Less than $5 Middle School Writing-Expository Handouts

This includes two Articles "How do hurricanes form? A step-by-step guide" and "How Do Hurricanes Form?" plus a graph titled "Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale" . After reading these two articles students are given a prompt for an expository essay on how hurricanes are formed. There is also an outline sheet included for students to use in order to help them organize their essay. Plus a rubric for easy grading of final essay.

***** Check out my other Writing Resources*****

Writing Thesis Statements

Counterclaim and Rebuttal

Writing Graphic Organizers

Interactive Essay Writing Flipbook

Argumentative Essay

Essay prompt and articles :Narcissism

Essay prompt and articles: Colonization in Africa

This handout provides a thorough and clear explanation of how to properly embed quotations within a paper. The handout will introduce students to the three methods they should be using to introduce textual evidence. It offers a lucid account of how to properly punctuate quotations, how to properly alter quotations, and how to properly cite evidence from different literary genres (novel, plays, poems, etc).

Tired of reading papers in which students repeat the exact same phrases to introduce a series of quotations? Tired of reading papers in which students contextualize evidence by writing, On page 34, it says, "blah blah" ?? Look no further! I developed this resource after listening to my talented English colleagues chat about their shared frustrations over how students frame quotations in their papers. If the teachers at your school are facing similar frustrations, then you might find this handout to be helpful.

As it turns out, there are only three strategies that writers employ when embedding quotations in a paper. This handout explains when and how students should use each of the three strategies:

1. Block Quotations: The best technique for framing a long quotation is to use a block quotation. The examples in this handout will model not only how to punctuate a block quotation but also how to follow up with analysis by picking out key words from the quotation and unpacking their significance.

2. Clause-and-Colon Method: The best technique for framing a mid-sized quotation is to introduce the quotation with an independent clause followed by a colon (:). The examples in this handout will model the grammatically correct way to use a colon to set up a quotation.

3. Integration-of-Keywords Method: The best technique for framing shorter quotations is to integrate the quotations into the writer's own sentences. The examples in this handout demonstrate how to integrate quotations seamlessly into the flow of one's sentences.

Here's my suggestion for how to use this handout. What I'd recommend is that you distribute this handout to your students before you distribute your next writing assignment. After reading and discussing each of the three methods, you might announce that all students will be required to utilize both the "clause-and-colon method" and the "integration-of-keywords method" at least once in their next papers. Should you do that, I promise their papers will improve!

My store is called “Rigorous Resources” because all of the materials prioritize rigorous content over decorative graphics. While there are plenty of sellers whose lessons feature beautiful design elements, my resources promise to improve students' writing by equipping them with practical skills used by published academic writers.

The previews for my resources provide direct access to several pages of exemplary materials. Hit the green “Preview” button to see exactly what you’ll get. . . .

This 3-page document will come to you in two separate formats: a Word doc *and* a PDF. Because the Word doc is editable, you'll be able to costumize the resource to suit the skill levels of your students — year after year! If you don't have Microsoft Word, you'll still be able to access the resource as a PDF — which is easy to navigate and quick to print.

If there's anything I can do to support your amazing work in the classroom, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Thank you for choosing “Rigorous Resources”!!

Happy teaching!

Adam Jernigan, Ph.D.

adamjernigan@gmail.com

P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!

Feel free to check out these other resources on writing:

How to Write a College Application Essay

How to Write an Analytical Essay

How to Write an Poem Analysis Essay (AP Lit FRQ 1)

Figurative Language Stations

Show your students exactly how it should be done with this handy guide. Clear instructions, examples, and a page for their own notes!

This free resource goes perfect with the All Things English for Middle and High School Students book!

And check out these other resources!

• Defending Disney Villains
• Revising & Editing Workbook
• Revising & Editing for Group Lessons
• Bell Ringers for the Semester
• Everything Writing

Based on Ray Salazaar's Article, "If You Teach the 5-Paragraph Essay--Stop It", uses College Board and Common Core Standards to guide students through building a well-written persuasive essay. Whether 5-paragraphs or 50-pages,the format works for fact or research based papers. Includes Chart Checklist Definitions Writing Guides Examples Peer workshopping component Extra Resources: Links to Sample Essays... 16 interactive slides to guide students through the research writing process: thesis writing, working with and using background information, evidence supported facts/research, writing an effective conclusion. Helps build critical thinking and writing skills. Can be used with G/T, Pre-AP, AP, developmental/entry college level courses. Everything needed to produce a well-written, researched essay.

This is a 32-page set of worksheets to help grade 6 students practice the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy. The R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain, Summarize) is a method that students can use to write meaningful responses to questions about a written text.

For each week in the WonderWorks Interactive Worktext for Grade Six, there is one question for students to answer using the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy. Please note that students must have the WonderWorks Interactive Worktext for Grade Six in order to answer the questions in these worksheets.

Engaging Writing templates for boys and girls!

Fifteen fun front and back templates!

A fun border design for each template:

1. Spooky Spiders
2. Horses
3. Pandas
4. Safari Animals
5. Woodland Creatures
6. Sweet Desserts
7. Junk Food
8. Frogs
9. Gorillas and Bananas
10. Puppies
11. Naruto
12. Princesses
13. Harry Potter
14. Aliens
15. Butterflies and Flowers

This 3-page form asks students to specifically rate their performance on the 6 components of effective effort on a given essay: TIME, FOCUS, RESOURCEFULNESS, USE OF STRATEGIES, USE OF FEEDBACK, and COMMITMENT. This product is modeled after teachings from The Skillful Teacher by Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, and Robert Gower and encourages a growth mindset in students. I provide this form to my students every single time I assign a paper and am always pleasantly surprised at how honest they are in their responses, especially as the incentive for guessing their grade is 2 bonus points! ____________________________________________________________________________ Also, check out this great lesson plan for teaching Effective Effort by Language Arts Excellence: ⭐Effective Effort Lesson Plan ____________________________________________________________________________ ⭐Click to Follow Language Arts Excellence⭐

Inspire your students with our Leaf-Themed Writing Paper! Perfect for fall-themed activities, this fun apple-shaped design will make writing assignments more engaging. Featuring clip art leaves around the main shape, you can easily choose from six different line styles to suit your students' needs. Each style is also available with or without name and date lines for added convenience.

Free Apple Writing Paper!

Find Pumpkin Themed Writing Paper Here!

Check out my store for more themed writing paper!

This includes two Articles "How do hurricanes form? A step-by-step guide" and "How Do Hurricanes Form?" plus a graph titled "Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale" . After reading these sources students are given a prompt for an expository essay on how hurricanes are formed. Includes a outline sheet that can be easily filled out in Google Docs as well as a rubric. This product works great in any digital classroom. This is editable in Google Docs. You must have Google Drive to use this product! You may sign up for Google drive for free Visit here for help with Google Drive

NEW IN 2021: Rigorous! Thought-provoking! Discussion-Based! This 45-page EDITABLE poetry curriculum promises to elicit dynamic engagement from all students without compromising on intellectual rigor. The literary devices quizzes, discussion prompts, and analytical writing assignment will challenge your students to dig beneath the surface of the text and generate profound interpretive insights!!

Here are some highlights from this 45-page curriculum:

• 10 Poems by Langston Hughes: The 10 poems in this mini-unit feature Langston Hughe's BEST works of poetry: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "Mother to Son," "I, Too," "Theme for English B," "Let America Be America Again," "Harlem," and more. The poems are split between two homework packets, each of which features 5 poems. Each homework packet is followed by a classroom packet with discussion questions and quizzes related to the poems. (12 pages)

• Discussion Questions: This bundle features a list of discussion questions for the first poem in each of the homework packets. The discussion questions will ensure that every class discussion starts on a productive note. Every discussion question is grounded in concrete textual details and challenges students to arrive at lucid interpretive insights! The questions lend themselves to a range of different pedagogical uses: 1) to focus students’ thinking prior to beginning a discussion, 2) to prompt in-class writing, 3) to assign written reflections for homework, etc. Guaranteed to elicit student engagement and foster deep thinking! Answer keys included. (12 pages)

• Quick Writes: The quick writes give students an opportunity to capture and refine the best ideas generated in the discussion. Quick writes can also help reticent students to gather their thoughts so they'll feel ready and eager to contribute. (3 pages)

• Literary Devices Glossary: A glossary with definitions and examples of the various types of figurative language, imagery, stanzas, and syntactic devices. Many teachers already have a glossary of literary devices, but I'm providing this in case you need one. (2 pages)

• Literary Devices Quizzes: Open each class with a quiz of 10 questions to assess whether your students can accurately identify the literary devices used in the poems from the homework packets: metaphor, personification, symbolism, imagery, alliteration, etc. Answer keys included. (4 pages)

• Analytical Writing Assignment: Challenge students to take their interpretations one step further by writing an analytical paper on a poem of their choice. The assignment sheet contains detailed instructions for how to generate a formalist analysis of a poem (analyzing how the poem's formal features contribute to its meaning). This kind of formalist analysis is exactly what students are asked to generate on the AP Literature exam! Sample paper included. (3 pages)

The entire 45-page unit will come to you in two separate formats: Word doc *and* PDF. Because the Word doc is fully editable, you'll be able to modify the resource to suit your teaching style and/or the skill levels of your students — year after year! If you don't have Microsoft Word, you'll still be able to access the entire unit as a PDF file, which is easy to navigate and quick to print!

Because I believe that teachers should be able to see exactly what they'll be getting before they purchase, the preview for this resource allows viewing accesses to 30 pages. Click on the green "preview" button to see exactly what you’ll get. . . .

Thank you for choosing “Rigorous Resources”!!

Happy teaching!

Adam Jernigan, Ph.D.

adamjernigan@gmail.com

P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!

• Do you need help getting your students to understand how text is structured and how authors craft their writing?
• Do you want them to practice aligning ideas and writing their own?

Help your students master paragraph structure with this comprehensive resource designed for middle and high school learners. "Building Strong Paragraphs" focuses on key writing skills such as identifying topic sentences, supporting details, and crafting thesis statements. This ready-to-use packet includes practice worksheets, engaging exercises, and thesis sentence-building activities that will enhance your students' writing abilities.

Ideal for both informational and argumentative writing, this resource walks students through the entire process of constructing well-organized, coherent paragraphs. Whether you're teaching how to develop supporting sentences, transition between ideas, or conclude effectively, this resource covers it all!

What's Included:

• Graphic Organizer for understanding structure
• Identification exercise
• Two Unique Passages per skill: topic sentences, thesis statements, supporting sentences & concluding sentences
• 9 Passages
• 20 Pages
• Available as a PDF and a Word Document

Perfect for:

• Grades 6-10
• English Language Arts (ELA) Teachers
• Writing Workshops
• STAAR Writing Prep
• Argumentative and Informational Essay Practice

Benefits of this Resource:

• Aligned with Common Core Standards and TEKS for writing.
• Great for differentiated learning in classrooms with ELLs and students needing extra practice.
• Supports critical thinking and writing clarity.

Who is this for?

• Middle and High School Teachers: Perfect for educators looking to strengthen their students’ paragraph-writing skills with structured, step-by-step activities.
• ELA Teachers: Aligned with TEKS and Common Core standards, this resource is ideal for anyone teaching informational and argumentative writing.
• Students Preparing for Standardized Tests: Great for test prep, including STAAR writing, helping students improve clarity, coherence, and overall writing structure.
• Special Education & ELL Support: Easily adaptable for differentiated instruction, making it an excellent tool for classrooms with diverse learners, including English Language Learners and students with varying writing levels.
• Homeschool Educators: A valuable resource for guiding students through the fundamentals of paragraph writing at home.

Do students need help understanding cause and effect? These cause and effect activities offer reinforcement and practice to produce great student essays.Step-by-step and easy-to-follow cause and effect activities include: Relationship Word Chart Fill-in-the-Blank Pearl Harbor Essay Activity 2 Fill-in-the Blank Organizers for Pearl Harbor 2 Cause and Effect Graphic Organizers for Generic History Writing 1 Pearl Harbor Cause & Effect Essay Assignments with Pre-writing 1 Generic History Cause & Effect Essay Assignment/Pre-writing Meets state and federal guidelines for ELA; meets state history guidelines. Help students easily understand cause and effect with this Pearl Harbor/generic history packet with visual graphic organizers. Use for test preparation and standardized test practice.

This is a 33-page set of worksheets to help grade 5 students practice the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy. The R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain, Summarize) is a method that students can use to write meaningful responses to questions about a written text.

There are 13 pages of worksheets which cover the following topics:

* Introduction

* Restate

* Answer

* Restate and Answer

* Cite the Text

* Explain

There are also 20 pages for students to practice the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy. Each page has a short paragraph of text followed by one question for students to answer using the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy.

The written texts included in this set of worksheets are related to world history.

More Worksheets for the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy

This 3-page form asks students to specifically rate their performance on the 6 components of effective effort on a given essay: TIME, FOCUS, RESOURCEFULNESS, USE OF STRATEGIES, USE OF FEEDBACK, and COMMITMENT. This product is modeled after teachings from The Skillful Teacher by Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, and Robert Gower and encourages a growth mindset in students. I provide this form to my students every single time I assign a paper and am always pleasantly surprised at how honest they are in their responses, especially as the incentive for guessing their grade is 2 bonus points! ____________________________________________________________________________ Also, check out this great lesson plan for teaching Effective Effort by Language Arts Excellence: ⭐Effective Effort Lesson Plan ____________________________________________________________________________ ⭐Click to Follow Language Arts Excellence⭐

This is an informational handout to help students who have problems writing effective introduction paragraphs. ***** Check out my other Writing Resources***** Writing Thesis Statements Counterclaim and Rebuttal Writing Graphic Organizers Interactive Essay Writing Flipbook Argumentative Essay Essay prompt and articles :Narcissism Essay prompt and articles: Hurricanes Essay prompt and articles: Colonization in Africa

Celebrate Earth Day with 40 pages of Earth Day related images for writing fact-based poems and prose.

Includes:

5 title pages

Directions with optional activities

30 Earth Day graphics (earth, recycle, alternative energy, pollution, and more!)

5 The End pages

Great for Civics, Government, Social Studies, and meets ELA standards.

Use as:

Individual poems/prose writings

On-demand writing

Practice concepts/skills from mini-lessons

Practice peer workshopping strategies

Publishing opportunities

Celebration of Earth Day

See Educator Helper's other Earth Day products!

Free weekly handout at www.bethhammett.blogspot.com

This is a 33-page set of worksheets to help grade 6 students practice the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy. The R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain, Summarize) is a method that students can use to write meaningful responses to questions about a written text.

There are 13 pages of worksheets which cover the following topics:

* Introduction

* Restate

* Answer

* Restate and Answer

* Cite the Text

* Explain

There are also 20 pages for students to practice the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy. Each page has a short paragraph of text followed by one question for students to answer using the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy.

The written texts included in this set of worksheets are related to world history.

More Worksheets for the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy

This includes two Articles "The History of Narcissistic

Personality Disorder" and "Selfies, Facebook, and Narcissism: What's the Link? Exploring the link between Facebook and Narcissism" plus a graph titled "College Students' Narcissistic Personality Inventory Scores 1982-2006" . After reading these two articles students are given a prompt for an expository essay on narcissism. There is also an outline sheet included for students to use in order to help them organize their essay. Plus a rubric for easy grading of final essay.

***** Check out my other Writing Resources*****

Counterclaim and Rebuttal

Interactive Essay Writing Flipbook

Argumentative Essay

Writing Thesis Statements

Essay prompt and articles: Hurricanes

Essay prompt and articles: Colonization in Africa

Ready for a road trip? My Road Trip to the Top Ten National U.S. Parks lets you think about and plan to visit the top ten U.S. national parks:

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Grand Canyon National Park

Yosemite National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Rocky Mountain National Park

Olympic National Park

Zion Canyon National Park

Grand Teton National Park

Acadia National Park

Glacier National Park

35 pages of fact-based fun and interesting facts, such as how many visitors pass through parks and scenic and wildlife information, along with where each park is located. Note park spellings are based on National Park Service website for student research purposes.

Includes:

Directions with Ideas for Implementation and for Assessment

Includes writing prompts, diorama, research ideas, and more...

Research and Writing Components

Math and Science Skills Connections

Info Sheet Handout with Junior Ranger Motto and core values of the

National Park Service

My Road Trip U.S. Map to plot itineraries

My Road Trip Mileage Chart for incorporating math skills

Location of Parks

Established Dates of Parks

Sizes of Parks

Scenic Beauty coloring sheet for each park

Scenic Beauty facts

Fact Boxes to add visitor/researched info

Fun Sheet to List the Top 5 places to visit in each park

Record Yearly Temperatures and Averages (Science)

Best Time to Visit

Best Features

Excellent across curriculum lesson plan that encourages critical thinking and planning skills for a fun U.S. national parks road trip! Students who have visited listed parks can be class experts as the lesson plan progresses.

Meets CCSS.

Need a great accompanying packet?

Try "Dialects of the U.S." at Educator Helper storefront.

This is a 33-page set of worksheets to help grade 5 students practice the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy. The R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy (Restate, Answer, Cite, Explain, Summarize) is a method that students can use to write meaningful responses to questions about a written text.

For each week in the WonderWorks Interactive Worktext for Grade Five, there is one question for students to answer using the R.A.C.E.S. Writing Strategy. Please note that students must have the WonderWorks Interactive Worktext for Grade Five in order to answer the questions in these worksheets.