Caro Clarke
Describing Your Characters Through Their Actions
This is the tenth in a series of articles designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on how to develop characters through their actions instead of simply relying on dialogue and description of thoughts. W.11-12.3d...
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: Pacing Anxiety, or How to Stop Padding and Plot!
This is the seventh installment of a series giving advice to the author who is new to writing novels. This article focuses on how to take your characters and use them and their conflicts to develop the plot of your story. W.9-10.3b...
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: What Is Conflict?
This is the sixth in a series of articles designed to help the new writer with their novel. This article focuses on conflict and how it effects the characters and the plot of the story. W.11-12.3a Narratives
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Writer's Model: Personal Reflection Essay
This four-page essay provides an example of a personal reflection essay. Clicking on the "Writer's Guide" link in the upper right-hand corner of the page enables the user to get tips, directions, and explanations on the essay. W.11-12.3b...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Reader Response in Hypertext: Making Personal Connections
Young scholars write a narrative of place, a character sketch, an extended metaphor poem and a persuasive essay then link all four texts to quotations they have selected from a novel.
Other
Fiction Writing Tips: Creating a Vivid Setting
Some excellent guidelines to consider when evaluating your setting in a short story or novel. Discusses the importance of setting, some examples, as well as practical advice in setting your story. W.11-12.3d Sensory/precise lang narratives
Other
Writing World: Four Ways to Bring Settings to Life
A great resource outlining four major ways to make settings appear more real and genuine in fiction. Deals with themes such as motion, experience, mood, and the senses. W.11-12.3d Sensory/precise lang narratives
Other
****Story Mapping Strategy
This accessible explanation features a worksheet to help teach students to use story mapping to identify elements of a narrative.
Other
College Edouard Montpetit: Esl Blues
This professor's website has online quizzes for the grammar lessons, including a diagnostic test to help the student assess his or her language level. There are tutorials for grammar lessons on a wide range of topics and explanations of...
Read Works
Read Works: Genre Studies: Fairy Tales Kindergarten Unit: Fantasy Details
[Free Registration/Login Required] After introducing the concept of fantasy within fairy tales, teachers lead class in finding examples of fantasy elements in the story Little Red Riding Hood. Following this model, students work...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Taking the Mystery Out of Writing a Mystery
This mystery-writing lesson focuses on the structure of a short story and the elements of a mystery in particular. Learners complete the entire writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Students...
E Reading Worksheets
E Reading Worksheets: Differentiated Reading Instruction Worksheets, Activities
A collection of differentiated reading activities are provided in this collection. Worksheets for the following reading topics are included: climax, story structure, elements of a story; fact and opinion; summarizing, narrative sequence;...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Rolling With the Animals
After reading Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, the writer will plan an original story where an animal (other than a duck) finds itself in a human mode of transportation (other than a bike). Three other animals will react to the unusual...
Read Works
Read Works: Let's Make Dinner!
[Free Registration/Login Required] A literary text about a brother and sister who have to make dinner when their mother is going to be home late. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Arts and Humanities: Art of Asia
A landing page for a course on the art history of Asia.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Arts and Humanities: Art of Africa
A landing page for a course on African art found in regions and in individual countries.
TES Global
Blendspace: What Makes Stories Scary?
A learning module that includes fourteen links to websites, videos, and activities on writing scary stories. Lessons focus on vocabulary, plot and character development, elements of gothic stories, tone and mood, suspense, and more.
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Nursery Rhyme Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] Nursery Rhyme Flipchart by Donna Andrews (ELAKSV1 (elements a-d) for Kindergarten). Flipchart focuses on rhythm, rhyming, and interactive links for games that reinforce the standard.
Love To Know Media
Your Dictionary: Lesson Plans on Writing Short Stories
This lesson focuses on teacher preparation of lesson plans before attempting to teach students to write short stories. It includes questions to ask yourself, ideas for activities, and a sample lesson plan.
Other
Florida Historical Resources: Florida's Maritime Heritage Trail
Florida's natural and cultural coastal has left a legacy of remains and reminders of the past. Divided into 6 themes, each includes a number of places to visit or learn about, and each place features pictures, a historical narrative, a...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Fairy Tales Around the World
This collection of activities gives students a chance to discover and compare fairy tales from around the world. It provides a wealth of links to resources, printable diagrams, discussion questions and the like.
US National Archives
Docsteach: Oh Freedom! Sought Under the Fugitive Slave Act
This activity includes primary sources from the official records of the U.S. District Court at Boston that tell the story of William and Ellen Craft, a young couple from Macon, GA, who escaped to freedom in Boston in 1848. Students will...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Larger Than Life
Students will write a tall tale narrative including larger than life characters with unusual skills or abilities using exaggeration, humor, surprise endings, and story elements (setting, characters, conflict, resolution).
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 3: Louisiana Purchase
Third graders learn about the Louisiana Purchase and the characteristics of pioneers during this time period. While exploring literary and informational texts, including quotes from primary source documents, 3rd graders discuss elements...