Teaching Tolerance
Participating in Digital Communities
It's possible to promote inclusion and empathy on the Internet—it just takes effort! Scholars read and discuss a short story about being a friend online. Then, pupils role-play appropriate ways to respond to hate within a digital...
PBS
Exploring First-Person Narrative
If you really want to know, this is a terrific lesson all about narratives, which is just a fancy way of saying telling stories. And you get to do it without being phony or anything. My favorite part is that you get to read a passage...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 5: Motivation - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides the lens class members use to analyze and evaluate the motivations of the characters in Sylvia Plath's "Initiation" and scenes from Mean Girls. Readers then select a character from A Separate...
Bully Free Systems
Bully Free Lesson Plans—Fifth Grade
Two lessons take a look at bullying. Lesson one focuses on physical bullying. Scholars identify the bullying type's qualities, read short stories and answer comprehension questions. Lesson two offers advise on what to do as a bystander...
Curated OER
Literary Analysis - Young Goodman Brown
Why is literary analysis so important? Readers explore writing a literary analysis by reviewing literary elements such as character, metaphor, plot, setting, simile, personification, and style. They read "Young Goodman Brown" by...
Curated OER
Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" in Graphical Representation
Learners analyze graphical forms of Eudora Welty and interpret the shorts stories in the representations. In this graphical representations instructional activity, students analyze the short story genre in comic strips. Learners then...
Curated OER
Peer Editing
Sudents read and critique three of their fellow classmates' science fiction short stories on three consecutive days for mechanics, short story elements, style, and informational elements.
Curated OER
Short Story Framework
The class gets creative after listening to a short story containing a definitive structure. They are required to think about character, relationship, and setting, while attempting to show rather than tell, in their writing. Dialogue,...
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss Diaries
Students find a Dr. Seuss quote or saying from a selected book and relate it to their own life experience by using the quote in a short story. They choose a Dr. Seuss book from a pre-selected group or from the school library. Students...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: Context Clues
Fifth graders use context clues to help them understand unknown words. In this context clues lesson, 5th graders practice identifying context clues on a worksheet, then work with a peer to write their own story. Stories are peer edited...
Curated OER
Responding to A Sound of Thunder by Writing PowerPoint Presentations
Students, after reading "A Sound of Thunder," create a PowerPoint presentation about time travel. They study and utilize a graphic organizer to assist them in preparing to deliver an oral presentation next and finally they print their...
Curated OER
Tell Me a Story
Tenth graders read short story, "The Storyteller" by Saki, and expand on concept of stories for students by reading and evaluating several popular students's stories as well as writing their own original students's stories.
Curated OER
Silver Blaze and Other Stories
In this Silver Blaze and Other Stories reading and study guide worksheet, students respond to 8 multi-step short answer, multiple choice, and graphic organizer questions. The questions are designed to be answered before, while, and after...
Curated OER
Out of the Dust: Questioning Strategies
Bloom's Taxonomy is a great way to address the many levels of comprehension. With explanations and examples of each level, you can create questions that focus on knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Curated OER
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Graphic Organizer: Venn Diagram
Compare and contrast the characters in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Using a Venn diagram, kids write in different traits to describe each person, and note their shared characteristics in the middle section.
Curated OER
Reading Bugs
Review the phonemic sounds of the alphabet letters before examining how to blend letter sounds to make a word. During this teacher-modeled lesson, learners make word bugs out of three phonemes that blend together. As an assessment, read...
Curated OER
Story Parts
Third graders identify the three major parts of a story. After reading the book "Stellaluna," students discuss the beginning, middle and end of the story. They write a short story depicting the events that would happen if the story...
Curated OER
Sequence of Events Storyline
Seventh graders practice sequencing the events in a story they have read. After reading a short story, 7th graders sequence the events of the story using a timeline. Their timeline is used to create a summary paragraph of the story...
Curated OER
Plot Summary for Story Elements
Ninth graders identify story elements utilizing a plot summary organizer. For this plot summary lesson, 9th graders discuss the elements of a good story and listen to the story of the three little pigs. Students complete a group plot...
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
Expression Makes Reading Exciting!
Students examine how reading with expression makes stories more interesting by listening to a reading in monotone and one with expression. Reading in pairs, they practice with passages of Judith Voirst's, Alexander and the Terrible,...
Curated OER
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Students complete a review of the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" in preparation for an exam. Working in groups, they participate in a review game of Jeopard. The game serves to review the terms and themes related to...
Curated OER
Lightning Speed Reading
Students focus on improving their reading fluency. They discuss what it means to be a fluent reader and practice repeated readings with a short story. They work in partners and take turns timing one another for one minute reads.
Curated OER
African Folktales
Students read African folktales. In this literature lesson, students share prior knowledge about South Africa, Morocco, and Nigeria. Then students work in groups to read an assigned African folktale and answer response questions about...