This writing piece is an introductory writing assignment for 7-12 students to explore their strengths while demonstrating their writing abilities, as well as how to do basic MLA format and a citation.Although it is natural for humans to focus on their defects and become overly critical, this writing piece requires students to focus on their assets and celebrate them while supporting these traits with specific examples to bring them to life. This writing lesson was created by Janelle Coady as part of the 2020 OER English Language Arts Workshop by NDE. The attached plan is designed for Grade 9 English Language Arts students but could also be used for any students 7-12th.It is expected that this plan will take students 3-5 days to complete."This is Who I Am" by Wallpaper Flare is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This semester, we will read writing about travel and place from Columbus's Diario through the present. Travel writing has some special features that will shape both the content and the work for this subject: reflecting the point of view, narrative choices, and style of individuals, it also responds to the pressures of a real world only marginally under their control. Whether the traveler is a curious tourist, the leader of a national expedition, or a starving, half-naked survivor, the encounter with place shapes what travel writing can be. Accordingly, we will pay attention not only to narrative texts but to maps, objects, archives, and facts of various kinds.
Our materials are organized around three regions: North America, Africa and the Atlantic world, the Arctic and Antarctic. The historical scope of these readings will allow us to know something not only about the experiences and writing strategies of individual travelers, but about the progressive integration of these regions into global economic, political, and knowledge systems. Whether we are looking at the production of an Inuit film for global audiences, or the mapping of a route across the North American continent by water, these materials do more than simply record or narrate experiences and territories: they also participate in shaping the world and what it means to us.
Authors will include Olaudah Equiano, Caryl Philips, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Joseph Conrad, Jamaica Kincaid, William Least Heat Moon, Louise Erdrich, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.
Expeditions will include those of Lewis and Clark (North America), Henry Morton Stanley (Africa), Ernest Shackleton and Robert F. Scott (Antarctica).

The attached Lesson Plan is designed for 3rd grade writing students. Students will go through the writing process to write a descriptive personal narrative piece and they will be able to use descriptive words to describe an event or place that they have experienced. This lesson plan addresses the following NDE Standards: NE LA 3.2.1.a, d, h, j, NE LA 3.2.2.aIt is expected this lesson plan will take approximately 90 minutes to complete.The Lexile Measure for Magic Tree House: Dinosaurs Before Dark is 510L