Students interview family members, and then create graphic family timelines based on important and memorable family events.

This series of activities is designed to teach research strategies. Students use KWL charts to guide their inquiry and publish their results in a collaborative question and answer book.

This article discusses how creating Readers Theater scripts from informational text can improve fluency and build comprehension.

Students write authentic newspaper stories, including learning about various aspects of newspapers, such as writing an article, online articles, newspaper reading habits, and layout and design techniques.

In this lesson, students will use technology, specifically PowerPoint, to collaboratively create a digital dictionary. They will be tasked with defining and illustrating vocabulary words, crafting student-created definitions, using words in sentences, identifying synonyms and antonyms, and dissecting prefixes and suffixes. This engaging lesson integrates technology tools and builds essential language skills.

This lesson teaches intermediate students to "use the experts" to learn how to revise to create sharp, sensory-rich experiences for their readers.

Students learn how to get their voice out on the web when they research issues important to them and compose a persuasive podcast to post online.

For this lesson students will learn how to create a Works Cited page in MLA. They will watch a video, play games, and read a handbook to learn the many steps and processes required in a Works Cited page.

Students will learn why it is important to cite when writing. They will watch a video and look through a Prezi to learn how to cite their sources in APA. After they know the correct way to format their citations, they will work through a worksheets to identify sources that are formatted correctly. They will end the lesson by writing their own reference page for their research paper.

This recommended practice focuses on how teachers can foster an engaged community of writers by writing together with students, providing choice, and encouraging collaboration and feedback among students. This presentation gives ideas about how to create an engaged community where students feel safe. The two tools associated with this recommended practice are designed to help teachers plan collaborative writing lessons and reflect on current practices in building a community of writers.

Students publish their work in an electronic portfolio, which enables them to respond to each other's content online.

After reading a short story, students use freewriting as a catalyst for a literary analysis essay.

Students are exposed to wordless picture books and begin developing story lines, both orally and in writing, using an online, interactive story map.

Students practice writing detailed, sensory-rich descriptions by framing a small piece of nature and freewriting about it. From this minilesson, students can develop a variety of types of writing.

Students take their ideas from the classroom page to the community pavement when they participate in a service-learning project based on their multimedia presentations.

By looking at advertising and mass media critically, students begin to understand how the media oppresses certain groups, convinces people to purchase certain products, and influences culture.

By critically analyzing popular television programs, students develop an awareness of the messages that are portrayed through the media.

Students make predictions about the stories and analyze story elements, compare and contrast the different stories, distinguish between fact and opinion, and draw conclusions supported by evidence from their readings.

This tool allows students to complete crossword puzzles on a variety of grade-appropriate topics, and also create and print their own crossword puzzles.

Week 36, Day 1---Day 5
Culminating Activity: Reading and Writing Identity
Memoir: Special memories about a person, place, object or time
"The memoir you will be writing will be a reflection of how you have changed as a reader and writer this year. It’s going to be like a year in review, so you will create a mini book as part of the memoir project.
Some of you may be thinking that this is the same as a personal narrative, but memoirs are more about looking back and thinking about how things have changed over time just like we did at the beginning of class. Narratives tell a story, but memoirs show how the event was meaningful to the author’s life. Also, memoirs are only snapshots. They don’t include the person’s whole life. Now I will add the characteristics of memoirs to the chart.
Use 1st person
Use true descriptions of actual events
Describe any problems faced by the author
Include the author’s feelings about the situation or event
*Narrative Graphic Organizer