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
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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
|
Literature Response in Primary Classrooms
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Recurring Lesson
This step-by-step literature response template for use with read-alouds asks students to use drawing and writing to respond to increasingly-complex prompts which address literary elements as well as personal connections.
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
|
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
|
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
|
Language Learners in the English Classroom
7 - 12
Professional Library
| Book
This book provides practical, research-based strategies that can help secondary-level English language learners meet the challenges of both language and content learning.
Grades
|
Website Planning in a Bilingual Classroom
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students complete a family survey and plan a website to share the responses, increasing their understanding and appreciation of their own families and cultures, and their classmates as well.
Grades
|
Making It Visual for ELL Students: Teaching History Using Maus
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Spark the engagement of English-language learners or reluctant readers with the graphic novel Maus. The visual information provided by the genre serves as a support for reading and critical engagement.
Grades
|
Nature Study Outdoor Treasure Hunts (with Spanish language option)
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students take a walk on the wild side when they research an animal and create a scavenger hunt activity for their classmates.
Grades
|
When I Was Young In...A Literature to Language Experience
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Past meets present in this lesson in which students practice verb tense when they write personal short stories that they then publish in a flip book.
Grades
|
Using Pictures to Build Schema for Social Studies Content
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
How do you read an image? Students find out in this lesson in which they "read" several images of the Boston Massacre to better understand the event and recognize effects of propaganda.