Keep the art of letter writing alive in this age of Tweet and Twitter! The 10 activities detailed in this resource lead pupils through the process of crafting classic forms. A list of and links to famous letters is also included as part...

High schoolers analyze mood and voice in Emily Dickinson's poem, "There's a Certain Slant of Light." After the analysis, students write a poem of their own emulating the Dickinson poem, and then write a one-page essay describing what...

Combine participial phrases and creative writing with this instructional activity, which is equally helpful for writing skills and conventions. After a mini-instructional activity on participial phrases and reading the picture book...

There are 10 classroom words located at the top of this instructional activity. Kindergartners match the word to the object in the picture, they write that word on the line near that object. This is a great way for them to recognize...

You have the power! Scholars learn that they have power of the pen in their writing. After reading and viewing various sources about standardized testing, they express their own opinions about the testing by writing letters to the...

Students perform simple and fun experiments to use the scientific method, take careful notes, and write a lab report. They first make and test a hypothesis about how many drops of water they can fit on the face of a penny and then test...

In this poetry writing instructional activity, students identify the topic, similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, rhyme scheme, and alliteration in a poem. Students fill out this information in a given diagram.

Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth...

Now this is a cool dictionary focused resource. There are 6 worksheets you can make into a homework packet for the entire week. Learners choose 10 words (these should be spelling words) they draw an image for each word, put the words in...

Students investigate the Atlantic slave trade. In this slavery lesson, students watch "Slavery, Society, and Apartheid," as well as "Slave Ship." Students discuss the information presented in the videos, especially St. John's Revolt....

Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...

Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...

If you are interested in having a basic framework for teaching expository, narrative, persuasive, and descriptive writing, this resource may help; however, you will have to find information on the different forms of writing to share with...

Eighth graders study persuasive writing. They analzye an editorial for introductory,body, and concluding sentences. They develop arguments for and against various topics in small groups.

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,...

Arranged into small groups, learners read a paragraph of the news story "Texas Kid Writes Book About Presidents." As one reads, others mark the text (underlining important information and writing notes in the margin of the story). After...

Combine your friendly letter lesson, grammar lesson, and technology lesson with this fun activity! Young writers compose letters to friends, and then convert the text to Webdings font. Their friends then decode the letter based on a key....

Practice sounding out multi-syllable words with this scaffolded lesson. Learners decode words by segmenting them into phonemes and combining the sounds. Your lines are in bold here, but you can easily use this simply as an outline...

Of these five slides, two consist of the title and directions; the other three list the parts of an essay and their purpose, as well as how to best begin an essay. In essence, this is a very brief PowerPoint that can be used as a...

Explore the concept of writing variable expressions by examining the similarities between expressions with numbers and expressions with variables. Emerging mathematicians determine rules for sequences and patterns before writing a rule...

What a great cross-curricular instructional activity to give to your kindergartners! They get printing practice by tracing the word blue, connecting its meaning by coloring bubbles blue. Finally, they connect the shape of the...

Whether you are teaching a newspaper unit in language arts, covering the First Amendment and censorship in social studies, or focusing on writing ethics in journalism, a unit based on the foundations of journalism would be an excellent...

Meant for use with Maya Angelou's first autobiographical volume I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the materials here are designed for a homeschool setting, but they'd suit any classroom or text. Graphic organizers, chapter summary...

Put children's descriptive writing skills to the test with these fun collaborative writing activities. Presented with the picture of an object, young writers are are tasked with creating a description that provides enough detail for...