Ideas From Suzi
Responding to Literature
Guide your class through a text with resources for before and after reading. Learners ask questions, discuss characters and plot points, point out elements of the reading that stood out, and compose brief summaries.
Curated OER
Gift of the Magi
While reading O Henry's "The Gift of the Magi," your class will define and identify situational irony and allusion. Use a study guide (not included, but easy to produce) to record and discuss examples of allusion as you read. Map the...
Curated OER
The Gift of the Magi
Test the true meaning of giving - and irony - with this lesson about "The Gift of the Magi." Using textual analysis, details, and text organization, middle schoolers make predictions about future events in the story and determine the...
Curated OER
Getting the Story
Students examine and discuss the basic elements of a newspaper article. They listen to articles, discuss the 'inverted pyramid' style of a breaking news article, and list imaginary current events based on mythological characters.
Louisiana Department of Education
How to Write a Memoir
Who are we and what shapes our identities? Seventh graders work to answer this question as they learn how to write a memoir. Full of non-print resources and supplemental texts that range from fiction to non-fiction, scholars write their...
Student Achievement Partners
Eleven
Turning 11 comes with a range of emotions. Explore those emotions by reading the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros. Readers analyze the main character's reactions to the events of her day. Then, they write an essay describing what...
Curated OER
Story Writing
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...
Curated OER
Short Story Inspiration
Tenth graders write an original story using a picture of a scene inspiration. In this short story lesson, 10th graders write short stories using a picture.
Curated OER
Imagining Your Science Fiction Short Story
Twelfth graders brainstorm ideas for their own science fiction story. Using worksheets, they sketch the plot and setting for their story. They create appropriate characters and develop their interactions among each other. They share...
John F. Kennedy Center
Acting Up, A Melodrama: Performing Like Jo March and Her Sisters in Little Women
Lights, Camera, Action! Pupils read Little Women and create, act, and direct a melodrama that Jo March and her sisters would enjoy. The lesson plan comes complete with resources for the educator on melodrama as well as examples for drama...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 9: Climax
Conduct a close reading of chapter 9 of The Cay. Read the chapter again and ask pupils to respond to a list of included text-dependent questions. Finish the class with the provided writing assignment, which asks learners to use textual...
Curated OER
Gift of the Magi Test
High schoolers explore literary elements, plot structure, and story elements. They read "The Gift of the Magi," and identify its theme and elements of the story. Afterward, students discuss the story and take a test over the material...
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.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois
Where to begin? With the vocational education that provides the skills necessary to gain economic security or with a Liberal Arts education? As part of a study of leaders of the civil rights movement, class members compare and contrast...
Curated OER
Reading Teammates
Fourth graders read the book "Teammate" after participating in pre-reading activities that include examining the concepts of segregation and discrimination. In this six week literature study, they make timelines, discuss what they know...
Curated OER
Walk in My Shoes: A Shoe's Perspective
Help learners write a creative story from the viewpoint of a shoe. The teacher brings a variety of different types of shoes to the classroom and each person chooses one. They then write a story from the point of view of the shoe,...
Curriculum Corner
Summary Writing
Nineteen stylish worksheets offer lesson ideas and practice opportunities designed to reinforce summary skills. Scholars recall events over the weekend as well as favorite books—main characters, problems, solutions, the beginning,...
Curated OER
Order! Order!
Polish organization skills in your youngsters. With this lesson, they are introduced to the trait of organization and participate in activities that reinforce organization. They cut apart a familiar story, receive different parts of the...
ReadWriteThink
Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments
A speaker, a message, an audience. After analyzing these elements in Queen Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury, groups analyze how other speakers use an awareness of events, and their audience to craft their arguments....
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 11: Setting
Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 2
Use Langston Hughes's poem, "Words Like Freedom," to explore the concepts of freedom and liberty. Learners read the poem, determine the theme, and use the provided graphic organizer to examine the connotative and denotative meanings of...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 15: Theme
Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...
CHPCS
The United States in the 1920s: The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
Music, writing, and activism all tell the story of history! The resource uses these elements and more in a presentation to discuss the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. Your class views biographies, discusses important events, and...
Orlando Shakes
Les Misérables: Study Guide
A writer has the responsibility to defend the less fortunate members of society. At least that was the view of Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables. The novel is the subject of a study guide from Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Learners...