, answer questions to prepare for a discussion, research in small groups, complete a Venn...
Curated OER
Man's Search For Meaning: Writing Assessment (Final Multi-Genre Project)
Conclude a study of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning with a research project that asks readers to investigate what various religions and philosophies believe is the meaning of life. The resource packet includes a list of...
Cliffs Notes
The Count of Monte Cristo: Study Help Essay Topics and Review Questions
In this literature worksheet, learners respond to 5 short answer and essay questions about Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. Students may also link to an online interactive quiz on the novel at the bottom of the page.
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: Comparing and Contrasting Characters in Heidi
Scholars read excerpts from the story, Heidi, in a three-part assessment that focuses on comparing and contrasting characters. Each part contains three tasks that challenge learners to discuss, answer comprehension questions,...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: Everybody Can Bike
A three-part assessment challenges scholars to read informational texts in order to complete three tasks. Following a brief reading, class members take part in grand conversations, complete charts, and work in small groups to research...