Middle Tennessee State University
A House Divided: The Civil War Home Front in Tennessee
To broaden their understanding of both the short term and long terms effects of the Civil War, class groups examine primary source materials and then assume the role of a family member and draft a letter to a soldier describing life at...
Curated OER
Elaborate By Showing, Not Telling
In this writing worksheet, students learn to create a vivid picture in the reader's mind with descriptive words. Students read 10 pairs of example sentences-- one telling an event and the other showing it. Students then write 4 "show not...
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Similes
Second graders explore similes. In this figurative language lesson, 2nd graders read the book Quick As A Cricket and choose a simile to illustrate.
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Mountain Creation: A Drama Exploration
Students explore mountain formation. In this cross curriculum earth science and legend writing activity, students listen to the poem "The Way to make Perfect Mountains" by Byrd Baylor and identify examples of vivid language used....
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Childhood Narrative Memory Writing Prompt
In this writing prompt worksheet, students are encouraged to write a narrative about a vivid childhood memory. They discuss why it was so important and why it was particularly memorable.
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Vivid Mental Images
Students listen to a chapter of "The Tale of Despereaux" while creating vivid mental images. They discuss the images before listening to the next chapter and illustrating those images. Each day, they repeat the exercise and add to a...
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Using Effective, Amusing Writing As a Model
Learners use the author's writing as a model to achieve vivid description and engaging humor in compositions of their own. They examine the ways a writer can capture and hold a reader's attention and write a short personal narrative...
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Writing Application: The Canterbury Tales
Students read stories from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and create their own tale. In this writing applications lesson, students read the tales and analyze the specific details that Chaucer use. Students work in groups to...
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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...
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Personify This
Eighth graders study personification in published works of poetry, then create their own through the use of diamante or cinquain poetry. They read and discuss poetry by Shel Silverstein, William Jay Smith, and Elinor Wylie.
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Thanksgiving Writing Activities
The holiday season is an opportunity for students to create meaningful Thanksgiving writing activities.
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Accentuate the Expositive: Unit 2 Expository Writing
Students analyze narrative passages in order to improve their writing skills. In this narrative writing lesson students use the same style of writing that they have analyzed in their own narrative passage.
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Establishing a Point of View in Narratives
Fourth graders investigate the concept and take the opportunity to both identify and to construct point of view in narratives. Additionally, 4th graders practice identifying and sequencing main events.
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A Christmas Memory
Students write an essay about a special Christmas memory they have. In this Christmas essay lesson, students use vivid description to write an essay about a special Christmas memory they have.
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Telling A Story
Young scholars brainstorm all the possible scenarios that would help them tell a story in detail with the whole class and with partners. They create web outlines to create a name story and then illustrate it with creative grammar usage...
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Carl Sandburg's "Chicago": Bringing a Great City Alive
Carl Sandburg composed poetry that conveyed a time and place in American Literature and history. Learners identify the literary techniques he uses to describe the historical and cultural context of living in Chicago. They define the...
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Sense Poems
Students explore 5 senses poetry. In this poetry writing lesson, students visualize a special day and brainstorm related vivid adjectives and phrases. Students create mindmaps of the five senses to go with their visualization and write...
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Analogies
Analogies demonstrate how words relate to each other and crafting analogies is a good way to encourage learners to develop their understanding of the layers of meanings in words. This worksheet provides pupils practice completing and...
C.S. Lewis Foundation
Educator’s Guide to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader guide includes chapter-by-chapter vocabulary lists and quizzes, discussion questions and writing prompts, and an explanation of Narnia expressions. Great for mainstream classrooms and homeschool situations.
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Vivid Verbs
Fifth graders review action verbs by brainstorming a list of them as a class. Using magazines, they pick one picture and use a dictionary or thesaurus to identify verbs that describe the action taking place. Using the new verbs, they...
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Revising With Precision
In this revisions activity, learners fill in blanks in sentences, 15 total, with "vivid and precise" word. Students are instructed that they may use a thesaurus.
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Demystifying Mood in Creative Writing
Learners discover how writing is affected by mood and emotions. They learn proper mood descriptors and read sample pieces of writing to better explain mood.
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Descriptive Writing
Third graders have fun using descriptive words in an expository format to describe a food that they hate. They utilize a planning worksheet that's imbedded in this plan before they begin their drafts.
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Johnny Appleseed Reading and Writing
First graders explore language arts by reading a classic story in class. In this word choice lesson, 1st graders read the story of Johnny Appleseed and identify the descriptive words and sentences the author used to entice the reader....