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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Stew

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students identify the elements of a story. In this reading and writing lesson, pupils read the book, Tyrone the Horrible by Hans Wihelm and then identify the characters, setting, and plot of the story.This lesson includes adaptations and...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 1

For Teachers 9th Standards
Word choice can drastically alter the tone of a piece of writing. Ninth graders read Karen Russell's short story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" and use textual evidence to help them analyze how word choice affects their...
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Lesson Plan
College Board

Reading—Synthesis and Paired Passages

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Good readers make connections between texts. The SAT regularly assesses the ability to make those connections using paired reading passages, a topic discussed in an official SAT practice lesson plan on synthesis. During the lesson plan,...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 6

For Teachers 10th Standards
Is history "little more than a relic," as one of the characters in "The Palace Thief" contends? Has Hundert's love of antiquity kept him from changing with the times? Readers consider how the author uses these conflicting views to...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 8

For Teachers 10th Standards
Now what? Class members continue their close reading of Ethan Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief,” focusing on Hundert's feelings about his retirement, and consider what these feelings reveal about his character.
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 3

For Teachers 9th Standards
Just like in real life, characters in short stories show their true personalities through their words and deeds. Decipher the character development in Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a set of activities...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 1

For Teachers 10th Standards
The complex relationship between a teacher and his student takes center stage in an instructional activity that asks readers to pay close attention to how author Ethan Canin introduces his characters and how he develops the character of...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 9

For Teachers 10th Standards
Do our childhood circumstances significantly shape us? As the close reading of “The Palace Thief” continues, groups examine how the results of the first "Mr. Julius Caesar" competition influenced the development of the characters in...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creepy Read Week

For Teachers 8th
Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

In Search of Self: Adolescent Themes in the Twentieth Century Short Story

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students read short stories that are related to adolescent issues and behaviors. In groups, they review the elements of a short story and vocabulary they might need while reading. To end the lesson, they read "Sir Tatton Sykes"...
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Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Defining Conflict Using "The Interlopers"

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Feeling conflicted? Work out those issues with a language arts lesson on internal and external conflict. Using "The Interlopers" by Saki, class members identify the conflicts between the characters before writing their own short stories...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Dracula: Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA)

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
“There are often dangers from snow and wolves and night.” Bram Stoker’s “Dracula’s Guest,” which may or may not have been the first chapter of the original Dracula manuscript, is the focus of a Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA). 
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Mini-Lesson Planning for Inferences

For Students 4th - 7th Standards
Making inferences and drawing conclusions is a key component to successful active reading. Encourage your class to use context clues and prior knowledge to infer different elements of a story, including the setting, plot, and character...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Guided Reading with David's Drawings by Cathryn Falwell

For Teachers 1st
First graders participate in a guided reading lesson. For this guided reading lesson, 1st graders read David's Drawings by Cathryn Falwell, which is a realistic fiction book on the DRA:16 level. They determine the author's message, and...
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Lesson Plan
Urban Education Exchange

Lessons and Units: The Watsons go to Birmingham—1963 5TH GRADE UNIT

For Students 5th
Get ready to read The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 with a lesson about historical fiction. Spanning several centuries, the resource prompts learners to guess the historical era of a story based on a word or phrase in the text. In...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Rest of the Story

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders make predictions about the story "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" based on background knowledge. They read the story, stopping to verify or reject predictions. They write their own opinionated fairytales.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Building Fiction: Elements of a Short Story

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students define and interpret the elements found in a short story. Then they identify the elements of plot found in a short story. Students also apply knowledge of plot to an original work of fiction. Finally, they identify the...
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Lesson Plan
Pyro Innovations

Reading Comprehension

For Teachers K Standards
Good reading practices can start at any age. Early readers work with the teacher to read a short story about a bear. First, they identify basic text features, such as the title, author, and illustrator. Then, they answer several simple...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Planting Clues in Short Stories

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Students examine short stories to determine how clues are planted in story stories of the mystery genre. They look at how Edgar Allan Poe planted clues in "The Purloined Letter." They write an original short story in which they plant...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Short Story Writing

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students develop skills needed to write short stories. They pick out an object in the room and describe it without saying what it is. They describe their hand and the lines on their hand without using words "Line, finger,skin or vein"
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing A Short Story with a Persuasive Letter

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils write short stories. In this story creation lesson, students write their own story and include their previously written persuasive letters as a component of their new story.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Short Story Motivator

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students review an episode of their favorite television shows. They discuss the plot in the show and compare it to a short story. They complete a story map as they watch the episode.
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Lesson Plan
Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning

Reading Activity

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed
Ready to integrate technology into your ELL instruction? Check out this reading lesson that has language learners using the Internet and apps, joining online book clubs, and creating blogs. A fine model of what can be done.
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Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Tell Us a Tale: Teaching Students to Be Storytellers

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates.