Curated OER
Judging a Book by Its Cover
Students explore the relationship between the form of books and the content inside. In this book exploration lesson, students use a piece of their creative writing as inspiration; they author a written book and design a cover that...
Utah State Courts
Judges in the Classroom
Class members explore the process of a disposition hearing for juveniles, particularly looking at how the judge decides what sentence the juvenile offender should receive. Task your pupils with evaluating different sample cases provided...
Curated OER
Middle School Writing: Semester Goals
Seventh graders practice their writing skills by identifying their goals for the semester. They write an essay of four paragraphs and then combine all the information into one. As a class, they create a contract for each of them to use...
Curated OER
Geologist and Core Sampling
Third graders observe a cupcake and attempt to answer each question on the observation page. They write three sentences that explains how a geologist takes core samples of the earth's surface. Students make sketches and write...
Curated OER
China: Dim Sum: Writer's Workshop Mini Lesson: Dominant Impression: Writing a Descriptive Paragraph Lesson
Pupils write and illustrate a descriptive paragraph entitled "My Favorite Place" highlighting a dominate impression or dominant feeling in their paragraph.
Virginia Department of Education
Using Specific Vocabulary and Collaboration
Develop concepts on how to change your improving wordsmiths' writing from blah to wow with the activities and ideas in this resource. The instructor provides the class with examples of writing that lacks detail and precision, and then...
Thoughtful Education Press
Personal Narratives: Learning from Lessons Life Teaches Us
"First Appearance," Mark Twain's tale about overcoming stage fright, serves as a model of a personal narrative and gets young writers thinking about milestones in their own lives. After examining student models and considering the...
Curated OER
A Picture Says a Thousand Words
Students create a writing selection with a well-developed plot. They use a personal photograph in which they are visible to base their autobiographical writing. They write a description of the events surrounding the photograph in the...
Curated OER
Tabloid Tales
Students write news stories to accompany tabloid headlines. In this tabloid lesson plan, students learn the power of persuasion and exaggeration by writing stories based on actual tabloid headlines.
Curated OER
Treasured Comments
Students write positive comments to classmates. They decorate a box or envelope, write one positive comment to share with each student in the class, and read the comments written to them by the other students.
Curated OER
Reporting from the Front Lines
Students examine the battle of Gettysburg as they write news articles. In this Battle of Gettysburg lesson, students become familiar with the job of the news reporter as they report on the events of the Battle of Gettysburg as they write...
Curated OER
Dental Chemistry Analogy
After taking in background information on teeth, marble, eggshell, and fluoride, chemistry aces design an experiment. Their goal is to demonstrate whether or not fluoride has a similar effect on marble or eggshell as it does on tooth...
Federal Reserve Bank
Credit Reports—and You Thought Your Report Card Was Important
Get the facts about credit and take a close look at what factors into a consumer credit report with this fantastic lesson. Your pupils will read informational texts, read sample financial documents, and discuss the advantages and...
College Board
2009 AP® Calculus AB Free-Response Questions
What was one of the big takeaways from 2009? By reviewing the released AP® Calculus free-response questions, pupils and teachers realize that performing mathematics is not all there is to doing well on the exam. Several items require...
Curated OER
Make a Menu
Students practice their descriptive writing skills by designing and writing a menu for a fictional restaruant.
Curated OER
Catalog Display for the Novel : The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Carlson
Fourth graders explain the novel through creative descriptions, learn importance of word choice in descriptive writing, and implement technology skills of searching the Internet, typing, cutting and pasting, graphic designs, and...
Noyce Foundation
Time to Get Clean
It's assessment time! Determine your young mathematicians' understanding of elapsed time with this brief, five-question quiz.
Polar Trec
Identifying Sea Ice
Sea ice contains 17 sub-types based on age and various characteristics. Scholars observe ice floating in a simulated ocean and record their observations. Then, they view photographs of different types of sea ice and learn to...
Reed Novel Studies
The Homework Machine: Novel Study
Do opposites really attract? The D Squad in The Homework Machine includes of a quad of opposites. The group, made up of a teacher's pet, a geek, a class clown, and a slacker, make use of a machine to do their homework. In response to the...
Reed Novel Studies
Stone Fox: Novel Study
Wyoming has the lowest population of all 50 states. Using the novel study for Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner, pupils create brochures to attract visitors to the state, which is the setting for the novel. Additionally, they answer...
Curated OER
Car For Sale!
Young scholars practice their writing and editing skills by developing a plan for and then writing a grammatically correct description of an item (car or otherwise) that they would like to sell.
Curated OER
Strategies for Organization and Elaboration of Personal Narrative
Personal narrative writing is usually a favorite form of writing for youngsters because they get to write about a personal experience. The lesson here asks pupils to take a piece of narrative writing and improve it by following...
Curated OER
Painting with Words
Fifth graders discuss words that are over used in their writing such as good, nice, happy, glad sad, etc. they complete a survey about word choice then hear a story and discuss descriptive phrases used in the story and how they help to...
Curated OER
Voice Trait: Who Is Talking?
Students recognize the difficulty of knowing who wrote a letter from the envelope. In this writing "voice" lesson, students understand the meaning of voice in writing and detect who the writers are in a worksheet.