Students rework their forgotten/abandoned drafts by cutting and covering up selected words. By creatively manipulating text, they explore portal writing, a strategy for envisioning a new story or story direction.
Cut up, Cover up, and Come Away with Ideas for Writing!
Grades
|
American Folklore: A Jigsaw Character Study
3 - 6
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Groups of students read and discuss American folklore stories, each group reading a different story. Using a jigsaw strategy, the groups compare character traits and main plot points of the stories. A diverse selection of American folk tales is used for this lesson, which is adaptable to any text set.
Grades
|
Supporting Vocabulary Development with EASE
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
This lesson allows teachers to enrich students' oral and written vocabulary using the EASE sequence of instruction: Enunciate, Associate, Synthesize, and Emphasize the words you want students to use.
Grades
|
Teaching the Epic through Ghost Stories
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
In this lesson, students connect to the oral tradition of epic storytellers by sharing their own oral tales of ghosts and goblins and monsters.
Grades
|
The Passion of Punctuation
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Using published writers' texts and students' own writing, this unit explores emotions that are associated with the artful and deliberate use of commas, semicolons, colons, and exclamation points (end-stop marks of punctuation).
Grades
|
Sí, Se Puede: Making a Difference, One Letter at a Time
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
After reading the book ¡Si, Se Puede!/Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A., students learn about labor unions, strikes, and organizing for change. Students interview staff members in their school to learn about their daily work life, and write persuasive advocacy letters.
Grades
|
Boars and Baseball: Making Connections
4 - 7
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
In this lesson, students will make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections after reading In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. After sharing and discussing connections, students choose and plan a project that makes a personal connection to the text.
Grades
|
Proverbs: At Home and around the World
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
In this lesson, students work with proverbs from home and from around the world, exploring how these maxims are tied to a culture's values and everyday experience.
Grades
|
A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
The old cliche, "A picture is worth a thousand words" is put to the test when students write their own narrative interpretations of events shown in an image.
Grades
|
Power of Picture Books, The: Using Content Area Literature in Middle School
5 - 9
Professional Library
| Book
Featuring descriptions and activities for fifty exceptional titles, Mary Jo Fresch and Peggy Harkins offer a wealth of ideas for harnessing the power of picture books to improve reading and writing in the content areas.
Grades
|
Brainstorming and Reviewing Using the Carousel Strategy
Grades
5 - 12
Strategy Guide
This strategy guide introduces Carousel Brainstorming, also known as Rotating Review, and offers suggestions to implement this technique in your classroom for brainstorming about new topics or reviewing learned information.
Grades
|
Using the RAFT Writing Strategy
Grades
5 - 12
Strategy Guide
This strategy guide introduces the RAFT technique and offers practical ideas for using this technique to teach students to experiment with various perspectives in their writing.
Grades
|
Supporting Comprehension Strategies for English Language Learners
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
This Strategy Guide is for developing comprehension that incorporates the gradual release of responsibility model.
Grades
|
Supporting Vocabulary Acquisition for English Language Learners
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
This Strategy Guide introduces strategies teachers can use for ELL vocabulary instruction in their English and content area classrooms.
Grades
|
Assessing Student Interests and Strengths
Grades
6 - 12
Strategy Guide
In this Strategy Guide, you'll learn about a number of specific methods that can help you to gain a fuller picture of the interests of your students as well as what your students understand, know, and can demonstrate by doing.
Grades
|
Developing Academic Vocabulary
Grades
K - 12
Strategy Guide Series
In this Strategy Guide Series, you'll find creative and compatible ways to build, maintain, and extend students' vocabulary across academic disciplines.
Grades
|
Using Word Walls to Develop and Maintain Academic Vocabulary
Grades
K - 12
Strategy Guide
In this guide, you will learn how to use Word Walls to support vocabulary development and retention.
Grades
|
Using Disciplinary Facets to Deepen Academic Vocabulary Knowledge
Grades
4 - 12
Strategy Guide
In this guide, you will learn how to use the disciplinary facets strategy to support vocabulary development across contexts and academic disciplines.
Grades
|
Using Generative Sentences to Apply Academic Vocabulary
Grades
4 - 12
Strategy Guide
In this guide, you will learn how to use generative sentences to give students opportunities to apply their knowledge of new words in writing.
Grades
|
Introducing Ideas and Vocabulary with the Concept Sort
Grades
K - 8
Strategy Guide
A Concept Sort is a vocabulary and comprehension strategy used with students to introduce new topics and/or familiarize students with new vocabulary.