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...
Carnegie Library
Creative Writing: Middle School Lesson Plan
Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson plan. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers.
Curated OER
Teaching Story Elements: Jack and the Beanstalk
Students define fictional story elements. In this reading comprehension lesson, students read Jack and the Beanstalk and view an included SMARTboard lesson. Students use the SMARTboard to match the story element terms with the specific...
Louisiana Department of Education
How to Write a Memoir
Who are we and what shapes our identities? Seventh graders work to answer this question as they learn how to write a memoir. Full of non-print resources and supplemental texts that range from fiction to non-fiction, scholars write their...
University of Georgia
Bag O' Isotopes
Accommodate your chemistry class with an experiment that is both entertaining and educational. Through the activity, blossoming chemists perform calculations on various isotopes, as represented by beans and legumes, to obtain...
Curated OER
What If: The Seed Of A Story
Students read and comprehend a piece of fictional writing, analyze how setting, characterization, and plot affect the theme of a story and work in a group to create a new writing assignment. This 5-day plan culminates in students writing...
Curated OER
Against the Odds
What factors help people achieve goals? What factors prevent people from achieving goals? What are the elements that need to be in place to make a team function well? Using Damien Lewis’ Desert Claw and John Francome’s Winner Takes All,...
Curated OER
The Memory Invention
Young writers edit their writing to make sure it shows good meaning and clarity. In this writing lesson plan, students are given a variety of "What If?" scenarios to choose from as writing prompts. A class discussion ensues, which...
Curated OER
The Prince and the Pauper
Mark Twain, the famous American author, is often studied in the school system. Use "The Prince and the Pauper" to analyze the differences between the text and its video version. This lesson plan includes several culminating project...
New Hampshire Bureau of Adult Education
Dystopian Literature: from Fiction to Fact
Imagine an entire course devoted to dystopian literature. If that concept appeals to you, check out this course that uses 1984 as the anchor text and includes classic short stories as well.
NASA
Science Fiction Story
A lesson allows you to go back in time and see the big bang actually happen. Bazinga! In reality, pupils research the Big Bang Theory and theorize what it would be like to go back in time and see it happen. There are four...
Curated OER
Brown Bagging with Short Stories
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,...
Scholastic
A Reading Guide to A Wrinkle in Time
Accompany a reading of Madeleine L'Engle's classic tale, A Wrinkle in Time, with a detailed guide equipped with 15 informative and useful chapters. Scholars discover who the author is, why she wrote the book, and crucial story elements...
Curated OER
Come On, Rain!
Students read and analyze the story. In this language arts lesson, students read Come on, Rain! and examine how mood and tone are created, the use of figurative language and the characteristics of the genre. Students research the...
Curated OER
Assignment #5 Sci-Fi Analysis
Class members select a science fiction novel for independent study. To verify they have completed the reading, they write a summary, a critique, and an outline of the plot for a sequel or prequel. They then deliver a five-minute...
Curated OER
Story Mapping Abel's Island
Students are able to prioritize story elements using graphic organizers. They are able to evaluate character, setting and sequence in a non-print source. Students use visual and audio clues to help them evaluate the parts of a story.
Curated OER
Comprehension Skills: Picture, Question and Summarize Using Fiction Stories
Students build a variety of comprehension skills through the nine lessons of this unit. Picturing events, monitoring understanding during reading, forming questions, and summarizing stories form the core of the lessons being taught...
Curated OER
Parts of Speech: Active Verbs
Learners use White Fang to help them study active verbs. In this grammar lesson plan, students define active verbs and find examples in the the novel White Fang. Learners then use ProQuest to research a place they'd like to visit....
Curated OER
Unwind: Vocabulary Strategy, Creating an Unwind Glossary
Prior to reading Unwind, Neal Shusterman's 2007 young adult science fiction novel, class members research the common definition of words drawn from the novel that will come to have a very different meaning to them as they are...
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
Understanding the Food Web
Building on prior knowledge of the pervious lesson in the series, pupils explain the previous lesson to each other. Then they write a simple guide for a young child to read on the same topic.
Curated OER
Narrative Writing Outline
Students explore the elements of a narrative for its purpose, type of audience, mood, main character, minor characters, setting, and conflicts in the story. A story outline is developed and a five paragraph essay composed in this lesson.
Curated OER
D¿rer Watercolor - Patterns and Texture
Students create watercolor paintings using their knowledge of elements of design, value, and texture, discuss concept of art reflecting time and place, review art-related vocabulary, and reflect on their work.
Curated OER
Life Size Characters
Sixth graders analyze character traits and create a life size character outline. In this character analysis lesson, 6th graders analyze character traits of a character using character webs and poems. Students then create a life size...
Curated OER
Things Aren't Always What They Seem
Students use video and the Internet to make predictions, draw conclusions, determine conflict and point of view while reading a short story. In this short story analysis instructional activity, students watch a related video and complete...