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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating a Story Map Using Kidspiration

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders use computer software, Kidspiration, to create a graphic organizer detailing main characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme of their favorite short story. Students also discover how graphic organizers can help them...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Snapshots of a Short Story

For Teachers 1st
First graders will be creating and filling in a graphic organizer using Kidspiration, as a pre-writing activity for their short story piece. They then use their graphic organizers to write their entire short story. Once written, the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Movie Books- Children's Stories

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students create movie books that make their stories come alive. They share these movie books with non-readers in an attempt to inspire them.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Harmony and Expression in Writing Form

For Teachers 2nd
How do you write an interesting beginning, middle, and end of a story? With this instructional activity, young writers look to other stories as examples. Then, they use some of the attached graphic organizers to help them create their...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Varied Beginnings: Research Process / Narrative Writing Techniques

For Teachers 5th - 8th
What's the best way to start a story? Learners write a memoir using effective openings. They research the process and work through a list of hooks to use in their writing. They use at least two hooks to begin their personal memoir. A...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Retelling

For Teachers K
Students explore storytelling by participating in an image analysis activity. In this story structure lesson, students read the book Cookie's Week by Tomie dePaola and retell the story to their teacher in sequential order. Students...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan 8: Setting and Mood

For Teachers 6th - 9th
What mood does this story evoke? How are setting and mood linked? Young novelists explore the different emotions brought about by writing, starting by journaling things that inspire their own feelings. Examine the word mood, looking into...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Silly Story Starters

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders brainstorm some ideas for each of the columns. As they call them out, write some on the sticky notes until each sticky note is used for each column They stay in the same groups; have each group draw one sticky note from...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Write a Story

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Here is a great way to explore narrative writing! Learners review a previously constructed story map and identify the characters, setting, and main events in the book Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock retold by Eric A. Kimmel. They...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan 10: Writing Really Good Dialogue

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Boring dialogue can run a great story into the ground; get your novelists using dialogue as a tool to move their story into deeper and more developed territory. As part of a larger writing series, this lesson has a worksheet that can...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Semiotics and Set: Year 9

For Teachers 8th
Drama enthusiasts explore the importance of set and action in conveying dramatic tension. They act out a polished dramatic piece using the set as a key component of their story. This should be connected to setting as it is also used in...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Personal Strengths, Talents and Goals

For Teachers 4th
It's important to discuss individual strengths, goals, and talents. With a partner, fourth graders create a PowerPoint presentation of one of their classmates, showcasing their goals and talents. They then complete a worksheet showing...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Write a Round-Robin Story

For Teachers 3rd - 12th Standards
Students discover the elements of a story (introduction, plot, climax, resolution, denouement). In groups of five, one student writes an introduction and passes it to the next person, who writes the plot and passes it to the next person,...
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Lesson Plan
Education Oasis

Creative Writing Unit: Analyzing, Interpreting, Discussing and Writing Various Genres of African-American Literature

For Teachers 10th - 12th
A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Write a Number Story

For Teachers K - 5th
Students view number stories at a website and write their own. They insert a drawing and the text of their number story using a software such as PowerPoint to create a presentation for the class and parents.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Totems

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students write and illustrate a story to describe the habitat and life cycle of a selected animal. They write and publish their story, and create a picture of the animal on a wooden board.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Great Expectations: Group Writing

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Examine the differences between totalitarianism and democracy in this writing instructional activity. Using the same format and theme from Great Expectations, young writers work in pairs to compose their own short stories. They follow...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Telling A Story

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students brainstorm all the possible scenarios that would help them tell a story in detail with the whole class and with partners. They create web outlines to create a name story and then illustrate it with creative grammar usage and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make Up Your Story

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Putting together an interesting story can be hard, but this set of worksheets will guide your writers into the depths of their own creativity as they characterize both their main character and villain. Using humor to keep learners...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduce Vocabulary: Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride (Priceman)

For Teachers K - 3rd
What a fun way to explore new vocabulary words! Marjorie Priceman's book Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride offers plenty of new words for scholars to learn in context: amateur, assembled, demonstration,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduce Vocabulary: Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship (Hatkoff & Kahumbu)

For Teachers K - 3rd
The heartfelt true story of Owen the hippopotamus and Mzee the 133-year-old tortoise will have budding readers engaged as they practice vocabulary in the context of Isabella Hatkoff's nonfiction story. Although you could include more,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Adventure Story

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
It's always fun to make up something together as a class. This fine instructional activity has children make up and illustrate a collaborative adventure story. The essential elements of a good story (setting, characters, plot, help,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Plan Graphic Organizer

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this story planner graphic organizer worksheet, students fill in the genre, characters, setting, plot, complication and resolution before they use the information to write a story. They also list useful words that will be used.
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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...