Curated OER
Varied Beginnings: Research Process / Narrative Writing Techniques
What's the best way to start a story? Learners write a memoir using effective openings. They research the process and work through a list of hooks to use in their writing. They use at least two hooks to begin their personal memoir. A...
Curated OER
Using Each Trait to Improve Student Writing
High schoolers examine examples of the qualities of good writing skills and discuss how each of the traits add to the process of good writing. A variety of excerpts from literature provide samples for the exploration.
Curated OER
The Writing Process
Introduce young writers to the writing process. Activities model the steps in the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, polishing). A logic tree template is also included.
Curated OER
The Six Traits of Writing
Targeted toward parents, the slides included here could be adapted for classroom use or shown at Back-to-School Night. The focus of the presentation is Six Trait Writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and...
Curated OER
Visible Speech: A Short Course in the Fundamentals of Writing/Lesson 3
Focusing on writing an introduction, this presentation provides a variety of techniques for how to begin. Although the question marks on slide six obscure the writing, the other slides are clear and legible and display good examples for...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Get it Write
In an effort to practice engineering design, STEM classes break out into teams and endeavor to make a working ink pen. To prepare, they read about writing implements through history, patents, and viscosity of liquids. Armed with this...
Everett Public Schools
High School Writing: Student Guide
Here's an amazing writing guide that deserves a place in your curriculum library. The 136-page packet provides focus lessons on the writing process, expository, persuasive, and timed writing, the Cornell system of note taking, and more....
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Word Tree - Bonsai or Banyan
What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
“Tell Me a Story”: Moving from Reading to Writing
Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...
Oxford University Press
Language Focus: Imperative Sentences, Future Progressive Tense
Finish your homework! Kids work on imperative sentences with a grammar worksheet, which also focuses on future progressive tense (going to). After they use a word bank to write instructions for a person going on a trip, they fill in the...
Curated OER
Making Magical Creatures Talk
Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.
Curated OER
Changing Seasons
Explore expository writing and using precise language in this descriptive paragraph writing lesson. Learners brainstorm prior knowledge about the changing seasons in Ohio. They describe seasonal items, view seasonal pictures from...
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Conventions Chart
Help your young writers pay close attention to their conventions and move toward revision with a straightforward chart. Learners can analyze 11 sentences on this page by noting down the first letter in each, the first of words in each,...
Roald Dahl
Matilda - Throwing the Hammer
Full truth, or an exaggeration? How can you tell when a storyteller is exaggerating a story? Readers analyze a story told by Hortensia, and identify the exaggerative language she uses. Then, learners write their own narrative story using...
ReadWriteThink
Captioning the Civil Rights Movement: Reading the Images, Writing the Words
Scholars boost their knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement with a lesson plan that challenges writers, readers, and historians to analyze primary sources and caption their observations. By way of reading, writing, discussion,...
Evergreen Exhibitions
Leonardo da Vinci: Machines in Motion
Motion is the focus of ten hands-on activities that challenge scholars to build machines invented by Leonardo da Vinci. Following several steps, small groups work collaboratively to recreate machines including levers, pulleys, wheels,...
Oxford University Press
Language Focus: Present Continuous, Imperatives
What will your class do in the future? What won't they do? Practice the present continuous form for future arrangements (or future progressive tense) with several fill-in-the-blanks and sentence reordering activities.
Global Change
The Carbon Cycle and its Role in Climate Change
So how does the carbon cycle work? Kids participate in a hands-on activity that allows them to understand the chemistry behind climate change and global warming. They act out the process of photosynthesis by labeling themselves as...
University of the Desert
Leaders in the Wilderness
What would the world be like if each person acted with greater cultural awareness and understanding? Learners consider the impact of cultural diffusion, as well as how global leaders can address some of today's pressing issues.
Curated OER
Introductions: Definition and Writing Tips
Using PowerShow.com, this presentation focuses on how to write basic introductions including four main points: create an opening sentence that sizzles, identify a clear, central idea, relate the topic's importance, and write a solid...
Curated OER
Informative Essay Writing
High schoolers start by drawing Mr. Essay Man, who is supposed to illustrate the different parts of an essay. After discussing what each component should contain, writers start their essay, guided by the teacher and class discussion....
Curated OER
Writing Variable Expressions for Physical Models
Explore the concept of writing variable expressions by examining the similarities between expressions with numbers and expressions with variables. Emerging mathematicians determine rules for sequences and patterns before writing a rule...
Curated OER
Bumper Stickers: A Matter of Focus
Honk if you love bumper stickers! Long used as a persuasive tool, bumper stickers are used to launch this study of persuasive writing. Each class member is given a bumper sticker and asked to formulate three questions the strip might...
Curated OER
Persuasive Writing - Advertisements
This compelling presentation shows pupils how to write sentences that will persuade. Word choice and tone are the two focuses. Many fine tips are given, such as: sentences focus on the positive and ignore the negative, and they use...