Curated OER
Show Not Tell
Middle schoolers learn to show, not tell, in their narrative writing. A slide show takes them through the process of choosing strong, descriptive words, and then provides writing prompts for them to use as practice. The first two pages...
New Jersey Historical Commission and New Jersey Council for the Humanities
Thomas Edison: The Wizard of Menlo Park
What would change in your daily life due to a power outage? Here, learners explore the inventions brought to us by the one and only, Thomas Edison, and imagine a day without them. Scholars take part in a grand conversation and write a...
Nebraska Department of Education
Personal Roadmap
Sometimes you need a map to get to your destination. High schoolers list 10 short and long terms goals and personal assets they have that will help them achieve these goals. They then craft a paragraph in which they reflect on how these...
Curated OER
Creative Writing
Fourth graders participate in an observation hike in this lesson. They orally share observations from their hike, and develop a paragraph in a shared writing exercise. Finally, the write their paragraph about process writing in their...
Curated OER
Ex-Slave Narratives and WPA Interviews
Students analyze documents related to slave narratives and slave interviews. They complete a document analysis form to analyze the contnet and historiography of the documents. They write a paragraph detailing when and why the document...
Curated OER
Answering Literal Comprehension Questions
Practice using the Turn the Question Around (TQA) method to answer reading comprehension questions based on short narrative paragraphs. Instructions and materials are included for direct, guided, and independent instruction. Responses...
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...
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
Point of You
Sixth graders study point of view by rewriting an existing narrative paragraph (using a different point-of-view). They expand this knowledge by writing an expository paragraph, then rewriting it to reflect a different point-of-view.
Curated OER
Writing Drama-Trying Your Hand at being a Playwright
Fifth graders chart the elements of drama. In this performing arts lesson, 5th graders discuss the role of a playwrite, practice doing some Reader's Theatre scripts, write a paragraph about a problem between two people, and perform their...
Curated OER
Essay Writing
Students complete essay writing activities. In this essay writing lesson, students use an outline activity to learn about the advantages and disadvantages for various essay writing types. Students also break down the paragraphs into...
Curated OER
Responding to Literature: James and the Giant Peach
Fifth grade reader/writers create an alternate ending to an episode in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach in which our protagonist "loses" the chance to magically solve all his problems. Prompts students not only to write creatively...
Curated OER
Living The Life of a Scribe
Students write a descriptive letter about life in ancient Mesopotamia. Through video streaming, students discover the history of Mesopotamia. They assume the role of a scribe and compose a three paragraph essay using main ideas and...
Santa Ana Unified School District
The Power of Point of View
Sometimes a whole story can change based on the perspective of the person telling it. Practice identifying and analyzing point of view in various reading passages and writing assignments with a language arts packet, complete with Common...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 1: Contemporary Fiction - They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles
They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems by David Bowles is the focus of a five-week language arts unit unit. Fifth graders listen to various poems and participate in thoughtful discussions, examining vocabulary and learning new words in...
Curated OER
Write Your Own Cultural Connections
Students write a cultural narrative. For this multicultural writing lesson, students create an expository narrative to teach others about their lives. Students complete the narrative and use a buddy editing strategy to revise their papers.
Curated OER
First Grade Writing Lesson #1/ Narrative Prompt
First graders write a descriptive paragraph about a friend.
Curated OER
Change Over Time
Learners write a personal narrative that is designed to help them reflect on the nature and meaning of change in their lives.
Curated OER
Story Books
Students discuss a narrative work of art, then write stories describing the action and publish their stories and illustrations in books.
Curated OER
Crazy Critters Creative Writing
Students brainstorm animals with unusual characteristics such as a giraffe with a short neck or a zebra without stripes. They write paragraphs about their animals and work in peer editing groups to refine their stories.
Curated OER
Activity 5: Creative Writing/Expression About Child Labor
Young scholars research child labor using Internet resources. They present the information in a creative writing piece and post it on Chalkboard.
Curated OER
A Little Mystery and Intrigue in Writing Short Detective Stories
Students read and analyze the twelve short stories in the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." They create their own detective that has to solve a new kind of crime, and write and edit a short story with their original detective as...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Lesson Plan
Students practice recognizing the elements needed to produce a piece of creative writing and become aware of those elements in their own original pieces of writings. In groups, they creatively write a new story utilizing all the major...
Curated OER
Writing: A Lesson Plan on Beginnings
Students rewrite the beginning of a story. In this writing lesson, students read stories from Spooky South by S.E. Schlosser in order to gain exposure to different ways to begin a story. Then, students chose one of the three techniques...