Curated OER
Crossroads Cafe: "Who's the Boss?" Act 1
Students pronounce key phrases during a story. They discuss the story setting and the roles of the characters. They explain the problems the main characters face.
Curated OER
Classic Storytelling with a Technology Twist
Students use technology to improve their knowledge of literary terms, math, and technology skills. In this technology storytelling lesson, students learn about character, plot, and setting in various stories by using technology like...
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Essential Narrative Concepts
Students interact with the main concepts of a narrative text in the six lessons of this unit. The setting, prediction, retelling, sequencing, and the identification of the beggining, middle and end of a story are investigated.
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Modern day Folktales: Recasting Folktales in the 21st Century
Young scholars write their own modern day folktale and compare it with "Cathal O'Cruachan and the Cowherd." In addition, they illustrate a character from the original Irish folktale and how the same character would appear today. Students...
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Template #1 A Lesson Before Dying Journal Reflections/Personal Statements
If you're working through A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines, you might be interested in this resource. Pupils fill this page out after reading each chapter in order to create a short summary and clarify plot points and...
Carnegie Library
Creative Writing: Middle School Lesson Plan
Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers.
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Pride and Prejudice: Unsent Letter
What would the characters of Pride and Prejudice say to each other in a letter? Draft unsent correspondence between characters from Jane Austen's novel. A great way to explore characterization and plot structure in a creative lesson.
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Should Hamlet avenge his father's death? Is the ghost telling the truth or is it trying to trick Hamlet? Is Hamlet's inconsistent behavior a ploy or is he really insane? Something really is rotten in Denmark, and with the help of the...
Curated OER
Harriet The Spy
Fourth graders investigate the style of diary writing as its own genre of literature. They read Harriet The Spy in order to have a text for this literature study. Students use the skill of prediction to preview the story, and then...
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Discovering the Oregon Trail
Students explore U.S. history by researching the Oregon Trail. In this American exploration lesson plan, students read the story On the Shore of the River and define the exact path early settlers took to find the state of Oregon....
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Surprise at Pearl Harbor
Students review the concept of courage and relate it to their daily life. As a class, they are introduced to the events of December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor. Using a map, they locate Hawai'i and label the islands. They use the internet to...
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Most Wanted Villians
Students review the characteristics of various characters in fairytales. As a class, they review the story details and create a concept map using a software program. They create their own wanted poster of the villians in the fairytale to...
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Georgey Giraffe's Giant Respect
Students are introduced to the concept of respect. As a class, they read the book together, identify the important facts and predict what might happen next. They complete a worksheet and a test to test their knowledge of the word respect...
Curated OER
Cause and Effect
Students identify cause and effect relationships in a short story. After reading a short story, they participate in a discussion of how one event in a story can lead to several others. Students are then paired for a matching task that...
Curated OER
A Turkey for Thanksgiving - Lesson #2
Second graders investigate realistic fiction, holiday celebrations, making tally charts. For this multi-disciplinary lesson, 2nd graders listen to a story about Thanksgiving and one about the Chinese New Year to develop an understanding...
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Nursery Rhymes
Students recall details of nursery rhyme read by teacher, identify main characters, and demonstrate knowledge of poem by creating concept map about story that includes title, clip art, and changes in font and color.
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Character Comparison: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Fourth graders compare and contrast Fudge and Peter, two main characters from "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing". They use a software template to analyze and compare the characters in a rough draft, edit their work and then produce a...
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Dramatizing Tam's Slipper
Students investigate the Japanese version of the Cinderella tale. In this fairy tale instructional activity, students read Tam's Slipper and construct a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the tale with the American version.
Curated OER
"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
Learners read and analyze the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. They take notes while reading the story, select an element to analyze, and write an essay about the characters, theme, or the setting.
Curated OER
Questioning the Reader
Students consider various reading strategies to improve their understanding and fluency. They review their assessment task and rubric for how their work will be evaluated. They read a story and predict what will happen by recording...
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Examining Conflicts At Camp Green Lake
Students complete an essay documenting a conflict present in the novel Holes. They define the six types of literary discussion as a class. After identifying one of these types of conflicts in the novel, students write a five paragraph...
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Outline and Shine
Seventh graders read and discuss a short story. They complete an outline of the story. They pair and share to evaluate each other's outlines.
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A Study of China with Lon Po Po, a Chinese Little Red-riding Hood
Sixth graders study and identify the elements of a story such as. setting, character, plot, and theme, using two versions of the folktale Little Red-Riding Hood. They use the Internet to locate more information on the author Ed Young.
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Comprehension
Fifth graders take part in a panel discussion. In this character lesson students show their understanding of the connection between events in a story and the development of characters. Students provide evidence from the story to support...