Department of Education

Resources - Negotiating the Text

Busy as a Bee	In this lesson, students learn about similes and are given the opportunity to collectively write stories for younger children, using similes in their sentences. Grades 3-6.
Collaborative Stories 1: Prewriting and Drafting	This lesson involves students in two prewriting activities and two collaborative-writing activities where they draft an "oversized" story on chart paper. This lesson can be adapted to for use in an interactive writing activity. Grades K-2.
Creative Writing- Rainbow Fish	In this lesson, students listen to the story The Rainbow Fish and write short sentences about what makes them happy. Grade 1.
Persuasive Writing: What Can Writing in Family Message Journals Do for Students?	When children recognize what writing can do for them, they are motivated to write and to work at making their messages clearer and more persuasive. This lesson can be adapted to for use in an interactive writing activity. Grades K-2.
Weather: A Journey in Nonfiction	This research project is designed for primary students to engage in nonfiction text. Students construct sentences that are then combined with others in their topic group to form a "report" (paragraph length). Grades K-2.
WritingFix for Kids	Online activities that might adapted for use during a Negotiating the Text, Composing the Text, or Using the Space session.

Read*Write*Think contains a wealth of reading and writing lessons. It is a collaborative effort between the International Reading Association, NCTE, and Marco Polo.

Bank Street's Guide to Literacy for Volunteers and Tutors , Bank Street College of Education provides reading tutors with a variety of information ranging from background information on literacy and early reading, sample lesson plans, activities, and information on other literacy and reading resources.