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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Questioning Strategy

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Asking questions about the text is a great way for kids to become self-sufficient readers. Use the question-and-response strategy (QAR) to get them thinking about John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. After they read select...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

All in a Day's Work

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Who is Herman Melville? Read and discuss "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street." Then, discuss the film adaptations of Melville's work and translate a passage of the text into modern-day English. Discussion questions are...
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

Visions for Students: A Study of British Ghost Stories

For Teachers 6th - 10th Standards
Ghost stories are the hook suggested in this proposed unit to engage reluctant readers. 
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Edgar Allan Poe Realty: Fun Trivia Quiz

For Students 8th - 10th
Often these Fun Trivia quizzes are low-quality and have questionable educational merit. However, this interactive online instructional activity provides a clever way to test understanding of setting in various Edgar Allan Poe stories.
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Activity
Weebly

Cereal Box Book Report

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
What is is about cereal boxes that draws consumers in? Tap into the effective marketing of cereal boxes and apply those elements to a book report. Pupils cover cereal boxes with information about their chosen books. they must create a...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Using Video to Create Setting and Mood

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Writers have long used words, the sound of words, and the images created by their words to describe the setting and establish the mood of their stories. To gain a more in depth understanding of how settings can be used to develop a...
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Organizer
Curated OER

Fiction, Poetry, and Drama Part 1

For Students 5th - 8th
Similar to a textbook, this resource includes multiple texts, plenty of explanation, lots of practice, and several graphic organizers. Use all of the materials, or pick and choose from such texts as "The Circuit," "Shoes for Hector,"...
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

With Detective Fiction in the Urban Classroom

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
This abstract for an instructional unit using three-minute mysteries, stories by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe includes a short history of detective fiction, sample plans, and suggestions for exercises and activities...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Figurative Language and Foreshadowing in The Outsiders

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders is still relatable to teenagers today, even though it was written more than 50 years ago. Explore how the figurative language of the story works to establish characterization, and how foreshadowing lays out...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mystery Lessons

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Learn about mysteries with your readers. They will investigate plot, basic elements of mystery, famous characters, and become familiar with genre vocabulary. Bring in props and mystery books to begin and then have learners create story...
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Lesson Plan
Digital Public Library of America

Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

What Makes a Novel a Novel?

For Students 4th - 8th
As your authors prepare to write a hypothetical novel, they need all the inspiration they can find! Using a book they have already read (and enjoyed), learners complete a literary analysis by filling in eight short-answer questions....
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Organizer
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Waunakee Community School District

Identifying Themes in Literature

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
If your language arts learners have a hard time determining the universal theme of a written work, use a straightforward instructional activity to help them find it. After reviewing a list of common themes, kids note the title,...
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Lesson Plan
MENSA Education & Research Foundation

I Need a Superhero

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Once the class learns about the hero's journey, they'll find it in every story and movie they see! Take characters from their humble beginnings to their atonement and apotheosis with a set of lessons about the hero's journey focusing...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Call of The Wild

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Prompt your class to interact with Jack London's Call of the Wild. By analyzing the events in the novel, middle schoolers discover how human experiences create who a person becomes. They critique and analyze the reading, focusing on...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Symbol Beneath the Surface in "The Life You Save May Be Your Own"

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students identify the value of symbols in shorts stories and analyze Flannery O'Connor's use of symbolism. In this symbolism instructional activity, students complete a worksheet about symbols for cars. Students answer questions about...
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Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Defining Conflict Using "The Interlopers"

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Feeling conflicted? Work out those issues with a language arts lesson plan on internal and external conflict. Using "The Interlopers" by Saki, class members identify the conflicts between the characters before writing their own short...
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Organizer
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Writing Educators Symposium

Asking the Right Questions

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
It can be difficult to find the theme of a book or story if you don't know the questions to ask. Teach your kids to discern the universal theme in works of literature with a set of activities that promote critical thinking and active...
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Activity
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The Hobbit

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
From dragons to dwarves, from riddles to rings, the great adventure story of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien has captivated generations of readers of all ages. An educator's guide explores the novel's literary elements, including the...
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Activity
Novelinks

The Lightning Thief: Concept/Vocabulary Analysis

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Before you begin reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, read over this comprehensive handout that gives you a plethora of information regarding the story's summary, organizational structure, central...
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

Brown Bagging with Short Stories

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students participate in a study of short story elements, applying their knowledge and understanding to a selection of short stories.  In this short stories lesson, students read five short story selections, identifying conflict, plot,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Parrot in the Oven: Word Tree - Bonsai or Banyan

For Teachers 6th - 9th
What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Why Do We Remember Revere? Paul Revere's Ride in History and Literature

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine primary documents regarding Paul Revere's ride and its role in the Revolutionary War. They consider how Revere's role has been written about by Longfellow and others and discuss the discrepancies between accounts.
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Handout
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Core Analysis Frame: Fiction

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Dig into any piece of fiction with a series of analysis questions. There are two levels of questions provided: basic and in-depth. The basic questions can be copied double-sided onto a single piece of paper, while the in-depth questions...