LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

CEU courses open for enrollment

Reading, Writing and Research: Integrating Literacy across the Curriculum
Turn your students into savvy consumers of information. Explore reading and writing instruction and information literacy concepts, and learn to effectively integrate these literacy skills into your teaching, regardless of the subject or grade level.
Take this course: Begins May 4.

Didn't find what you were looking for?

The five features of effective writing
The five Features of Effective Writing — focus, organization, support and elaboration, style, and conventions — are a valuable tool for understanding good writing and organizing your writing instruction. By teaching these features, you can help your students become more effective writers in any genre, at any level, and make your writing instruction easier to manage at the same time. This series of articles, written with the support of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, will show you how.
Format: series (multiple pages)
Writing exemplars (high school)
Samples of varying levels of performance on different types of writing assignments by high school students, with comments based on the five Features of Effective Writing: focus, organization, support and elaboration, style, and conventions.
Format: tutorial
About the five features of effective writing
An explanation of the "Five Features of Effective Writing" model (focus, organization, support and elaboration, style, and conventions) with links to detailed articles, lesson plans, and exemplars of student writing.
Format: bibliography/help
Grammar and editing
In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 1.4
In this lesson for grade six, students will learn about the conventions of grammar and will learn how to write and edit a business letter.
Format: lesson plan (grade 6 English Language Arts)
By Jennifer Brookshire and Julie McCann.
Writing conventions
Examples of common errors in sentence formation, usage, and mechanics.
By Bobby Hobgood.
Revising and editing an essay
Students will learn how to revise and edit an essay. In particular, they will focus on pronoun agreement. This is the third lesson in a series of three based upon LEARN NC's 9th grade writing exemplars.
Format: lesson plan
By Kim Bowen.
Highlighting revisions, glossing changes
By highlighting their revisions and explaining (i.e.,glossing) the changes they have made to a draft of their work, students will not only become more proficient writers but will also become more conscious of the process of revision and thus more reflective writers. Further, teachers will find it easier to monitor and evaluate student revisions.
Format: lesson plan (grade 10 English Language Arts)
By Peter Bobbe.
Lesson plans for teaching conventions
A collection of LEARN NC's lesson plans for teaching conventions, the fifth of the five features of effective writing.
Format: bibliography/help
School uniforms: Point-of-view writing
This lesson deals with an issue that is very important to students: school uniforms. It incorporates writing, speaking, and math.
Format: lesson plan (grade 7 English Language Arts)
By Linda Bulluck.
Life history slide show
Students will use photos to create a slide show of their life. They will plan a presentation based on significant episodes of their life and describe their personal experiences in writing.
Format: lesson plan (grade 8–9 English Language Arts)
By Mary Lou Faircloth.
Using RAFT to determine how to write an informational essay
Students will use RAFT as a tool to determine how to write an informational essay. They will also design a graphic organizer for the assignment as well as compose a rough draft. This is the second lesson in a series of three based on the LEARN NC 9th grade writing exemplars.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9 English Language Arts)
By Kim Bowen.
North Carolina American Indian stories
In this lesson students will select and read stories from some of the North Carolina American Indian tribes. They will compare and contrast two stories of their choice and complete a Venn diagram. Students will use the information on the Venn diagram to write three paragraphs. After reading several American Indian tales or legends, students will then create their own legend using the narrative writing process.
Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)
By Janice Gardner.
Further reading
In The five features of effective writing, page 7
An annotated bibliography on the Features of Effective Writing.
By Kathleen Cali.
Writing a fish book: Number and color details
Students will learn and write color words and number words.
Format: lesson plan (grade 1 English Language Arts)
By Stephanie Phelps.
Sentence combining
This lesson is designed for students who write short choppy sentences. Students will learn to combine short choppy sentences that develop their ideas and involve the reader in the action of the story.
Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)
By DPI Writing Strategies.
Conventions
In The five features of effective writing, page 6
Conventions — grammar, spelling, and the like — are important to good writing, but should be taught only after the other Features of Effective Writing.
By Kathleen Cali.
Apple story writing with a buddy
Students will write a story with a buddy through the use of a computer. Practicing computer skills and correct sentence formation will be emphasized.
Format: lesson plan (grade 1 Computer/Technology Skills and English Language Arts)
By Patsy Oswald.
Teaching the features of effective writing
In The five features of effective writing, page 1
By organizing your instruction around focus, organization, support and elaboration, style, and conventions, you can help students become more effective writers and make your own job easier.
Format: article
By Kim Bowen and Kathleen Cali.
Sentence combining and decombining
Students will focus on stylistic choices and sentence fluency by combining, decombining, and recombining sentences in professional writing, peer writing, and their own writing.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
By Peter Bobbe.
Sentence elaboration with prepositional phrases
This lesson is designed for students who write short choppy sentences. In this lesson, students will learn how to write more elaborated, complex sentences by adding prepositional phrases and clauses.
Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)
By DPI Writing Strategies.