Curated OER
Tangerine: Writing Assignment: Paul’s Witness Account
As a final assignment in a unit study of Edward Bloor's Tangerine, individuals assume the voice of Paul Fisher and craft the witness report Paul mentions in the final pages of the novel. A great way to assess the writer's understanding...
California Education Partners
Vincent Van Gogh
Living in someone's shadow would be difficult for anyone, including one of the most talented artists of the modern age. Middle schoolers read an excerpt from Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan...
Curated OER
Publish a Book
Help your autistic learners to create a story and publish a book. They write simple stories, then turn their stories into books. A picture is drawn for each page of the book and the story is written below. Note: This is a good activity...
Curated OER
Writing Myths I
Explain a natural phenomenon in an original myth. After researching the phenomenon they have chosen, young readers use factual information to include in their myth. They find synonyms and new phrases to create vivid images as they write...
National Council of Teachers of English
Writing Poetry with Rebus and Rhyme
Young scholars write rhyming poems using rebus. With pictures instead of words, authors create original work about things they love.
Curated OER
Writing Strategies
Young writers complete a unit of activities to learn and use writing strategies. They will complete 8 activities to prewrite, use descriptive words, asking and telling sentences, and correct spelling within their writing. Then they watch...
Curated OER
The Writing Process
Introduce young writers to the writing process. Activities model the steps in the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, polishing). A logic tree template is also included.
Curated OER
How Writing Strategies Create a Character: Parrot in the Oven
Identifying specific writing strategies while reading fiction helps to increase understanding of character development. This handout provides a template on which readers can record examples of figurative language and explain how it...
Curated OER
Writing Prompts for High School
Are you teaching a high school language arts class and stumped for writing topics? Five pages of writing prompts for all kinds of writing should help you out. Many of these prompts refer to texts that are not included in this resource,...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Informational Writing
Emerging writers identify an informational piece of writing. They are provided with examples of informational writing and view a PowerPoint on narrative writing. Then, they design their own informational writing with a brochure,...
University of North Carolina
Group Writing
Two heads are better than one, especially during the writing process. Sometimes, scholars benefit from participating in group writing assignments, as one of the handouts in a series on specific writing assignments outlines. The process...
Curated OER
Map Skills
Do you need to practice map skills? Children with a range of abilities will complete a KWL chart about maps, practice important map vocabulary and then read a few pages from their textbook. They will use their vocabulary words and...
Curated OER
Reading and Writing Program Using Core Knowledge Literature
Students improve their reading and writing skills using Step Up to Writing and Six Traits of Writing techniques. Students complete a Robinson Crusoe vocabulary crossword, a Treasure Island character analysis web, reading comprehension...
McGraw Hill
Phonics Teachers Resource Book
Looking to improve your classes literacy program? Then look no further. This comprehensive collection of resources includes worksheets and activities covering everything from r-controlled vowels and consonant digraphs, to the different...
Curated OER
Inner Circle/Outer Circle Debate Strategy
Arranged in facing concentric circles, half the class discusses an issue. The other half of the class takes notes which are then used to fuel a class discussion and to prepare editorial opinions on the topic at hand. So much emphasis is...
Curated OER
Organizing One’s Thoughts
Students take a closer look at the organization of written pieces. For this writing skills lesson, students examine transitions, repetition, parallelism, and other organizational patterns in writing.
Curated OER
Much Ado About Nothing: Bloom's Taxonomy Questioning Strategy
Do your class members’ questions lack depth? “Sigh no more . . .sigh no more.” Use a questioning strategy based on Bloom’s taxonomy to encourage readers to create questions that probe the themes of any text. The model discussion...
Curated OER
Writing Thesis Statements in Sociology
Students discover methods for writing strong thesis statements. In this writing skills lesson, students follow the steps their instructor outlines to review the strengths and weaknesses of their sociology thesis statements.
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 8
Lights, camera, action! Math educators consider how to improve their instruction by examining a model of the five-practice problem-solving model involving a movie theater. Participants examine cognitive demand in relation to problem...
Curated OER
Ordinary People: Cubing Strategy
Readers of Ordinary People employ a cubing strategy based on Bloom’s Taxonomy to analyze, from multiple perspectives, an excerpt from Chapter 10 of Judith Guest’s novel. The excerpt, a rationale and complete directions for the activity...
Curated OER
Gary Paulsen's Canyons: Question the Author (QtA) Strategy
Gary Paulsen’s Canyons is the focus of an exercise that models how to read closely using a Questioning the Author (QtA) strategy. Complete directions for the strategy, which can be used with any text, are included in the richly-detailed...
Teachers.net
How to Write a Movie Review from a Pet's Perspective
When would two paws up denote a blockbuster film in your classroom? Only when young writers create movie reviews from a pet's perspective in this imaginative expository writing practice. This engaging topic begins with a class discussion...
Curated OER
Sense and Sensibility Vocabulary Strategy: Desk Top Teaching
Amicably dispel “the prejudices of…young mind(s)” by exposing them to the language of Jane Austen. Readers of Sense and Sensibility use desk-top strategies to teach one another the vocabulary from this classic romance novel. The resource...
Curated OER
The Call of the Wild: Silent Discussion
Give a voice to even the most quiet learners! Post discussion questions in different locations (on the whiteboard or around the room on posters). Class members then either answer a question posed or comment on a peer's response. Instead...