Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Exploring Customs and Cultures Part 1
Students meet both language arts and social studies objectives in this interdisciplinary unit on customs and cultures. In part 1 of the unit students practice research and writing skills to create a slideshow. In part 2 of the unit...
Beacon Learning Center
Beacon Learning Center: Information Elimination: Lesson on Narrowing the Topic
This is a tutorial which focuses on how to narrow the topic for expository writing, how to determine what information to keep or eliminate, and what questions to ask yourself. Students respond to questions throughout. A comparison is...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: What Edison Teaches Us About Success
In this interactive activity, students examine Thomas Edison's character traits and how they contributed to his becoming one of the greatest inventors in history. In this interactive activity, students watch videos to gather evidence...
Beacon Learning Center
Beacon Learning Center: Paraphrase Craze: A Lesson in Expository Writing
This tutorial focuses on how to paraphrase using an excerpt from Poe's short story, "The Tell-Tale Heart." It defines paraphrase and plagiarism, presents examples, and explains what is incorrect about them. It is interactive asking for...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Writing an Introduction and Conclusion
[Free Registration/Login Required] Using this flipchart, students will learn how to piece together an introduction and a conclusion for expository writing.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: An I Pod Inspired Writing Lesson: How Will You Be Remembered?
In this lesson plan, students will be exploring self image. They will be analyzing how they would like to ultimately be remembered by writing a eulogy, inspired by Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You." They will then explore a change...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Why We Should Protect Freshwater Mussels
In this interactive lesson, students will increase their understanding of the important role that freshwater mussels play in our watershed. Students will learn about freshwater mussel species, how mussels improve water quality in rivers...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Relevant Information and Valid Inferences
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will learn how to make the information in your expository essays relevant and your inferences valid.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Chicago Changes [Pdf]
"Chicago Changes" is a one page, nonfiction, reading passage about how Chicago changed from a small town to a large city. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes: determining...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Explain the Controlling Idea, Purpose, and Distinguish Details
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, students will learn how to pinpoint the controlling idea, which not only identifies the main idea, but also answers questions about the author's goal or...
EL Education
El Education: Chickenology: The Art and Science of Keeping Chickens
This manual was written by a group of middle school and high school students in the Maplewood Richmond Heights school district. The students, known as the "Chickenologists", care for the district's flock of chickens. This comprehensive...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Saving Crystal River
Explore the effects that an invasive species can have on the environment. In this interactive lesson, students learn how Lyngbya, a destructive form of algae, is creating environmental problems for the plants and wildlife in the Crystal...
Education Place
Houghton Mifflin: Eduplace: 5 Ws Chart [Pdf]
This site from Houghton Mifflin Company provides a simple, reproducible chart to help students gather details of Who, What, When, Where, and Why. This could be used as a reading comprehension tool, or as prewriting for expository writing.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Changing the Ecosystem: Q & a [Pdf]
"Changing the Ecosystem: Q & A" is a one page, nonfiction, reading passage about how the loss of the prairie to farming and population growth impacts the ecosystem. It is followed by questions which require students to provide...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Multi Media Hero Analysis
Using what they learn about how heroes are depicted in art, literature, and music, students create their own definition of a hero, and then write an essay based on a hero they wish to research.
EL Education
El Education: Beetlemania: It's More Than John, Paul, Ringo and George
Beetlemania is a field guide to the Rocky Mountain Beetle Infestation in the Colorado Forest Ecosystem written and illustrated by 5th and 6th grade students at Explore Elementary in Thornton, CO. This extensive field guide includes...