Curated OER
Email Buddies
Collaborate with another class (or school) and have your learners share ideas about their reading through the use of email. Perhaps you'll create a specific question or a few questions for writers to choose from. Not only will they...
Curated OER
Run On Sentences
Explore run-on sentences with your language arts class. There is a SMART Board presentation included, but even if you don't have access to this technology, there are several useful pieces here. Provide your learners with the "student...
Curated OER
Document-Based Essay on U.S. Reaction to North Korean Nuclear Policy
Students compose essays on nuclear policies. In this North Korea instructional activity, students examine political cartoons and primary documents regarding nuclear build-up by North Korea. Students write essays about North Korea's...
Curated OER
Picture This
Elementary writers practice writing descriptive paragraphs by adding adjectives and sensory words to their writing. They use a picture of a monster for their descriptive paragraph. This 12-page lesson should increase your charges...
Curated OER
Discovering Saturn, The Real "Lord of the Rings"
Reading, writing, and rings! A lesson from NASA combines space science with authentic reading and writing tasks. Included in this lesson are pre-reading activities, four mini informational booklets on Saturn, a structured note-taking...
Curated OER
Jim Murphy, The Great Fire - Grade 6
The Great Fire by Jim Murphy provides the text for a study of the Chicago fire of 1871. The plan is designed as a close reading activity so that all learners have the same background information require for writing. Richly detailed, the...
Curated OER
American Studies
Entitled American Studies, this small unit covers various topics related to the study of the United States. Learners warm up by creating a dictionary of democracy, then dive into three different lessons focused on government, famous...
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
Curated OER
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Middle schoolers read a chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and define new words for their dictionaries. In this vocabulary lesson students choose two or three assignment from a list of projects and complete it using the...
Curated OER
Geography of Canada
All about Canada! Learners explore the geography and providences of Canada by watching videos, studying maps and conducting internet research. By the end of this lesson, your class should be able to locate major areas and compare and...
Museum of Tolerance
Oral History Activity
Oral history has brought a multitude of lessons, stories, and factoids to our current knowledge of the past. Let us continue to use oral history traditions through a lesson that encourages pupils to discover and appreciate where they...
Museum of Tolerance
Immigration Journeys
Through the journey of four stories of immigration, scholars complete graphic organizers and apply knowledge to create a visual representation of their findings on a large poster. Third and fourth readers write a letter to their family...
Curated OER
Vivid Verbs
Spice up your writing! Your amateur writers will benefit from concentrating on understanding and improving verb use in writing. An introductory activity addresses weak verbs. A second exercise helps them see the importance of strong...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Analyzing an Author’s Argument and Text Structure
William Shakespeare: a writer, a poet, a fake? For their mid-unit assessments, scholars read an excerpt from the article "The Top Ten Reasons Shakespeare Did Not Write Shakespeare" by Keir Cutler. Next, they analyze the author's argument...
American Statistical Association
Tell it Like it is!
Scholars apply prior knowledge of statistics to write a conclusion. They summarize using correct academic language and tell the story of the data.
Curated OER
Oral History: Park City Museum
Bring U.S. history to your language arts class with this lesson. Middle schoolers complete an interview for an oral history project, and discuss the importance of oral histories - and how they embellish written accounts. They write...
Penguin Books
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Young Readers Edition
As the saying goes, you are what you eat. A useful set of lesson plans encourage young readers to take a second look at their eating habits. Pre- and post-reading questions bring in reflective writing and discussion while extension...
EngageNY
Planning a Historical Fiction Narrative Based on Expert Trades
Pupils plan for a historical fiction narrative based on their previous research on expert trades from the Colonial Era. Individuals use the four-square graphic organizer to organize the information they want to be detailed in their four...
Curated OER
How to Combine Sentences
Students practice combining sentences. In this writing lesson, students view essays and discuss how it can be revised, using sentence combining. Students practice this skill in their own essays.
Curated OER
Natural Inquirer Lesson: Scientific Abstracts
Students practice scientific observation by writing abstracts. In this science reporting lesson, students identify the 4 segments of a scientific abstract, what the problem is, how it was studied, what was found and the importance of...
Curated OER
Five Paragraph Essay
Eighth graders are introduced to the mechanics of writing a standard-form essay. They draft, edit and polish a five-paragraph essay about spending the day as an animal of their choice.
Curated OER
Penguin Paradise
Students read about penguins and communicate their information in a one paragraph summary. In this penguin writing lesson, students review sentence construction. Students complete a KWL about penguins and read the book Penguins Through...
Curated OER
Writing - Combining Ideas to Write Descriptive Paragraphs
Pupils develop a strategy for combining various ideas into well formed sentences which then combine to produce effective descriptive paragraphs.
Curated OER
Writing Example Paragraphs
Sixth graders write example paragraphs. The term "example paragraph" refers to a paragraph where the supporting sentences provide examples of the subject/idea described in the topic sentence. Students write a basic example paragraph...