Groups create a set for a play or story they select, build a model, and share their stage with the class. The team explains the rationale for their choices and the mood they feel their staging creates.

Researching the characters, setting, and background history of a work of literature enhances interest and improves reading comprehension. An interactive website contains a wealth of resources related to Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering...

Offering several reading comprehension activities, such as a character map and a plot flow chart, this book report form will help your class through Mark Twain's Prince and the Pauper. The activities in the lesson lend well to...

In this art and literature instructional activity, students answer short answer questions about famous books, authors, characters, and more. Students complete 20 questions.

Accompany a reading of Madeleine L'Engle's classic tale, A Wrinkle in Time, with a detailed guide equipped with 15 informative and useful chapters. Scholars discover who the author is, why she wrote the book, and crucial story elements...

Celebrate Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss' birthday with this compare and contrast graphic organizer in which three stories are examined for their setting, characters, problems, events, and solution. 

Peter Bunzi takes readers to the Victorian era with two stories, Coghaert and Moonlocket. Accompany the literary time warp with a companion packet that offers a plethora of exercises. Learning...

Setting and description are important parts of John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men. Ask your class to examine how he sets the scene with this graphic organizer. Individuals or groups look at several different aspects of the setting in...

Can you understand more about how a person acts by learning about how that person lives? An interactive resource explores the setting of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird with several slides discussing the location, social...

Set your class up for success with writing descriptive settings with these two graphic organizers. On the first page, writers note specifc details about their chosen setting and comment on how each character views the setting. The second...

Scholars read excerpts from the story, Heidi, in a three-part assessment that focuses on comparing and contrasting characters. Each part contains three tasks that challenge learners to discuss, answer comprehension...

Twenty insightful questions follow a read aloud of the story, Amos and Boris by William Steig. Scholars then show what they know through completion of a cause and effect chart, reading fluency assessment, and a written...

It's all well and good when you're asked to identify a speaker's tone using his or her body language, facial expression, and pitch and emphasis. Identifying the tone of a written passage is another challenge entirely. Check out an...

This set of worksheets constitutes enough work and materials to be considered a lesson. They guide readers through a process of exploring characters and their motivations, and writing a paragraph about them. Here are seven handouts that...

This worksheet that accompanies a reading of A Beautiful Mind includes over 20 questions that address theme, fact and opinion, supporting details, characterization, and quote comprehension.

How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Class members read some of Ellison's non-fiction writings about blues and jazz, listen to records, watch videos, and engage in student-centered discussions. They then produce podcasts...

Analyze a fictional text with a four-page packet that explores a story's main character and moral, challenges scholars to ask and answer questions about the text, and to create a story map. 

Readers of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men will learn much “more than what (is) said to them” as they use the biopoem format and craft a poem about one of the major characters in Steinbeck’s tragic story of Geroge Milton and Lennie...

Can an action be so bad that you are sickened with guilt? Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, the main character in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, believes that committing a crime could be the answer to his troubles. However,...

Use this handout to focus on the character traits of George and Lennie in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Readers are given a set of specific traits to search for in the first chapter. They are required to list two textual examples of...

Provided here are activities and questions for Part I of To Kill a Mockingbird (although one activity is also included for Part II). Readers study the novel's plot, characters, and setting. I wouldn't recommend using this as the sole...

Tackle the basics of plot with a straightforward book report form. Learners note down the author and title, setting, characters, and basic plot points in any story or book.

Paul Fisher, the main character in Tangerine, comes to see that it's the choices in life that lead to the consequences that make all the difference. A unit study of Bloor's young adult novel leads readers down this same path. 

West Side Story, the modern retelling of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, won ten Academy Awards for its rousing depiction of the tale of star-crossed lovers. But how closely does the plot align to its source material? Compare and...