In this lesson that tightly integrates personal writing, research, and thematic response to literature, students discuss the importance of having a recorded history of humanity. As they explore this topic, they gain a deeper understanding of the horror of Jonas’s dystopian society in Lois Lowry’s The Giver. This understanding generates a keen interest in and context for the descriptive writing of students’ own history. Students gather ideas from several sources, including their own memories, interviews, and photographs, and then write their own descriptive memoirs.

The emphasis of this lesson is on history and research rather than literature, selections from Jack London's The Call of the Wild are used to provide focus and structure for students' research in online databases of primary sources, and to serve as models of vivid narrative prose for students' own stories.

This teacher's guide for The Misfits by James Howe containes discussion questions, activities, and research assignments.

In My Papa Mark Twain, Suzy Clemens, at thirteen years old, wrote a biography of her famous father, author Mark Twain. Through describing her favorite of Twain's books, The Prince and the Pauper, Suzy Clemens expresses the complete awe and beaming pride she has for her father as a published author, and critically comments on Twain's readership of the day. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments; writing samples included.

In this chapter from Russell Freedman’s photobiography, the author details Abraham Lincoln and one of the most difficult times in American history. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments. Includes printable copies of text.

A young Bedouin girl has earned the nickname Nadia the Willful because of her quick temper. Her brother, Hamed, is the only one who can tame her temper. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments; writing samples included.

Julia Alvarez recalls her family's early years as Dominican immigrants in America, and describes her reactions to the mispronunciation of her family members’ names. Eager to fit into school, Alvarez allows herself to be called American names and nicknames” although proud of her heritage and native language, young Alvarez struggles to fit in. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

What should a good narrative contain? For this lesson, a mystery, a type of narrative realistic fiction, will be composed. Since strong adjectives and adverbs will support a mystery, they will be incorporated into the writing.

In this creative activity, students will imagine a scenerio where they have wronged their true love and have 4 lines to convince them to stay. Each student should make careful word choices to write persuasive verse capable of convincing a lost love to reunite. Students will present their arguments in a dramatic way, incorporating music.

In this lesson, students will dissect a Times column about the leadership styles of former Vice President (and Nobel Laureate) Al Gore and President George W. Bush and then write their own opinion editorial on presidential leadership.

Although Danny is a young adult of only 17, he is fully capable of taking his father’s boat out to sea to fish. While out on a solo trip one foggy morning, Danny encounters “something” mysterious in the water. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

When the land surveyor, Gleb Smirnov, arrives in the Gnilushka train station, he hires a peasant to take him to the estate that he must survey. This story shows how the reactions of one character, due to his fear, can lead to unexpected consequences and have a direct impact on the actions of the other character(s). In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this lesson, students will engage in a peer-critique of their literary analysis and then, after learn about the use of pronouns, incorporate the feedback/lesson into their revisions.

The PQP technique—Praise–Question–Polish—requires group members to take a turn reading their drafts aloud as the other students follow along with copies. This oral reading helps the writer to hear the piece in another voice and to identify possible changes independently.

In this lesson, students will write their final, best version of their informative consumer guide, including the visual images, charts, and graphs.

In this lesson, students will review and revise their essays in order to address common errors.

In this interactive lesson students will learn how to write their own personal letter by deciding what to include and what to leave out, practicing setting the right tone, choosing words with apostrophes in the right places, and practicing setting the right tone in a letter to a friend.

This lesson gives students the opportunity to examine opinion editorials and write their own on school issues. After reading and listening to opinion pieces, students identify strong examples of persuasion and record them on a graphic organizer. Small groups then brainstorm issues in the school that they believe deserve action plans. Each group uses graphic organizers to explore its issue. The group then constructs a letter on that issue. The letter is then edited for grammar and content, typed on a word processor, printed, and delivered to the school principal.

In this lesson, students explore environmental issues that are relevant to their own lives, self-select topics, and gather information to write persuasive essays. Students participate in peer conferences to aid in the revision process and evaluate their essays through self-assessment. Although this lesson focuses on the environment as a broad topic, many other topics can be easily substituted for reinforcement of persuasive writing.

Students will watch and discuss video clips that show how two men in Chile coped with being prisoners in concentration camps during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Each student will then create a non-fiction picture book that tells the story of one of these men and provides historical context.