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Jason and the Golden Fleece
Students read and analyze the classic Greek tale of "Jason and the Golden Fleece." They compare/contrast the story with modern works of literature and films, answer discussion questions, and retell the story in a modern-day setting.
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Picture Books, Retelling, and Writing
Students create stories using only pictures. In this visual storytelling lesson, students read Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie de Paola and analyze the wordless story. Students create new text for the book by writing on sticky notes.
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Scrapbook of Evidence
Students read three different genres of fiction. They create a story map and brainstorm possible collage inclusions. Each student prepares a minimum of two scrapbook page entries for each text or passage. Students write beside each...
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Beatrix Potter's Naughty Animal Tales
Students gain insight into the unusual, solitary world of Beatrix Potter's Victorian childhood and can compare/contrast it with their own world to explain why Potter wrote such simple stories and why she wrote about animals rather than...
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Writing Folktales
Students consider the structure of folktales. In this writing skills instructional activity, students list the attributes of folktales that they read in class. Students then complete handouts based on the elements of the tales as well as...
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"Me and My Family Tree"
Students explore genealogy by reading a family history book in class. In this family tree activity, students read the story Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney and discuss their own family history. Students identify what the term...
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THE TRAVELS OF BABAR: An Adventure in Scale :Interpreting the music of Raphael Mostel's Dance/Movement exercise
Students explore how dance/movement tell a story. They analyze the elements of dance through interpretation of the story. Students exercise how the feelings and moods of the music suggest certain body movements and actions.
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Introduction to Archetypes
Here is a full lesson with all the needed materials and PowerPoints attached! Introduce your class to archetypes by showing them the included presentation. The presentation gives definitions and examples of archetypal characters,...
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Pioneer Values in Willa Cather's My Antonia
Included in this resource are a variety of activities to do while reading Willa Cather's My Antonia. The activities, which range from mapping out Nebraska to writing activities about pioneer living, are all designed with one guiding...
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Poetry Project
Choosing a poet or a theme, eighth graders conduct research in the world of poetry. They conduct Internet research and select five poems that fit their poet or theme, and create a seven slide PowerPoint presentation on their selected...
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Express Yourself Lesson Seed 11: Setting
Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...
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Express Yourself Lesson Seed 2
Use Langston Hughes's poem, "Words Like Freedom," to explore the concepts of freedom and liberty. Learners read the poem, determine the theme, and use the provided graphic organizer to examine the connotative and denotative meanings of...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 4
Class members have an opportunity to compare how a film and a play handle the same source material by viewing the opening chapters of George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope and acts I and II of Ian Doescher's play, William Shakespeare's...
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Examining Persuasive Literature
Examine persuasive literature and writing. In this persuasive literature lesson, pupils work through a variety of activities over the course of three weeks (each week is planned by day). The unit's purpose is to examine examples of...
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Doodle Splash
Students navigate Doodle Splash to create a painting. In this doodle splash lesson, students explain their splash painting relationship to a piece of literature.
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Number the Stars Chapter 15
Young scholars analyze the theme of bravery in the book Number the Stars. They create a list of possible themes in Number the Stars. They review elements of a story, focusing on climax. They debate over the climax of the story.
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Cinderbank
Fourth graders identify major components of a "Cinderella" story in order to create a database.
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Tools For Discussing Haring's Work
Students examine artwork by Keith Haring and discuss his drawing techniques and process. They write a group story as an interpretation of one of Keith Haring's drawings, and create their own posters.
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Dancing Feathers
Fifth graders read and analyze the novel, 'Dancing Feathers.' They identify the main story elements, develop personal and fictional narratives, retell the story from a different point of view, create a mask, and design a postcard.
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Identifying Structured Patterns in Folk Tales
Students are introduced to the structure of folk tales. After working through an example, they identify as many folk tales as possible that follow the same pattern. In groups, they compare a folk tale and a fairy tale to identify the...
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Comparing Tales through Performance
Students compare and contrast versions of The Three Little Pigs. In this fairy tale lesson plan, students read 3 versions of the fairy tale and dramatize them in order to analyze the similarities and differences.
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Unit Plan for Mark Twain and American Humor
Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. In this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...
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Literature: Esperanza Rising
Young scholars read and discuss the book, Esperanza Rising. After analyzing and identifying the novel's structural elements, they examine working conditions for migrant workers in the 1930s. As part of the activity, students in groups...
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Writing Myths
Learners read and write myths. In this world mythology activity, students read and analyze myths from various cultures and then recognize their attributes as they write their own myths that explain natural phenomena.