Curated OER
Aristotle's Six Elements Of A Play
Fifth graders view the play, The Ant and the Grasshopper. They define Aristotle's six elements of a play. At the end of the lesson plan, 5th graders be asked to participate in the play by acting like busy ants. This lesson plan would tie...
Curated OER
Creating Interesting Characters
What makes a story interesting? Complex characters! As part of a series of worksheets that prepares middle schoolers to write their own novel, the exercises included explain the role of the protagonist, the antagonist, and the supporting...
Curated OER
Creating Characters
Students examine the methods of effective characterization. In this writing skills lesson, students discuss how emotions, dialogue, actions, and physical descriptions build believable characters. Students then use the methods of...
Curated OER
Dingo!Dingo!
An engaging literary game called "Dingo," is here for your young mathematicians. Dingo is a game which is played with dice. The first team of students to remove all of the numbers on the game board are declared the winners. To remove a...
Curated OER
Julie of the Wolves
Have your class practice their comprehension skills using this resource. After reading Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George, learners engage in cause and effect activities, identify story elements and figurative language, and...
Curated OER
"Exploring Shakespeare" An Introduction of Character and "Hamlet"
Young scholars examine the literary terms "round character" and "characterization" through the play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare. They view and discuss examples of clip art, video, and comic strips, and describe the character traits....
Curated OER
Problems and Their Solutions in Stories and Everyday Life
Students identify story elements. In this stories instructional activity, students read a story and identify the chracter, character traits, plot, setting and theme. Groups of students match problem and solution cards.
Curated OER
Teaching Story Elements: Jack and the Beanstalk
Students define fictional story elements. In this reading comprehension instructional activity, students read Jack and the Beanstalk and view an included SMARTboard instructional activity. Students use the SMARTboard to match the story...
Curated OER
The Cask of Amontillado
Students examine the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Cask of Amontillado." For this character lesson, students discuss and analyze the characters in the story. Students make personal connections to the characters and create a brochure...
Curated OER
How Tragic!
Tenth graders read and study, in-depth, a specific classical tragedy, in this case, Oedipus. They explore strategies from making meaning out of or interpreting texts, as well as strategies for determining how authors create meaning in...
Curated OER
Plot Summary for Story Element
Seventh graders identify story elements utilizing a plot summary organizer. In this story elements lesson, 7th graders discuss the elements of a good story. Students use The Three Little Pigs to practice finding the plot elements....
Curated OER
Anthem Questions
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 11 short answer and essay questions based on themes in Ayn Rand's Anthem.
Curated OER
Character Development-Nanavi, A Girl from Benin, West Africa
Students examine the ways a character changes throughout the course of a story. In this literary analysis lesson, students discuss a story that spans three years in a young girl's life. Students analyze the changes the girl experiences...
Curated OER
We Tell Stories
Young readers bring characters to life by working in small groups to script and perform stories that contain a community concept. Detailed questions and activities are outlined for the class. Consider having your groups create...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Core Analysis Frame: Fiction
Dig into any piece of fiction with a series of analysis questions. There are two levels of questions provided: basic and in-depth. The basic questions can be copied double-sided onto a single piece of paper, while the in-depth questions...
Leading Learner
Using Music to Tell a Story or Describe a Scene
Young composers demonstrate their understanding of the stylistic features of descriptive music, including pitch, tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and timbre, by developing a melody and countermelody for a main character in a story. As part of...
Curated OER
Introduction to Main Events
Identify main events in a text. Readers will read The Kissing Hand and discuss the main events of the story. They will use sentences strips to write down events and place them in order. Alternative books are suggested.
National Endowment for the Arts
Teacher's Guide: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A 10-lesson unit takes high schoolers through a novel study of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. To start, students learn about Fitzgerald's background and gain historical context that prepares them for a reading of the book. The...
Curated OER
Dusty Locks and the Three Bears
Read this twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell. Kindergartners listen, predict, and discuss the story. They then participate in a dramatization of the story and draw a picture to...
Curated OER
Crafty Literature Projects to Lure Language Arts Learners
Recognize National Arts and Crafts Month with language arts project ideas to inspire creative learning.
Curated OER
Bridge to Terabithia
Students explore scenes from Katherine Paterson's book, Bridge to Terabithia. For this visualization lesson, students listen to the story read aloud. The students then choose words and phrases that paint a picture in their heads....
Curated OER
Daughters Come of Age in Women's Fiction
Introduce your young readers to fiction written by women authors. For each story, they explore the way these daughters discover and claim their own identities. Individually, class members use the literature to examine their role in their...
Curated OER
Using Drama to Examine Communities: Walking in Others' Shoes
Encourage your readers to make connections between texts with this resource. After compiling notes for each text read (you choose the texts), groups craft skits in which major characters from each text meet. There is a rubric for the...
Curated OER
Martin Luther King Jr.
After listening to a story about Martin Luther King Jr., first graders answer questions about the text. They discuss the importance of the illustrations, identify the beginning, middle, and end of the story, and complete a writing...