Curated OER
Lesson Plan 2: Good Novel, Bad Novel
What are the characteristics of a good piece of writing? What makes a story interesting? Give your pupils a chance to define the qualities of good novels and what they see as the qualities of bad novels. Class members record these...
DePaul University
Learn about Fables
Expose young readers to a new genre of fiction with a short reading passage. After learning about fables, children identify the main idea and supporting details in preparation for writing a short summary. Read the text as a class,...
Classroom Jr.
George Washington Story Starter
Imagine traveling back in time and having the opportunity to meet the very first president of the United States, what would you do? Challenge the imagination and creative writing skills of young learners with this fun writing prompt.
Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators
Persuasive Essay: Grade 5
Improve your fifth graders' persuasive writing skills in four weeks. Working independently, in peer editing groups, and with instruction, writers work over the 17 sessions to craft an argumentative essay. They craft a...
Writer’s Digest Books
The Writing Prompt Boot Camp
Fourteen days of writing prompts (or 16 if you count the two bonus days) are featured in packet designed for high school, college level, or adult writers.
Scholastic
Active Beginnings
Help your pupils build narratives and stories that capture the attention of their readers with this set of worksheets. The first focuses on active introductory sentences, the second on exciting transition words and phrases, and the third...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Suspense Writing Prompts
"I don't know what to write about!" How often have you heard that lament? Here's a list of 10 prompts that provide a starting place for suspense stories.
Teach with Movies
Teaching Students to Write a Narrative
Encourage narrative writing with a clever exercise. Class members watch episodes from movies and describe what happened to a character, including details about the setting, plot, and characters. Writers then craft a narrative about a...
Scholastic
Shy
Help your pupils examine their feelings with the materials here. The class can first read the included poem about a shy person and then respond to one or more of the six included writing prompts.
Teaching Tolerance
In Our Own Words: A Story Book with a Purpose
Academics turn into storytellers in an engaging activity on activism. The activity focuses on promoting social change in local communities with stories. Young historians plan a storybook to target a specific audience and social issue and...
Curated OER
What Comes Next?
Young writers take a look at six sentences that are in jumbled order. Their task is to rewrite the sentences in the correct order. The theme of the paragraph is "How I Polish my Shoes." This would be a good in-class, or homework...
Virginia Department of Education
Deciding the Mode
Are your young writers having difficulty distinguishing between expository and persuasive writing? Discuss the difference between the two, and how some prompts can be responded to in either fashion. Included here is a simple lesson plan...
Curated OER
The Story of Us: Mud Woman Rolls On
Young writers will literally step into art and creative writing as they become the figures featured in the sculpture Mud Woman Rolls On. Begin by showing your class a picture of the sculpture and having a discussion about its most...
TV411
Learn the Steps to Clear Essay Writing!
Introduce your young writers to the five-paragraph expository essay format with a four-page worksheet that uses color codes to model for writers how to craft the essay. Although designed to prepare writers for the GED, the approach can...
Curated OER
Reading Response Journal Lit Logs
Here is a worksheet presenting many ways to create topics and start sentences. The writing prompts are best used for young writers who are creating reading response journals or literature logs. Sometimes, all a writer needs is a good...
Curated OER
Meaty Words
Headlines from newspapers launch a discussion of image-rich, meaty words. Just as headline writers choose vivid vocabulary to attract readers, young writers develop headlines that capture the essence of a passage from a book they are...
Curated OER
Daily Writing Prompts April
A great resource that can be used every year during the month of April. This handout includes over 30 writing prompts, one or two for every day in the month of April. Each writing prompt is tailored to its specific day, as they are...
Curated OER
Incorporating Flashbacks in Narrative Text - The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis
After watching a video segment of an interview with one of the survivors of the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, young writers create an original narrative that utilizes flashback to tell the L.D. Cox's story. Writers determine who or...
Curated OER
Making words with I, O and U
Here is a worksheet in which young children have to complete the words provided by using the letter i, o, or u. There are eight cartoon drawings that depict each of the words, so figuring out what the word should sound like should be...
Curated OER
Making Words
Young writers identify and generate words using the strategies of phonics on the Making Words computer program. Words are typed instead of having to use tiles or paper. Extension activities such as playing the memory game, drawing...
Curated OER
Speak Up for Recycling
Are you looking for ways to enhance a persuasive writing or speech unit? Use this lesson to prompt your young writers to investigate a school recycling program. After conducting research, they present a persuasive, well-organized speech...
Curated OER
Guest Speaker Preparation: A Cooperative Lesson
Are you planning to have a guest speaker talk to your class? Prepare in advance and help your class transform into an engaged and thoughtful audience. Before the visit, young writers work cooperatively to brainstorm what they want to...
Curated OER
Those Baffling Bibliographies!
Are you working on a research and citation unit? Have your young writers listen to a lecture on how to cite research sources correctly and how to distinguish new information that requires citing. They compile a list of works cited from...
Curated OER
Web It!
Looking for a way to bring prewriting into your informative writing unit? Use this lesson to reinforce writing skills in your eighth grade language arts class. Young writers use a web graphic organizer as a prewriting tool for expository...