The metaphor of a pot of soup and a series of colorful templates remind young writers of the elements that make for a rich story. Pepper the plot with carrot/character, potato/point of view, corn/conflict, tomato/theme, and season with...

Can a novel have an omniscient narrator and still show character point of view? Explore text structure with a instructional activity about Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Several discussion questions encourage kids to...

Discuss point of view when a novel has multiple narrators. Using the first section of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, learners analyze the characters of June Woo, An-Mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, and Ying-Ying St. Clair. They write about one...

Students complete an online geography lesson and role play the results.  In this where in the world lesson, students create a tableau in pairs and act out their dialogue. Student tableau tells destinations attributes.

The story Theft is about a stolen purse, compassion, and two misunderstood individuals. Young authors critically read the story to understand the events, details, and techniques used by the author to convey the narrators point of view....

How does background and experience influence one's point of view? Dwight Okita's famous poem about the Japanese internment is the text used to explore this essential question. Class members study primary documents to gain the necessary...

Two narrative excerpts tell the same story from different points of view. In the first excerpt (first person), sequencing words and phrases are bolded and learners write down what the bold type does. The second excerpt is in third...

Budding historians read six documents related to grievances that led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. They then craft an essay in which they discuss the perspective of both the colonists and the king. This DBQ could be...

The class explores and debates, from multiple perspectives, a petition to allow Hopi Indians to take golden eagle hatchlings from a federal wildlife sanctuary for use in a religious ceremony. Pupils defend their personal views on the...

Experience how a story can drastically change when the point of view is altered. Young scholars first read a review of Disney's film Tarzan, focusing on how the point of view in the classic story is important. They then select another...

Have your class discuss the problems faced by those in war-torn nations using this resource about a librarian in Iraq. After reading Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq, learners answer cause and effect questions, summarize the...

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....

With resource links, a detailed procedure, embedded primary source documents, and a Readers Theater script, you're ready to teach! Re-enact historical events in order to boost historical perspective, discern main ideas, and draw...

Explore this story involving prejudice and racism to enhance learners' comprehension skills. The story The Jacket by Andrew Clements involves an African American boy who is falsely accused of stealing someone's jacket. This teacher's...

Sixth graders make connections between past experiences and perspective. They read Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith. Then, they analyze a character's history and state the past experiences that form their perspective. In the...

Introduce various perspectives of the civil rights movement to your middle schoolers by having them take on roles in groups. They read a projected excerpt describing a house (linked) from either the perspective of a real estate agent or...

Work on narrative writing with this instructional activity, in which middle schoolers analyze the characters from a selected piece of literature and write narrative diary pieces as the character. They work to understand the point of view...

A comprehensive and immersive series of lessons that examines various aspects of story development leads learners into writing a narrative of their own. Writers develop an understanding of the writing process as they use the learning...

Explore perspective and the different ways people see the world. A very thorough resource contains all you'll need to teach 7th graders about comparing various historical events, media types, texts, and points of view.

Introduce your middle and high schoolers to a different perspective on war: that of  soldier's. Read Guisseppi Ungaretti's poem "Vigil" to kick-start this lesson. After discussing his perspective, read "The Screaming Eagles Fly to the...

Everyone has a different opinion about the characters they read about in books. Have your class explore forming an opinion and finding evidence to support it as they read and discuss what they think about a particular character. They...

After studying the reasons settlers entered the New World, primary learners try to persuade others to enter this new land. Class members present their arguments in a variety of ways including posters, writings, and charts. Richly...

Your budding journalists need to understand the five W's for writing a news story. They read a story, complete several graphic organizers to help them organize and write their article, and then use a self-assessment learning exercise to...

Readers make personal connections to Saturday Market by Patricia Grossman and answer comprehension questions while reading the book. Comparing and contrasting the different characters in a Venn diagram leads to a kinesthetic activity...