Students learn how poetry can “break the rules” then practice breaking the “rules” in their own poems by challenging the expectations, assumptions, and principles their work set up.

Students enter The Poetry Laboratory, no lab coats required, and use methods of observation and playful strategies to embark on the process of writing poetry.

Students will become script detectives, searching for the underlying structure of every play, and then use their own memories to inspire original plays.

In this lesson, students will imagine a narrative in the form of a craigslist advertisement to showcase a typically scary monster as a down to earth creature.

Borrowing inspiration from out-of-this-world illustrations, students will create an amazing sci-fi story with a fantastical setting, realistic characters, and page-turning plot.

Students will find gratitude all around as they thank ordinary objects in their lives in the form of an ode.

Have you ever had a day go from bad to worse? Blame it on Murphy’s Law! In this lesson, students will create snowballing conflicts for their character to confront.

Invite students to write about their personal experiences with social media and online platforms with this lesson from 826NYC.

A mock crime scene kick-starts this lesson, getting students to hone their inferencing skills and serving as inspiration for crime stories.

In this lesson, students are challenged to reevaluate the way water and land are represented on a map.

By examining patterns in engaging published stories and applying a set of meaningful prompts, students will learn how to develop well-rounded characters that readers really care about.

Adventure unfolds in this lesson, where students design a treasure hunt using precise, clear instructions to help any landlubber to discover the secret location of buried treasure!

In this lesson, students will learn where writers find words, listen to "The Word Collector" by Peter H. Reynolds, and start to collect words they like and want to share with others.

In this lesson, students experiment with the multimodal composition of Instagram and use this social media platform to promote a social justice issue.

In this lesson, students imagine trading lives with a fictional character for a day and write about the fantastic possibilities that would ensue.

Students will learn to see home in a fresh way, to walk through doors and open windows they never noticed, and to find the stories that home holds.

Ekphrastic poems vividly describe a piece of art. In this lesson, students will write ekphrastic poems, while exploring and creating connections between text and image.

In this lesson, students will explore different holidays people celebrate around the world and then create a new holiday of their own.

Students will become naturalists for the day by performing field observations and recording their thoughts in a field journal.

Discover what’s possible through writing. In this lesson, students will write a thrilling new story about their future selves inspired by their curiosity and imagination.

Students play the role of benevolent inventor. They identify and think critically about real world problems, and create an ingredients list and usage instructions for an elixir that fixes the problem.

What do you get when you mix foraging with metaphors? Metaphoraging, of course! In this interactive lesson, students will forage their learning space for metaphors.

Over a flexible series of activities, students will learn to draw details from real life to create unforgettable characters and compelling stories.

In this lesson, students will use descriptive language to write a poem about a favorite animal.

Gather students around the metaphorical campfire to craft a brochure for a Nature Preserve on another planet, complete with wild critters, plant life, unique geological formations, and park history

By examining patterns in engaging published stories and applying a set of meaningful prompts, students will learn how to develop well-rounded characters that readers really care about.

In this workshop, young poets will write odes to praise people, places, or things they love.

Students write two stories focused on the power of inclusion with this downloadable, printable, DIY publishing kit.

Students will identify the characteristics of a hero, familiarize themselves with heroes in their own community, and write an explanatory piece identifying a hero in their community.

Through an upcoming zombie apocalypse, students will explore multiple STEM disciplines and the importance of scientific modeling. They'll write technical notes and create an ongoing narrative.

Students craft campaigns to take on an issue in their community, using formal and informal writing to convince others to take action.

In this lesson, students dive into the many forms bullying can take, create scripts and role-play bullying scenarios, and reflect on their own experiences with bullying.

Few expressions of gratitude are more meaningful than a personalized letter. In this lesson, students reach out to essential workers and return their acts of service and kindness by giving thanks.

Stories are the thread that connect communities. In this lesson, students learn more about culture and identity through Dakota and Hmong textile arts, as well as reflect on their own identities.

In this lesson, students explore the graphic novel genre with a focus on plot and character development, scripting dialogue, and visual composition.

In this lesson, students will illustrate the literal and figurative meaning of idioms and write using idioms.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives. This lesson will support students in processing the changes in their everyday lives and help them to identify the creativity their community has exhibited.

Fee-fi-foe-fum, writing with adjectives can be lots of fun! In this lesson, students will grow their understanding of descriptive language while retelling a classic fairy tale.

Inspired by George Ella Lyon’s original poem, this lesson guides students through naming the people, places, and things that have shaped them.

What makes a hero? In this lesson, students will develop a complex character that defies traditional archetypes and then write a superhero story featuring that character.

In this lesson, students write about a cause that they are passionate about, imagine how they can create change, and come up with slogans to convince other people to take action.

Parody is a type of writing that deliberately exaggerates for comic effect. In this lesson, students will use foundational news-writing techniques to write their own parody.

Working as budding archaeologists, students use artifacts as inspiration for several short writing pieces.

The pen is mightier than the sword. In this lesson, students learn there's no better evidence of this than the poetry behind social movements.

Students will practice identifying personification and then use sensory detail and figurative language to express it in their writing.

This lesson encourages students to consider and write about the myriad ways to include someone, stop bullying before it starts, and make a difference.

Your students will use free writes, writing games, cheesy pop lyrics, and revision strategies to learn how to make connections between all of the points on their journey of writing a poem.

In this lesson, students write letters to someone special and reflect on the impact of being kind towards others.

In this superlesson, students isolate DNA, design planes, build lairs, and engineer safe transport to help a hero save the day. Students will also take technical notes and explore new forms of poetry.

In this lesson, students write vegetable-inspired superhero stories.

Students will work together to produce a newspaper for the fictional Flood City. In the process, they will take on the roles of editor and journalist to source, draft, and present their newspaper.

Students team up to write collaborative short stories about a character who stands up to a bully and discover how they can help end bullying.

Spooky stories are universally beloved. Read a selection of spooky stories from countries around the world, and then write your own!

Students will report about their favorite neighborhood places and write a review about the most special one.

Students will work collaboratively to construct a vision for your classroom as a safe space for students and educators.

What’s in a name? Students will consider how language can impact identity and create an illustrated name poem that reflects their identities.

Imagination opens doors to new possibilities. This lesson allows students to exercise their creativity by describing an imaginary door to the future and picturing what is beyond it.

Students will read a poem by Eve L. Ewing and learn to write a poem that retells or reimagines an experience.

When was the last time you felt like a superhero? In this lesson, students will reflect on that moment and write a poem that shows off their inner strengths.

Students will craft an argument about a controversial topic they hold a personal connection to and record their argument to persuade their audience.

In this lesson by a young adult author and self-confessed superfan Lisa Lutz, students will learn letter-writing tips and create a fan letter.

In this lesson, students will go through the steps in the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, publishing) to produce a zine that highlights what makes them special.

Students (virtually) explore a local cemetery and write a monologue from a famous person buried there, including facts from their research and imagined details from a mapping exercise.

This lesson from KQED Education asks students to choose an issue they care about and create an editorial cartoon advocating for change on a local, national, or global level.

Students will collect dirt, map their neighborhood, and listen to music that explores low sound, soil depth, and the psychological landscape of New Orleans.

Students will identify something they have inherited from their families, conduct interviews, and write a narrative essay. This lesson is especially well suited for English Language Learners.

Over the course of this lesson, students produce memoirs, poems, and essays that explore what it means to be a member of the LGBTQIA community in America today.

In this lesson, students will learn how to write comedy sketches inspired by "Monty Python’s Flying Circus."

Through writing, drawing, mapping, and researching a chosen fruit, students will become more familiar with the often complex history of food and how people access it.

Through discussion, map-making, and writing, students will investigate the ways in which our knowledge of places is constructed and will uncover the ways that this knowledge is distorted by biases.

Using Twitter as a storytelling medium, students will improve their understanding of perspective, editing for brevity, and the importance of word choice.

Students will practice writing strong interview questions to learn new perspectives. This lesson can be used for community building or to support a research project.

Students will learn about endangered species, how animals become endangered, and then write either a poem or a story about a day-in-the-life about an endangered animal of their choosing.

Why does kindness count? In this lesson, students will consider acts of kindness they’ve experienced or witnessed and reflect on the difference that kindness makes in the world.

In this lesson, students have an opportunity to write a letter expressing their views on issues that matter to them most surrounding an election.

In this lesson, students imagine a fictional sport for fantastic beings, create a statistic for that sport, and write a newspaper article about the championship game.

This lesson teaches students to write proposals so convincing no parent can resist them.

Students will explore the essentials of an effective “how-to” piece, while considering their own areas of interest and expertise to share with their peers and the world at large.

Self-power comes from many places. In this lesson, students will discover the power that comes from speaking and writing in multiple languages through poetry.

A student’s guide for evaluating evidence and learning to spot misleading and false information.

In this lesson, students will construct a short narrative told through concrete poems.

Students will imagine what they would do if they were someone or something else.

Emotions play a big role in how we remember places important to us. Students explore this notion by writing memoirs, using plot, dialogue, and description to bring their stories to life.

In this lesson, students will learn about different types of rhymes, identify rhymes in lyrics and generate rhymes to use in their own lyrics.

This lesson prompts students to explore the exciting range of things they can do when they grow up and highlights the importance of education, curiosity, and role models.

Students will create infinite poems using fractals, imagine life on a doughnut, and speculate about a universe where time goes crazy. Along the way, they'll explore cool, new math facts and concepts.

In this lesson, students consider the perspective of a villain they love to hate. They will create a compelling backstory for the character and write short stories from the villain’s point of view.

In this Spark, students will create a “pourquoi tale,” or origin story, of how a local delicacy came to be.

Using the classic battle between superheroes and villains as inspiration, students will create their own twist on a superhero comic, featuring believable characters and Marvel-worthy dialogue.

In this lesson, students will emulate Dylan Thomas’ famous drama, Under Milk Wood. Students will create imaginative works of fiction that examine their neighborhood in order to bring it to life.

In this lesson, students will use mentor texts to hone their revision skills before turning to their own poetry drafts.

Students investigate the plant life that grows within their community and then select a specific species to learn about in-depth and consider how that species interacts with the overall ecosystem.

Students will tell stories about their neighborhoods and create maps that document change. The end result is a better understanding of a map’s ability to demonstrate the history behind fixed points.

Students will act as members of The Cryptid Convention—the world's only secret, not-so-secret society devoted to discussing new cryptids—and write an informational poster about an original cryptid.

In this Lesson, students will identify a problem in their community and publish a zine for a target audience to advocate for change.