Curated OER
Rikki-Tikki Colorful Verbs
Study and practice the vocabulary in Rudyard Kipling's famous story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi." Pupils underline verbs in a passage from the story, taking special note of vivid or precise verbs. They then write original sentences for five...
Curated OER
Borrowing Narrative Skills from Mr. Fletcher: Using a "Prompts in Reverse" Technique to Inspire Your Writers
Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson plan which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing: Using Exact Words
Review the narrative writing process with your emerging story writers. They read a sample narrative and identify five vague verbs that could be replaced with a more exact, exciting verb. Then they write a personal narrative making sure...
Virginia Department of Education
Developing an essay: Using specific nouns, strong verbs, and vivid adjectives
Feeling bored and unimpressed with word choice in your class? If so, consider this activity, which focuses on using specific and precise language. Pupils use highlighters, brainstorm independently and in small groups, and create a poster...
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
Writing the Children’s Book: Day One
With a brief mini-lesson plan, scholars learn about using strong verbs, sensory details, and precise descriptions. Next, pupils continue working on their children's book storyboards before choosing their strongest pages for peer...
Curated OER
Writing with Vivid Verbs
Students find vivid verbs in literature and use them in their own writing. In this vivid verbs lesson, students use a 'Thinking Thesaurus' of major verbs to study common verbs. Students then practice rewriting sentences using vivid...
Curated OER
Grammar Worksheet: Lie vs. Lay
To do something to someone or something or not to do something to someone. That is the question. And it is the source of the confusion between lie and lay. The strength of this worksheet is in the clear, cogent explanation for the...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Workshop (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Bring this lesson into your unit about creative writing and precise language. First, middle schoolers create a piece of writing with the help of their classmates. In the second part of this workshop, they edit their own piece of writing....
Curated OER
Helping Verbs
In this helping verbs worksheet, students underline the complete verb and circle the helping verb in each sentence. Students complete 10 problems.
Curated OER
Precise Vocabulary
Pupils complete acting exercises as a part of a precise language activity to help them build vocabulary and improve their descriptive writing skills. In this theatre and writing lesson, students create and act out a sentence with two new...
Curated OER
Tenses and Conjugation
Present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. Past, active, indicative. Need a worksheet that not only defines verb forms, but demonstrates how to use them? If you want a resource for class members needing...
Curated OER
8 Parts of Speech
Review the basics when it comes to grammar. Each slide provides learners with examples and definitions of one of the eight parts of speech. A great resource to keep handy for review, to clear up confusion, or to introduce the topic....
Curated OER
Awesome Animals
Sixth graders write descriptive narratives about animals. In this descriptive writing lesson, the teacher models how to write a paragraph with interesting sensory words and exciting verbs. Students choose a picture of an animal they want...
Curated OER
Total English Intermediate: I Do or I Am Doing?
For this present simple and present continuous verbs worksheet, students write 4 sentences about their lives using present simple verbs. Students also write 4 sentences about their lives using present continuous verbs.
University of Delaware
Active and Passive Voice
Here's a handout that not only explains the difference between active and passive voice and when each form should be used, but also provides a practice exercise as well.
Curated OER
Irish Eyes: Taking a Look at Local Landscape
Direct your class’s attention to the elements that make their community unique. After examining sample travel brochures, groups select something from their community to use as the subject, and then research, create, and publish a...
Curated OER
American Flag History
Young historians explore US culture by investigating the US flag. They will use their textbooks, prior knowledge, and sources provided by the teacher to research the history of the American flag. They will design and create a trading...
Curated OER
Word Roots 7: Spect, Sta, Vert Intermediate-Crossword
Given the clues, can you complete the crossword puzzle for words containing the Latin roots spect, sta, and vert? No word list is given, but using the answer sheet, you can provide your class with the list of words to choose from. This...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Making Dances From Stories
After reading a short story, learners will create dances that show homophones and verbs. Their dance sequences involve three verbs and transition movements in between each verb. Tip: Have the class dance out the sequence of events from...
Curated OER
Persuasion and Parallel Structure
Discuss the definition of parallel structure with your high school class. In small groups, they read a section of "The Declaration of Independence" to identify examples of parallel structure. Each learner writes an essay explaining the...
San José State University
Avoiding Nominalization
Improve syntax with this explanatory handout. It clarifies one way to make writing more precise: avoiding nominalization. This resource provides four ways to find and change nominalization problems and 10 sentences to correct. There are...
Curated OER
Show, Don't Tell: Details to Make Writing Come Alive
After each of three viewings of a 45-second video, aspiring writers employ vivid adjectives and precise, strong verbs to "show, don't tell." First they compose a single sentence, then three, and finally a five-sentence paragraph. Repeat...
Curated OER
Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...