Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...

A slide show with twenty-eight slides with information on how to determine an author's purpose to entertain, to inform, or to persuade his/her audience.

This page explains point of view by discussing examples of situations where mutiple people witness an event, but have different perspectives on what occured. It offers a link at the bottom of the page to information about types of point...

Answer multiple-choice questions about the author's point of view and identifying the author's purpose within a short text in this ten question pretest.

This tutorial explains point of view in informational texts. Students will learn how to analyze multiple accounts of the same topic or event and identify similarities and differences in different points of view.

Read each selection and determine the author's purpose or point of view in this ten-question quiz.

Several worksheets and assessments are provided on this module. Students will have numerous exposures to the topic of "author's purpose" in each practice exercise and assessment.

This is the thirteenth article in a series that was developed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on how good descriptions aren't necessarily connected with a lot of words, good descriptions are clean and to the point.

This expansive self-guided unit hits on many objectives such as analyzing literature for author's purpose, figuring out the main idea/theme, understanding historical criticism, comparing and contrasting works from major historical...

Learn about figurative language and how to determine the figurative, denotative, and connotative meanings of words.

This is the eleventh article in a series that is designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on how to eliminate needless information in your novel. The key is to not explain too much about the action.

This is the eighth article in a series that focuses on helping the new novel author. This article looks at how the author can avoid creating stumbling blocks that disrupt the flow of the novel.

Interesting interviews with Rodriguez and others, produced by PBS. There are extensive links from this page to a whole group of resources around the border theme.

Liesel Meminger is only nine years old when she is taken to live with a foster family, the Hubermanns, on Himmel Street in Molching, Germany, in the late 1930s. She arrives with few possessions, but among them is The Grave Digger's...

A learning module that begins with "The Plymouth Thanksgiving Story" by Chuck Larsen, accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through...