Curated OER
How To Use the Six Traits of Writing
Use these reference tools to plan and organize the Six Traits of Writing Program.
Curated OER
A Year in Review: The Memoir
If you are planning a unit on memoir and autobiographical narrative, you should consider this resource. Using Internet research skills, pupils review works by James Frey and Henry David Thoreau. In response to these works, learners...
Curated OER
In My Opinion
Young writers craft letters to the government stating their opinion on different topics. They pick an environmental or ocean issue, research it, and craft their formal persuasive letter. Ensure your learners include supporting facts and...
College Board
AP® English Language Special Focus: Using Sources
What is the most effective way to teach scholars how to write a research paper? Educators explore the topic with the AP® English Language and Composition exam resource. The reference material guides teachers in best practices for using...
Curated OER
Developing a Topic for Writing Using an Idea Web
Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members...
EngageNY
Paragraph Writing About Waiting for the Biblioburro
Ask your learners to synthesize what they know about Waiting for the Biblioburro by writing a well-organized paragraph. Young writers focus on using transition words and including specific details in their paragraphs. The plan allows for...
Scholastic
Thomas Jefferson and Monticello: An Introduction to Writing Historical Fiction
Thomas Jefferson is one of the most recognized names and faces in America—but is there more to the third president of the United States? Upper elementary and middle schoolers conduct research on Jefferson, his famous home at Monticello,...
Media Smarts
Marketing to Teens: Talking Back
Teach your class to talk back in a constructive and respectful way. This focuses in particular on talking back to the media and to advertisers when they have concerns. Learners participate in a brainstorm and then compose letters or...
Scholastic
The Class Election from the Black Lagoon Storia Teaching Guide
One of my favorite things about this resource is that they use a standardized lexile to help you determine who should be reading what book. I also love this great teacher's guide for the book, The Class Election from the Black Lagoon. In...
Scholastic
The Flight of Amelia Earhart Teaching Guide
Amelia Earhart's accomplishments and strength of character extend beyond her status as one of the first female aviators in America. Elementary and middle schoolers learn about Earhart's early life and the historical context surrounding...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Book Review Writing: a Guide for Young Reviewers
Encourage scholars to share their love of reading with informative and engaging book reviews. Here, you'll find a series of guides that walk learners through the review writing process. Included in the collection is information about...
Curated OER
Writing a News Article
Join the newspaper business with a series of lessons and exercises focused on elements of journalism. The packet focuses on distinguishing fact from opinion, writing effective headlines, sequencing events, and editing and proofreading a...
New York City Department of Education
Grade 11 Literacy in Social Studies: Research Paper
The lesson guides young academics through the steps in producing a 10-page research paper on any topic in American history. Historians begin by formulating a thesis and gathering resources, then move on to creating an outline, and end...
New York City Department of Education
Grade 4 Literacy in English Language Arts: A Call to Action
You have the power! Scholars learn that they have power of the pen in their writing. After reading and viewing various sources about standardized testing, they express their own opinions about the testing by writing letters to the...
New York City Department of Education
Grade 5 Literacy in English Language Arts: Should the School Day Be Longer?
Scholars read newspaper articles relating to a longer school day and complete note-taking organizers as they read. They then form opinions and complete outlines before writing essays supporting their point of view.
Curated OER
Reading Poetry in the Middle Grades
Bring the beauty of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost to middle school language arts. After learners read a copy of the poem, they follow an instructional sequence that focuses on sound, figurative language, and theme.
Curated OER
Writing an Informal Letter
What is the difference between formal and informal letter writing? Who gets a formal letter? What about an informal letter? This reference page presents different introductions and phrases you might see in each type of letter, and then...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing
Binoculars are used as a metaphor for good descriptive writing. Class members first view a small picture and then an enlarged view of the same image in which the details come into focus. Next, learners examine a paragraph lacking sensory...
EngageNY
Paragraph Writing Instruction
Writing a paragraph from details found directly in a text is the central focus of this thorough and explicit lesson plan. Using the stories Nasreen's Secret School and Rain School, third graders are lead step-by-step through the basics...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.1
Focus on writing argument essays with your high schoolers. The lesson suggested here focuses on The Jungle, by Sinclair Lewis; however, the idea could be adapted for other texts. Check out the quick quiz provided at the end of the...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.5
Working on revision? Check out this resource on Common Core standard W.9-10.5, which focuses in particular on the writing process. After reading some information about the specifics of the standard and how to implement it in the...
Wisconsin State Reading Association
Next Step in Guided Reading
Here are three guided reading lesson plan templates; each designed to meet the needs of a specific level of readers. Levels in focus are emergent, early, and transitional readers. Additionally, prompts to support your small group...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literary Text: Pygmalion and Galatea
Is it crazy to fall in love with your own work, or is that the purest love of all? Compare two renditions of the classic Greek myth Pygmalion and Galatea with a literary analysis exercise. After students compare the similarities and...
College Board
AP® English Language and Composition Special Focus: Writing Persuasively
It's not always easy to persuade others. However, it may even be harder to teach others how to be persuasive. Educators get personal insight from Brent Staples, an influential commentator, as well as gain ideas and activities on teaching...