PBS
To Kill a Mockingbird Teacher's Guide
If you're planning a unit on To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, don't pass this resource by! It includes thorough discussion questions and vocabulary from the novel, research opportunities, and writing prompts to extend learning...
K20 LEARN
What Do You Want To Talk About? Writing Dialogue
Pictures really do talk in a lesson that teaches young writers how to craft dialogues. Class members closely examine Grant Wood's American Gothic, imagine what the couple might think or feel, and put these words to paper, crafting a...
K20 LEARN
Who's Coming To Dinner? Descriptive Writing
"The Dinner Party" is the anchor text in a lesson designed to encourage writers to use sensory details in their stories. After brainstorming descriptive words and phrases for the five senses, class members read Mona Gardner's stark tale...
University of Oklahoma
Understanding My Rights and Responsibilities
Three scripted lessons comprise a unit designed to inform special needs students about their rights and responsibilities in high school. In the first lesson class members examine the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), Child Find,...
University of Oklahoma
Getting Started
"Getting Started" is a two-lesson unit focused on familiarizing high schoolers with the concepts of self-awareness and self-advocacy. Learners identify their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes in a ME: Book that they will use...
College Board
The Departure
Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...
Penguin Books
One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt - Teacher's Guide
Children in foster care face a lot of uncertainty in their lives. A guide for the novel One for the Murphys introduces a main character, Carley, who is thrust into the foster care system. Chapter-by-chapter questions cover key details in...
Novelinks
Zach’s Lie: Guided Imagery
Close your eyes and picture a time where you decided to tell the truth to someone. What were you wearing? How did you feel? Such prompts begin a guided imagery activity for Zach's Lie. Directions for creating an environment conducive to...
ReadWriteThink
A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative
A picture's worth a thousand words—and even more inspiration! A visual activity uses photographs to inspire writers. The process teaches aspects of narrative writing, such as point of view and characterization.
Curated OER
Build Your Dream Science Lab
Would your ideal science lab be filled with bubbling beakers and zapping Tesla coils? Or would it contain state-of-the-art computer technology and data analysis? Dream big with an innovative lesson that connects math and language arts...
Australian Centre For the Moving Image
Dreamworks Animation Character Design
Dive into animation creation using Dreamworks® animated films. Compare and contrast characters, wonder and ponder why the plot is so important, and think of background and themes as your creativity unrolls onto paper.
Curriculum Corner
8th Grade ELA "I Can" Statement Posters
Eighth grades can master the ELA Common Core standards! Show your learners the connection between classroom activities and assignments and the standards with this set of "I Can" statement posters. Each standard has been rewritten as an...
Curriculum Corner
8th Grade ELA Common Core Checklists
How close are your eighth graders to mastering the ELA Common Core standards? Keep an eye on progress with these charts, which include every eighth grade identifier and full standard text. As you move through the year and teach, reteach,...
Calloway County Schools
Dialogue Rules, Worksheet, and Writing Assignment
Punctuating dialogue properly can be tricky, but your pupils can become punctuation masters with practice. This resource includes an explanatory page that describes the rules of writing dialogue and provides examples. On the second page,...
Wake County Public Schools
Language
Have your class doing everything from reading literature, analyzing literary devices, identifying independent and dependent clauses, discussing, and writing creatively with the rich resource found here. After a mini lesson on independent...
Curated OER
Writing a Personal Narrative
What is the difference between a news story and a personal narrative? This plan has learners write a personal narrative using the topic of service projects in their community. Consider completing a cross-curricular extension by bringing...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How to Write Descriptively
The point of fiction is to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story. But how do writers suck readers into stories in this way? Nalo Hopkinson shares some tips for how to use language to make your...
Other
National Writing Project: Collaborating to Write Dialogue
In this lesson, writing partners work together to develop a plot and characters. The lesson emphasizes the use of dialogue to develop the characters and plot of the story.
Other
Building Characters With Adversity
Extensive and very interesting article advising the reader on how to develop characters through adversity.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Write Literary Text That Develops Interesting Characters
You will learn how to write an imaginative story that develops interesting characters and believable dialogue.
Other
Storyboard That
Create your own storyboard with this interactive tool. The storyboard framework is a graphic organizer that helps structure students work into a linear and concise story. Although it feels easy at first, breaking down ones thoughts into...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Explain Influence of Setting on Plot Development in Literary Text
In this lesson, students will review two elements of fiction, setting and plot, and learn how the setting influences the plot in stories.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Explain Influence of Setting on Plot Development in Literary Text
This lesson is about the relationship between setting and plot. The setting enhances the story by folding the plot into a place and time that fits perfectly with what is going on; in fact, it is often the setting that makes the action...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Analyze the Central Characters in Literary Text/fiction
In this lesson, students will learn some ways that writers reveal the complexity of their characters. By closely analyzing one author's characters, they will come to see how their words, actions, and interactions with one another can...