Students distinguish the elements of fiction in a short story. In this fiction elements lesson, students complete nine lessons of activities to learn about the elements of fiction in short stories.

Model for young learners how to determine the theme of a story. Read aloud Aesop’s The Fox and the Stork. Chart the plot and the main idea of the fable, showing class members how these elements support the theme. Fable titles for...

Students read both fiction and nonfiction books with desert themes. Then they write desert stories and reports, reviewing texts for information to include in writing. Students also design desert scenes with details and setting elements...

Pupils define 3 vocabulary words, define 1 literary term, and respond to 10 short-answer questions pertaining to chapter 9 of A Separate Peace by John Knowles. These activities are designed to help them better understand the novel and...

Put the better archer in a box. The performance task has pupils compare the performance of two archers using box-and-whisker plots. The resource includes sample responses that are useful in comparing individuals' work to others.

Catalyze your classroom's creativity with this PowerPoint. It provides young writers with a general idea of a story about a missing princess, different characters, and step-by-step writing instructions from beginning to end. There are...

Your class will create a four section flip book and write titles for characters, setting, problem, and solution. They will also draw a picture to show what they wrote about.

Dive into animation creation using Dreamworks® animated films. Compare and contrast characters, wonder and ponder why the plot is so important, and think of background and themes as your creativity unrolls onto paper.

Teach learners how to interact with both fiction and non-fiction text with a packet of activities and worksheets. After looking over text structure and the difference in text features between different types of writing,...

How does your data stack up? A hands-on activity asks pupils to collect a set of data by measuring their right-hand reach. Your classes then analyze their data using a free online software program and make conclusions as to the...

It is positive that how one performs on the first test relates to their performance on the second test. The three-question assessment has class members read and analyze a scatter plot of test scores. They must determine whether...

Can colors help to convey a mood in writing? Explore this question with your class using the songs "Grey Street" by the Dave Matthews Band and "Blu is a Mood" by Blu Cantrell. After analyzing the effect of the color words in these songs...

After reading and describing the characters, setting, and plot in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, class members write original Island Adventure narrative pieces including detailed descriptions of people, places, and things. Afterward,...

"How does our environment shape our identity?" After researching biographical information about John Knowles and considering how these experiences are reflected in A Separate Peace, class members consider the strengths and weaknesses of...

The danger of mob mentality is on display in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Get your class thinking with some challenging quickwrite questions, then assign characters from the play to be read aloud altogether. Links to worksheets...

There are many ways to correlate coffee to life, but in this case a worksheet looks at the price of two different sizes of coffee. It requires interpreting a graph with two unknown variables, in this case the price, and solving for...

Collective story writing is a great way to reinforce the concept of story elements and collaborative learning. Young writers discuss story elements such as, setting, character, action, climax, conclusion, foreshadowing, dialogue, and...

A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...

Everyone has a story; help your writers develop their own with this prewriting packet. Designed for upstanders to share their story and encourage others to be upstanders, this set of questions helps writers craft and structure a story to...

Students complete a unit of activities for "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe in part to analyze short stories, playwriting, and video production. In this Edgar Allan Poe lesson, students complete a 37 page packet of...

Third graders are introduced to character, plot development, point of view, and tone through the use of comic strips. They, in pairs, identify these four attributes in the comic strip and present their findings to the class.

Ninth graders review the parts of a plot sequence for a short story. They think of a famous Disney movie and plot the events of the movie in the correct plot sequence. They do the same for a comic strip, labeling the exposition, rising...

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

Students define fictional story elements. For 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...