Sometimes Teaching

In this lesson students will learn the characteristics of, and the differences between, myths and legends. Students will then work together to create their own mythical world by building a world map and brainstorm rules to govern their world. Next, students will write either a narrative myth or a legend that takes place within this world and either incorporates parts of it to teach a moral lesson (legend), or works to explain why something in that world exists (myth). Using both self and peer

A 5th grade Langauge Arts project in which students will learn to plan and write a memoir about an experience or event that affected them in some way.

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This is a persuasive writing project I use for my 5th grade students. In this project students will be assigned a position either for or against one of six propositions. The lesson takes students through the entire process of researching and taking notes on their position, coming up with arguments supported by evidence, putting those arguments into a structures five paragraph persuasive essay, and finally using everything they've learned to participate in a structured, formal debate.

In this taskcard, originally created for a Project CHILD textbook station focused on developing narrative writing in 5th graders, students write their own flash science fiction stories. Students will read about the basic characteristics of the science fiction genre, choose from five original writing prompts, plan a short "flash" narrative, and then write their own science fiction story.

In this fun project students will learn how to make a mind map, view examples, and then embark on creating their own. I originally created this project as a follow up for an activity on managing money, but it can easily be adapted for virtually any topic.

This is a persuasive writing and speaking project that I use with my fifth grade class that can be adapted for a wide range of grade levels. In this project students will work together to prepare for a debate on whether or not the 13 colonies should rebel against England from the point of view of either a patriot or a loyalist. Next, students will work independently to plan and write a five paragraph persuasive essay based on their arguments.

After reading a non-fiction article, students will summarize arguments both for and against a topic using evidence from the text and write persuasively to explain which position they agree with.

In this persuasive writing unit students will read a text about the current debate over keeping Orcas in captivity. Students will then write a persuasive essay summarizing the arguments of both sides of this issue using evidence from the text, then state and support their own opinion as to which argument they agree with.

In this project students will learn the basic structure of a narrative story with a clear beginning that introduces characters, a setting, and a problem; middle that contains two attempts to solve the problem that fail; and a solution that contains a final attempt and a solution. Students will then use clear, explicit strategies to write their own pirate narratives.

In this two week writing project students will learn strategies to plan write a two page expository essay, see these strategies modeled, and work to write their own expository essay.

Grammar the fun, easy, visual way it should have been taught. A fun guide to the basics of punctuation, parts of speech, and sentences that helps students learn grammar with smiles instead of groans.

In this fun writing activity students will plan, draft, revise, and write their own narrative stories based on a wordless comic strip. This is a great way both to introduce the organizational elements of narrative writing (a clear beginning, middle, and end) as well as to allow student's imaginations to roam free.

In this project students will plan and write their own narrative story using a structured scaffolding structure. This is a great way to help young writers learn to write a well-organized narrative story with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Included in this unit are plans, handouts, and a powerpoint for six quick, 10-15 min. lessons on some basic aspects of persuasive writing.