Curated OER
Story Writing
Learners work in groups to create a story that will be presented to the class. In this story writing lesson plan, students complete a project planning sheet, work together to create a story that includes a hero and at least two other...
Curated OER
How Do Authors Use Imagery to Shape Their Writing?
Esther Forbes' award-winning Revolutionary War novel, Johnny Tremain and excerpts from Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine are used to model how imagery brings alive the setting of a story. The young writers then craft their own...
Curated OER
Digital Storytelling
Scholars of all ages can use the various tools of technology to construct and illustrate a story. Utilizing this resource, learners work with a partner to brainstorm and draft a story based on personal experience. They use computer...
Curated OER
Episodic Writing Using Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff
Help your middle-schoolers expand their writing skills with this lesson on episodic writing, which focuses on story details, idea development, and organization. After reading "The Eighth Picture: End of Summer" from Patricia Reilly...
Curated OER
Historical Agency in History Book Sets (HBS)
Study historical events by combining the study of historical fiction and non-fiction. Learners read about true past events in historical fiction novels and then research non-fiction accounts of the same events. What are some differences...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Workshop (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Bring this lesson into your unit about creative writing and precise language. First, middle schoolers create a piece of writing with the help of their classmates. In the second part of this workshop, they edit their own piece of writing....
Curated OER
Creative Writing Lesson
It's hard to find inspiration; have your learners bring in a slew of magazines and search for inspiring pictures! They look for characters, setting, and possibly even conflict clues. They analyze the pictures they select, turn their...
Curated OER
What Makes a Novel a Novel?
They always say to write what you know. This approach is used to get middle schoolers prepared to write novels of their own. Using a favorite book as a model, potential novelists respond to prompts that ask about characters, plot, main...
Curated OER
Sequencing
Are you looking for a way to teach sequence of events in your narrative writing unit? Bring this instructional activity to your middle school class, as it prompts young writers to create a narrative sequence map of events that have...
Curated OER
"State of Emergency in Nepal"
For this grammar worksheet, students read the story "State of Emergency in Nepal" and fill in the fourteen blanks with the correct form of the word given in bold.
Curated OER
Write a Round-Robin Story
Learners 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,...
Curated OER
Baseball Stories, Cards and Interviews
Everyone can be an MVP! Young learners create their own baseball cards about themselves in this autobiographical lesson. They use information about their lives to create a baseball trading card. They make flash cards using baseball...
Curated OER
We've Gotcha Covered: The Iowa Insurance Story
Analyze the relationship between financial risks and the growth of the insurance industry in Iowa. Learners work in groups to analyze the major catastrophic events that occurred in their community. Several worksheets are included.
Curated OER
Tech Integration Project Lesson Accelerator: Project Overview
Talk about technology in the classroom. This plan has all the resources needed to create a non-linear or branching story. Included is a step-by-step tutorial that walks middle schoolers through the project description, a model of a...
Warren County Public Schools
Small Group Discussion Questions
Support a class reading of the novel Song of the Trees by Mildred D. Taylor with this series of discussion questions. Covering a variety of topics from character and setting to historical accuracy and symbolism, these questions challenge...
Syracuse City School District
Literary Elements
Address the literary elements in a piece of writing using these materials. The packet includes plenty of resources, and focuses mainly on theme, character, and point of view, with some materials for setting, symbolism, and author's...
Washoe County School District
Three Skeleton Key
Conduct a close reading of George G. Toudouze's well-known horror story "Three Skeleton Key." This plan breaks up the reading into several steps and provides text-dependent questions to ask along the way. Learners will have the chance to...
Curated OER
Story Framing Legends
Students review, examine and study the seven stages to a traditional legend or modern story in legend form. They locate two traditional legend stories and see if they fit into the two categories listed for them in two boxes. Each student...
Curated OER
The World Around Me
Combining visual and language arts, here is a resource that prompts middle schoolers to write stories based on pictures of their surroundings. They use digital cameras to take pictures of favorite areas in the school. Next, they choose...
Curated OER
Varied Beginnings: Research Process / Narrative Writing Techniques
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...
Curated OER
Comparison and Contrast - Two Short Stories
Students investigate writing techniques by analyzing 2 stories written by Edgar Allen Poe. In this language arts lesson, students choose two Edgar Allen Poe short stories to read and take notes on the setting, theme, characters and...
Curated OER
Story Element Lesson Ideas Keeps Learning Interesting
There are some fun and interesting ways to make sure that students understand story elements.
Curated OER
PhotoStory 3 Lesson Plan
For this lesson, PhotoStory 3, students create a story board of an original poem through the use of PhotoStory 3 presentation. Students write a poem and use it to develop their storyboard. Students publish and share their storyboard. ...
Curated OER
Metaphorical Gold: Mining the Gold Rush for Stories
Students complete a history and research lesson about the Gold Rush using selections from Jack London. In this Gold rush research lesson, students research the Klondike/Alaska Gold Rush and use details from the history in their own...