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...

Study characterization, plot, setting, and symbols in William Golding's Lord of the Flies with a thorough reading guide. It provides reading comprehension questions for each chapter, as well literary devices, symbols, and character...

Learners prepare for and participate in a debate and mock trial regarding laws broken during the Boston Tea Party. Several primary documents and a homework chart are included.

What happens next? Introduce your readers to the literary element of plot with a colorful, funny, and engaging presentation that includes two great story models. Viewers will especially enjoy the retelling of the story of the three pigs.

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....

This activity spans five days and culminates in a role-play where judges consider the arguments of each learners to determine the top five villains or heroes of all time. Learners discuss characterization of heroes and villains, theme,...

Readers reflect on enjoyable stories they know, brainstorm criteria that make a story "good," analyze a New York Times article about innovative children's performances, re-envision classics on their own, and peer edit drafts. Use this as...

It's all about using peer resources in this writing process instructional activity, which includes a fantastic novel revision worksheet packet. Learners have read a partner's story draft the night before, and groups have a...

Alliterative adjective nicknames generate stories inspired by Rosemary Wells' book Noisy Nora (also a thematic complement to any class with children who make a ruckus to get attention). Class members explore basic story elements --...

Three types of external conflict are outlined in this PowerPoint, including character vs. character, character vs. society, and character vs. nature. Tip: Instruct students to write a paragraph explaining some kind of external conflict...

After reviewing this ten-slide PowerPoint, students will be able to "distinguish between conflict and cooperation" amongst their peers. The presentation outlines the differences with pictures which students are asked to observe and...

Outline the plot of any story with a versatile graphic organizer. Class members record the title and author or the text and then work on filling in boxes for characters, setting, conflict, important, events, resolution, and themes.

Part-three of this six part series begins with a dramatization of a battle between Indians and Muslims which led to the dawn of the Mughal Empire. Unlike other Muslim rulers in India, the Mughal leader was a devote Sufi and had a deep...

Your health class reads two biographical stories: one about a girl who has allergies and the other about a girl who has asthma. They watch a quick cartoon on the KidsHealth website about immunity and take the related online quiz. You...

Tenth graders explore narrative poetry. They analyze sections of a poem and present to groups. They compose their own narrative poems using pictures as prompts. They exchange their poems and analyze their classmate's poem.

“Rikki-tikki-tavi” provides an opportunity to model for readers how to use background information to enrich understanding of a story. Class members observe animal behavior, listen to biographical background on Rudyard Kipling, study...

Setting and conflict are the focus of an image-rich presentation that asks viewers to imagine the story behind the picture. Each principle is illustrated with examples from published stories. Practice exercises are included in this...

All stories contain themes. Examine the theme of an assigned story (the lesson suggests To Kill a Mockingbird). Your class can either read a story or watch a DVD to analyze the main theme of the story. They identify terms such as theme,...

Bridge cultural awareness, community, government, and art with an introspective and thought-provoking lesson. Upper graders become globally and socially aware as they analyze and explore the art of Jeremy Deller. They consider his images...

Picture books provide the impetus for a study of how authors make plots seem real and characters interesting. After reading several books, class members list the techniques the authors used to enliven their stories and then craft their...

Reading A Separate Peace? Readers analyze important quotes that appear in John Knowle's classic novel using the provided graphic organizer. Learners record a passage and provide an accompanying analysis for each entry. Consider having...

Thorough and all-encompassing, this study guide summarizes an entire semester, or possibly a year, of language arts vocabulary words. Vocabulary from The Diary of Anne Frank, Night, Romeo and Juliet, and various short stories is listed...

Explore chapter nine of Tuck Everlasting with this two-page worksheet. Learners analyze six quotes from the text and identify the main idea of the novel. The focus of this worksheet is to explore theme in the text and how specific...

Class members assume the role of one of the characters in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Writing as that character, they defend a decision he/she made. Groups then are presented with problematic situations that  parallel those of...