Summary: We derive stretching and bending energies for isotropic elastic plates and shells. Through the dimensional reduction of a bulk elastic energy quadratic in Biot strains, we obtain two-dimensional bending energies quadratic in bending measures featuring a bilinear coupling of stretches and geometric curvatures. For plates, the bending measure is invariant under spatial dilations and naturally extends primitive bending strains for straight rods. For shells or naturally-curved rods, the measure is not dilation invariant, and contrasts with previous ad hoc postulated forms. The corresponding field equations and boundary conditions feature moments linear in the bending measures, and a decoupling of stretching and bending such that application of a pure moment results in isometric deformation of a unique neutral surface, primitive behaviors in agreement with classical linear response but not displayed by commonly used analytical models. We briefly comment on relations between our energies, those derived from a neo-Hookean bulk energy, and a commonly used discrete model for flat membranes. Although the derivation requires consideration of stretch and rotation fields, the resulting energy and field equations can be expressed entirely in terms of metric and curvature components of deformed and reference surfaces.