Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning
A necessary skill for most 21st-century digital citizens is professional email communication. A cordial, professional email is not only a sign of respectful communication, but also clearly relays an intention or request that honors the recipient’s time and encourages a desired action, response, or feeling.... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: July 8th, 2025
Writing a Professional Email
This lesson builds on the K20 LEARN lesson Sweet and Savory Writing by adding a creative twist. Students will apply knowledge of the five senses to enhance descriptive writing. Students review the five senses, utilize that practice to rewrite existing text passages, then create a sensory-rich version... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: June 4th, 2025
Descriptive Writing
It has been said that poetry is a place to break all the rules. In this lesson, students will work with rules of grammar to learn how to integrate more structure and variety in verse to (not quite) break the rules of poetry. Using Shel Silverstein's poetry, students will analyze pieces for elements... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: November 11th, 2024
Poetry and Grammar
The use of informal language and phrases in our writing and speaking is part of our culture. Idioms, slang, understatements, and hyperboles help characterize language by region, time period, and groups of people. Language, though, often benefits from precision, and appropriate word choice helps articulate... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: October 28th, 2024
Word Choice
Colloquial language is informal and consists of words or phrases known primarily to native speakers of a language. In this lesson, students will examine not only how familiar they are with English colloquialisms, but also how often these colloquialisms are used in our speaking and writing, and the effect... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: July 16th, 2025
Colloquial Language
Using Wendy Ewald's book of children's photography and poetry as a mentor text, students will compose descriptive poems based on photographs that they take of their favorite personal feature. Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: March 11th, 2024
Photography and Descriptive Poetry
There is a quote that says, “Dialogue is easy. It’s what you’ve been doing almost every day, most of your life” (Josip Novakovich). Sure, dialogue seems simple; it’s having a conversation. But what about writing dialogue? To write conversations between characters, or even for a character with themselves,... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
Writing Dialogue
There are a multitude of reasons why we offer thanks to others. Whether someone has done us a favor, given us a gift, shared their personal or professional time, or even just offered a kind word, thanking them with a sincere thank you note is a timeless and appreciated form of gratitude. A timely and... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: April 6th, 2023
Writing a Thank You Note
In this lesson, students will explore how the sense of touch functions in The Great Gatsby by composing poetry that makes connections between character and an associated object's texture. Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
The Great Gatsby and the Sense of Touch
Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex Sentences
Sentence structure adds variety, interest, and impact to a text. Different sentence structures are composed of clauses and combinations of clauses, and these add varied sentence lengths and styles to a text. This lesson asks students to identify and practice writing simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: June 3rd, 2025
Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex Sentences
