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Writing Educators Symposium

Asking the Right Questions

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
It can be difficult to find the theme of a book or story if you don't know the questions to ask. Teach your kids to discern the universal theme in works of literature with a set of activities that promote critical thinking and active...
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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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Activity
Curated OER

Short Story Group PowerPoint Project

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students choose a short story from the class literature book. They find information about the author. They read the short story from the literature textbook. They create a PowerPoint to retell the short story.
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Lesson Plan
Maine Content Literacy Project

Introduction to Ernest Hemingway

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What is a white elephant, and what does it have to do with Ernest Hemingway? Study "Hills Like White Elephants" in-depth by following the procedures outlined in this lesson, the fifth in a series of fourteen. Learners start the day with...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Setting the Story: Techniques for Creating a Realistic Setting

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Thus begins the 1830's novel Paul Clifford and, of course, all of Snoopy’s novels! Encourage young writers to craft settings for their stories that go beyond Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s often-mocked phrase...
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Activity
Scholastic

Dr. Seuss Extension Activities

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd Standards
Extend the exhilarating learning experience of Dr. Seuss with five activities designed to reinforce literacy skills—site word reading, dialogue writing, story mapping, and more! Featured stories include The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, The...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ollie the Own Says: WHO

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Scholars examine the strategy of making a story map or outline to identify the main elements of a story. They discuss the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a story, in an outline form. As a class they read a short story, answer the...
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PPT
All-in-One High School

Elements of Plot

For Students 4th - 8th Standards
Cinderella wants to go to the ball and marry the prince. At the end of the story, she does! But how does the plot move from the exposition to the resolution? Teach language arts learners and fairy tale fans about the basics of plot...
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

Magical Musical Tour: Using Music Lyrics to Teach Literary Elements

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
While music lyrics are often used to teach literary elements, the richness of this resource comes from the wealth of exercises, activities, and support materials provided in the packet.  Although designed for gifted learners, the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stories

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Students read and write a short story. In this short story lesson plan, students read a short story and answer comprehension questions on it that teaches them about the world around them. Then they write a short story to teach something...
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Activity
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Mobile Education Store

StoryBuilder for iPad

For Students 2nd - 6th
Invite your kids to tell all sorts of stories with this interactive app. Learners view images and record their own voices as as they create short narratives to go along with the images. The app provides plenty of customizable scaffolding...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tortoise and Hare Races

For Teachers K
Practice basic map skills with the story of The Tortoise and the Hare. After listening to the story, class members create a map that indicates the starting line, the path the animals took, where they stopped to rest, and the finish line....
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Unit Plan
Syracuse City School District

Reading Comprehension Unit Plan

For Teachers 8th Standards
A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...
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Unit Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Edgar Allan Poe's Journey Through Life and Literature

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
How was Edgar Allan Poe able to create "intriguing, memorable, and lasting literature"? To answer this question, learners analyze the syntax, diction, and characterizations in Poe's poems and short stories and compare the impact of these...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Short Vowels With Clifford

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
Phonetic masters identify and recognize short vowel sounds by reading and listening to a story that highlights select words. They use picture clues to aid comprehension and construct a story by actively choosing and identifying...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story vs. Plot

For Teachers Higher Ed
Students, after reading and discussing the two texts by Flannery O'Connor, "Good Country People" and "Greenleaf," analyze the plot, tone, characters, themes and setting in each story. They write their own short stories dealing with a...
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Rituals, Scapegoats, and Mobs...Oh My!

For Teachers 7th - 9th
One way to teach "The Lottery," a suspenseful and rich short story by Shirley Jackson.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding Cause and Effect

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students experience and study cause and effect as they assess the consequences man faces when time travel is attempted. They determine, in their imaginations, what time period they would like to visit. Each student then listens to,...
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Lesson Plan
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Washoe County School District

Three Skeleton Key

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Conduct a close reading of George G. Toudouze's well-known horror story "Three Skeleton Key." This plan breaks up the reading into several steps and provides text-dependent questions to ask along the way. Learners will have the chance to...
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Lesson Plan
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PBS

Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Decisions and Consequences

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Teach young learners that most drug addictions end in one of three outcomes: treatment, jail, or death. After watching a short video segment on the consequences of drug abuse, class members discuss what they viewed and consider what...
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Lesson Plan
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Health Smart Virginia

How the Namuhs Learned to be Content with Who They Are

For Teachers 10th
The Namuhs have a lot to teach humans how idealized images presented in advertising can impact self-perception and self-worth. After brainstorming 10 traits the media sets as the perfect body, class members read a short story about the...
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Lesson Plan
David Suits

“Wild Readers” Decoding Skills Lesson Plan

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
Set young readers on the path toward fluency with this phonemic awareness resource. Based on the award-winning children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, this lesson allows beginning readers to practice isolating phonemes and...
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Lesson Plan
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American Chemical Society

The Periodic Table and Energy-Level Models

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Teach your class to think of electrons as tiny packets of energy that travel in waves. Through a short video and diagram, participants see how electrons are located around the nucleus of an atom. They then get into groups and try to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Writing

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students work in groups to create a story that will be presented to the class.  In this story writing lesson, students complete a project planning sheet, work together to create a story that includes a hero and at least two other...