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Short Story Group PowerPoint Project
Students choose a short story from the class literature book. They find information about the author. They read the short story from the literature textbook. They create a PowerPoint to retell the short story.
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Scrambled Stories
Character development, setting, and plot? Sounds like the makings of a good narrative story. Young authors read and analyze several narrative examples, and then they use what they know to pen an original composition. They work both in...
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Elements of Short Stories Vocabulary
In this literature instructional activity, students match the correct word from the first column to the best definition found in the second column. There are twenty words and definitions to match.
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"User Friendly" Cause and Effect
Bring literature to life with your SMART board and this literary analysis lesson plan. While reading "User Friendly" by T. Ernesto Bethancourt (from the Holt Elements of Literature textbook by Kylene Beers), have your class discuss the...
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Perfecting My Pal's Poe Paragraph
After analyzing the compelling first paragraph of Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death," high schoolers draft original opening paragraphs using techniques identified Poe's writing. The relationship between suspense...
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Short Stories: The Puzzle Pieces of Life
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.
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Story Retelling
Students explore storytelling by participating in an image analysis activity. In this story structure lesson, students read the book Cookie's Week by Tomie dePaola and retell the story to their teacher in sequential order. Students...
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Guest Readers
Young readers explore reading comprehension by creating a class presentation. In this storytelling lesson, puils read an assigned text in class and analyze the characters, settings and story. They create an illustrated presentation in...
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The Gift of the Magi
Test the true meaning of giving - and irony - with this lesson about "The Gift of the Magi." Using textual analysis, details, and text organization, middle schoolers make predictions about future events in the story and determine the...
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Elements of a Short Story
Students read a short story, The Tell-Tale Heart and create a story map identifying the elements of a short story included in the selection. Students complete an Accelerated Reader test on the selection.
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Story Problems: Conflict
In this story questions worksheet, students respond to 3 short answer questions that require them to explain what was the problem is in a story, who fixed the problem in the story, and whether they liked the story.
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Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" in Graphical Representation
Students analyze graphical forms of Eudora Welty and interpret the shorts stories in the representations. In this graphical representations lesson, students analyze the short story genre in comic strips. Students then create their own...
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The News Behind the Story
What a fun way to analyze plot, setting, and character. Learners review story elements, read a short fictional story, then turn the events of that story into a headlining news paper article. Not only does this instructional activity...
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Plot Summary for Story Element
Seventh graders identify story elements utilizing a plot summary organizer. In this story elements lesson, 7th graders discuss the elements of a good story. Students use The Three Little Pigs to practice finding the plot elements....
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Plot Summary for Story Elements
Ninth graders identify story elements utilizing a plot summary organizer. In this plot summary lesson plan, 9th graders discuss the elements of a good story and listen to the story of the three little pigs. Students complete a group plot...
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Short Story Framework
The class gets creative after listening to a short story containing a definitive structure. They are required to think about character, relationship, and setting, while attempting to show rather than tell, in their writing. Dialogue,...
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Frame Story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
Mark Twain's frame story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" provides an opportunity for a study of this story-within-a-story pattern. Using an illustrated template, class members record a plot summary of the frame story...
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Comparing Characters Across Two Short Stories
Ninth graders listen to a read aloud of two short stories focusing on literary devices. The write about the settings and realism of the stories, and decide each main character handles the conflict he faces with nature.
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Ollie the Own Says: WHO
Scholars examine the strategy of making a story map or outline to identify the main elements of a story. They discuss the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a story, in an outline form. As a class they read a short story, answer the...
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The Metamorphosis and Other Stories by Franz Kafka
In this literature worksheet, learners respond to 20 short answer and essay questions about Kafka's The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Students may also link to an online interactive quiz on the stories at the bottom of the page.
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What Number?
This simple activity provides a quick review of reading comprehension and vocabulary development skills. By answering the 10 multiple choice questions, learners identify the key elements of the story, and the meaning of vocabulary words.
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Compare and Contrast: Literary Analysis
Great for a reading intervention or remedial Language Arts class, this instructional activity uses two stories from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III ("Terri Jackson" and "Mary Lou" to reinforce note-taking skills, story elements,...
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Spooky Analysis
Focus on building suspense as well as evaluating web sites through creative writing. After introducing the idea of suspense and holding a discussion, class members complete a WebQuest, during which they find inspiration for their own...
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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...