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Organizer
Keys to Literacy

Story Map

For Students 2nd - 9th
Here's a graphic organizer that promotes comprehension by asking class members to record the elements of a story. Using the provided template,  readers identify the setting, the major characters, the problems they face, and the solutions...
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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 on internal and external conflict. Using "The Interlopers" by Saki, class members identify the conflicts between the characters before writing their own short stories...
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Lesson Plan
Maine Content Literacy Project

Introduction to The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a great story to share with your class, and this lesson focuses on just that story! The eighth in a fourteen-lesson series on short stories, the plan has learners study some vocabulary, read the story,...
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Lesson Plan
Maine Content Literacy Project

Introduction to John Updike

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Expand your pupils' understanding of the short story genre with a study of John Updike and his story "A&P." This lesson plan, the fourth in a series of fourteen, invites learners to examine literary terms and read and discuss the...
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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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Organizer
Pearson

Reading Comprehension Sequence Chain

For Teachers 2nd - 12th
Follow any story and record each step on the graphic organizer provided here. There are lines to record the title, author, and illustrator, boxes where pupils can fill in character and setting, and six boxes in which learners can note...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Totally Different Stories: Perspective

For Teachers 9th Standards
Two stories by Kate Chopin provide high school freshmen with an opportunity to reflect on the importance of the perspective from which a story is told. Class members read "The Story of an Hour" and a passage from The Awakening, then...
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Handout
Nosapo

What Is in a Sentence, Paragraph, and Story?

For Students 4th - 12th Standards
Language arts is made up of many parts. Learners review the parts of a sentence, as well as how to make a simple sentence into a complex sentence, before examining full paragraphs and identifying the topic, body, and concluding sentence...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plot Summary for Story Elements

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders identify story elements utilizing a plot summary organizer. In this plot summary lesson, 9th graders discuss the elements of a good story and listen to the story of the three little pigs. Students complete a group plot...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Planting Clues in Short Stories

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Students examine short stories to determine how clues are planted in story stories of the mystery genre. They look at how Edgar Allan Poe planted clues in "The Purloined Letter." They write an original short story in which they plant...
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

Teachers See the Truth but Wait: Teaching Short Stories with Literature Circles

For Teachers 9th
Students use literature circles to analyze four short stories from the Realms of Gold, Volume 3. In this literature circle lesson, students are assigned a role in the literature circle to improve their critical thinking skills for...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury: Questions

For Students 7th - 9th Standards
These questions are designed to accompany Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder," and could be used to guide and focus readers or as an assessment of reading skill and knowledge of the elements of a story. Page one focuses on questions of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spooky Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Focus on building suspense as well as evaluating web sites through creative writing. After introducing the idea of suspense and holding a discussion, class members complete a WebQuest, during which they find inspiration for their own...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

"Sunday in the Park" Reader's Response

For Students 7th - 9th
After reading Bel Kaufman's "Sunday in the Park," give your class the opportunity to react to the short story through writing. First they write a brief summary paragraph, and then they react to any events or characters' actions in a...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

The Purloined Letter

For Students 9th - 12th
These questions about Poe's The Purloined Letter focus on publication and outside sources along with details of the story. Hopefully this story is not a mystery to you!
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Worksheet
Curated OER

“Everyday Use,” Alice Walker: Questions for Discussion

For Students 8th - 9th
Should treasured family heirlooms be used or preserved? This resource provides readers with an opportunity to examine the actions of characters in Alice Walker’s short story, as well as their own sense of heritage. The questions could be...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Sentence Types: "The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen"

For Students 8th - 11th
Readers identify sentence types with 25 examples based on Bruno Lessing's short story "The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen." For each, they choose from simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex.
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Activity
Orlando Shakes

The Hound of the Baskervilles: Study Guide

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Sherlock Holmes may have been the greatest detective in literary history. A study guide for The Hound of the Baskervilles introduces a story featuring the famous detective before sharing activities related to the text. Readers complete a...
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Lesson Plan
Scholastic

Pre-Reading Vocabulary Activities Using "The Gift of the Magi"

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
The rich language of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" is only appreciable if you understand the words. A short instructional activity reviews 13 words from the story and prompts class members to apply each word and its definition to...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Motivations In "The Gift Of The Magi": Motivation In Characters

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
O. Henry's short story, "The Give of the Magi," launches a study of what motivates people to act as they do. Class members identify what they believe are the motivations of the characters in O. Henry's tale and then craft a one-page...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

The Most Dangerous Game

For Teachers 8th - 9th Standards
Readers of "The Most Dangerous Game" must argue which of Richard Connell's characters is the protagonist or antagonist. The lesson begins with scholars reading selected passages from the story and making predictions about who they...
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Worksheet
Great Books Foundation

The Glass of Milk

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
It's not easy to ask for help. Learn why a boy on a ship struggles with accepting help in "The Glass of Milk," a short story by Manuel Rojas. Six discussion questions prompt class members to make inferences from the text about character...
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Lesson Plan
ELA Common Core Lesson Plans

American Romanticism

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" provides the text for an activity that asks readers to select specific passages from the story, identify the aspect of American Romanticism the passage exemplifies, and then provide an...
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Unit Plan
Simon & Schuster

Classroom Activities for Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Three lessons based on "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales offer scholars an opportunity to examine literary satire, medieval attitudes towards women, and the form and function of a frame story.

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