Curated OER
Identifying Structured Patterns in Folk Tales
Students are introduced to the structure of folk tales. After working through an example, they identify as many folk tales as possible that follow the same pattern. In groups, they compare a folk tale and a fairy tale to identify the...
Curated OER
Exploring the Mystery Genre
Students determine the story elements of typical mystery stories including characters and plot structure. They look at vocabulary that is common to mystery stories before reading and responding to mystery chapter books. Working in guided...
Curated OER
Story Stretching: Tall Tales in North America
Students are introduced to tall tales. In this introductory tall tales unit, students explore the tall tales of Casey Jones and Johnny Appleseed. This unit includes many interdisciplinary lessons including graphing skills and geography.
Curated OER
Snowman Lesson Plans
Snow and snowmen lesson plans can be studied no matter where you reside.
Curated OER
Sentence Elaboration with Prepositional Phrases
Students explore language arts by reading an English related story. In this sentence structure lesson, students identify prepositions and discuss how to utilize them effectively in sentence writing. Students read the story "A Day at the...
Curated OER
Storytelling
Show young readers how to put some personality and voice into their storytelling with an in-depth assignment. Kids practice saying the same thing, such as counting from one to ten, in different tones and perspectives, and then work on...
For the Teachers
Cause and Effect Matrix
Study cause and effect in both literature and informational text with a lesson designed for several different reading levels. After kids review the concept of cause and effect, they read an article or story and note the causes and...
Curated OER
Persona in Autobiography
A talkative old man? A naïve believer in Human Perfectibility? A Sage? Who is this guy, anyway? The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin launches a study of the way Franklin uses structure, style, and purpose, as well as different...
Curated OER
James and the Giant Peach Plot Analysis
It's all about the plot, main events, and story mapping with this lesson. As the class reads the novel James and the Giant Peach, they create an excitement graph that actually charts key events and moments of excitement. After...
Curated OER
Adoption Stories
Although originally designed for young film makers who wanted to enter their videos in a contest, the step-by-step instructions included here would serve as a guide for any video project. Classes with no access to video editing software...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Stressed Out Sally
Life changes may cause stress. Here, scholars identify stressful situations in a peer's life and offer coping skills to make for a better day. A short story, "Stressed Out Sally," provides pupils with a look inside a bad day. After...
Curated OER
Distortion Unleashed
Here is a series of four lessons which examine the relationship between 3-D structures and the places in which they exist. The images of Robert Harris are used, and learners engage in a research project to look deeper into a structure of...
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Clique
Mean girls and bully packs are favorite topic for films and TV shows that focus on the destructive power of cliques. High school freshmen are asked to reflect on both the positive and negative aspects of cliques by reading a short...
ESL Kid Stuff
Parts of the Body
Eyes and ears and mouth and nose! Practice the names of body parts with a lesson based on the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes". Kids sing the song and read a story with the same vocabulary words before finishing a worksheet to...
ESL Kid Stuff
Toys
The world is a rainbow of colors in a set of lessons for English learners. Kids review colors with matching games and hide-and-seek, before singing songs about colors and reading a class story.
ESL Kid Stuff
Wheels on the Bus
Take a trip all around the town! Kids go round and round with a fun set of lessons based on "The Wheels on the Bus." After singing the song together, little learners figure out the hand gestures, reenact the song, and read an...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Practical Criticism
As an introduction to literary criticism, class members recreate I.A. Richards' close reading experiment. Individuals select a poem, paraphrase the story, focus on the imagery used, consider what the imagery adds to the tale, and...
K20 LEARN
Writing An Argumentative Paragraph: Argumentative Writing
Learning how to craft a cogent argument based on a solid claim, supported with evidence and solid reasoning, is an important life skill. Teach middle schoolers about argumentative writing with a lesson asking them to analyze the claims,...
University of Wisconsin
Teaching Things Fall Apart in Wisconsin: A Resource Guide for Educators
“There is no story that is not true, . . .” And uncovering the truths in Things Fall Apart is the focus of a 68-page resource packet designed to provide instructors with a wealth of materials that enhance understanding of Chinua Achebe’s...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Courage “In the Time of the Butterflies”: A Common Core Exemplar
The courage of Las Mariposas, the Mirabal sisters, is the focus of a series of activities designed to accompany a reading of In the Time of the Butterflies that ask readers to consider what it means to be courageous. Beautifully crafted...
Curated OER
Creation Stories
Students explore Native American creation stories. In this Native American lesson, students research Native American culture, social structure, and religious beliefs as they compare and contrast the different elements of Native American...
Curated OER
Magic Tree House Story
Students, while in the computer lab assessing how to use Hyper Studio, utilize computer technology as a vehicle to telling an oral story. They create a title page for their Magic Tree House stories. A variety of technology tools are...
Curated OER
Kate and the Beanstalk Lesson Plan
Students gain a deeper understanding of the fairy tale genre by reading fractured versions of familiar tales. In this Kate and the Beanstalk lesson plan, students read a variety of fairy tales and fractured fairy tales in order to...
Curated OER
Writing a Short Story - Weather
Students use the information they wrote about on the topic they chose in studying About Weather. They then write a short story using the information choosing a theme, setting, characters, and the plot.