Curated OER
Harvest the Wind
Wind is a natural resource available around the world. Help your pupils appreciate the power and importance of wind by researching wind farms, making pinwheels, and designing windmills.
Curated OER
What's the Main Idea?
Students explore poetry. In this main idea in poetry lesson, students read poems from Words with Wings, thenidentify the main idea and complete a "Main Idea Mania" worksheet.
Read Works
Realistic Fiction
What makes a story seem real? Have your pupils record the realistic elements of the story Dogs Don't Tell Jokes in order to find out. They can focus elements of the characters, setting, and plot. Learners are asked to use textual...
Curated OER
Mighty Earth Movers
Note that although the publisher lists almost all of the Common Core standards for both math and language arts, you will most likely want to take the general topic and choose which area to focus on. Regarding math, pupils measure worms...
Curated OER
Just Lookin' For a Home
What is a boll weevil? Your class can find out that and more by following the activities included here. Pupils read an article, sing a boll weevil song, add to the song with their own original lyrics, illustrate the song, study the...
Curated OER
Truth or Hogwash
Explore the history of domesticated pigs and their important byproducts. After discussing the use of pigs, class members create game boards describing the animals. While playing the game, they determine if the answers are true or...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Writing With Writers: Descriptive Writing
Need help with doing a descriptive paper or personal narrative? Need a writing lesson plan? Meet Virginia Hamilton and follow her step-by-step guide to writing. When done, you are eligible for a certificate signed by this author.
Other
Teaching Ideas: Fifty Alternatives to the Book Report
Just as the title claims, here are fifty different ways to respond to a book. Most can be adapted to all grade levels.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Examining Plot Conflict Through a Comparison/contrast Essay
Contains plans for six lessons that ask students to examine types of conflict (character vs. character, character vs. self, character vs. nature, and character vs. society) before writing essays that compare and contrast two conflicts....
Utah Education Network
Uen: Introducing Text Structures in Writing 5th Grade
This instructional activity engages students in learning about text structures. Graphic organizers are provided to assist students in planning writings that have the following text structures: problem and solution; sequence; cause and...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Interactives: Elements of a Story
Explore the elements of a story using the well-known Cinderella story as source material. Learn about setting, character, sequence, exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution.
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: A New Letter for the Alphabet
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a nonfiction text about a man who is trying to add a letter to the alphabet and answer questions about comprehension, supporting details, vocabulary, transitions, and more. A paired text...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Literature: Describing Setting
Short explanation of setting as a literary term. Written in the context of "What makes a good short story?" A link at the bottom of the page leads to additional information about setting.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Elements of a Story Interactive
Explore different ingredients, or elements, that go into stories and make them so much fun. Read the story, "Cinderella," and look at all the different pieces of the tale to see how they all fit together.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Themes in Literary Texts (English 6 Reading)
Learn how to infer the implicit theme in a work of fiction, distinguish theme from topic, and make complex inferences using textual evidence.
Education.com
Education.com: Compare and Contrast Non Fiction Stories: Extinct Birds
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students will compare two informational texts about two extinct birds, the Great Auk and the Dodo. A Venn Diagram is provided to be used when comparing an contrasting tests.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Where Did I Come From
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Analyze Development of Plot Through Characters in Literary Text
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Often characters are a driving force behind the plot. In this lesson, students will learn how complex, multilayered characters contribute to the development of a story's plot...
Read Works
Read Works: Bridge to Terabithia 5th Grade Unit
A Grade 5 literature study unit for the novel "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson. The concepts covered include cause and effect, character, genre, plot, predicting, and theme.
Other
Curriculum Associates: Comparing and Contrasting Texts [Pdf]
In these activities, students are asked to compare and contrast two versions of each event with two pieces of writing that are about the same topic. Teaching notes with answer keys are provided as well.
Utah Education Network
Uen: One True Story, Told Two Ways
Analyze the different perspectives presented by two authors telling the same story.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Create a Book (Grade 3 6)
Young scholars will illustrate and write their own story.
Ted Nellen
Cyber English (By Ted Nellen): Characterization
This is a glossary entry for the term "Characterization" including a definition and the characteristics to be developed: Character's appearance, actions, thoughts, voice, and reaction from others.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: To Imitate Two Nature Writers
In this lesson each writer will compose and revise a "showing" description inpsired by an object or a place in nature. Long before drafting, students will discuss and compare the writing styles and techniques of published authors who...