Love To Know Media
Your Dictionary: Lesson Plans on Writing Short Stories
This lesson plan focuses on teacher preparation of lesson plans before attempting to teach students to write short stories. It includes questions to ask yourself, ideas for activities, and a sample lesson plan.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Empowered Fiction Writers: Generating and Organizing Ideas
Do your students' minds go blank when they confront a blank piece of paper? Speedwriting can help them get started with writing as well as come up with topics to write about. They can then incorporate their key ideas and phrases into a...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Rolling With the Animals
After reading Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, the writer will plan an original story where an animal (other than a duck) finds itself in a human mode of transportation (other than a bike). Three other animals will react to the unusual...
Capital Community College Foundation
Guide to Grammar and Writing: The Narrative Essay
Need help picking out the elements of a narrative? Check this site out from Capital Community College, and you'll see some background information, a sample essay, and directed questions to ask yourself about a text. W.9-10.3 Narrative,...
Caro Clarke
Describing Your Characters Through Their Actions
This is the tenth in a series of articles designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on how to develop characters through their actions instead of simply relying on dialogue and description of thoughts. W.11-12.3d...
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: What Is Conflict?
This is the sixth in a series of articles designed to help the new writer with their novel. This article focuses on conflict and how it effects the characters and the plot of the story. W.11-12.3a Narratives
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Reader Response in Hypertext: Making Personal Connections
Students write a narrative of place, a character sketch, an extended metaphor poem and a persuasive essay then link all four texts to quotations they have selected from a novel.
Utah Education Network
Uen: Cinderella Stories From Around the World
For this lesson plan, 5th graders will compare and contrast different versions of the fairy tale "Cinderella." Students will use a compare and contrast chart chart. After the shared readings, students will use all the elements of a fairy...
TES Global
Blendspace: What Makes Stories Scary?
A learning module that includes fourteen links to websites, videos, and activities on writing scary stories. Lessons focus on vocabulary, plot and character development, elements of gothic stories, tone and mood, suspense, and more.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Writer's Model: Personal Reflection Essay
This four-page essay provides an example of a personal reflection essay. Clicking on the "Writer's Guide" link in the upper right-hand corner of the page enables the user to get tips, directions, and explanations on the essay. W.11-12.3b...
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: Pacing Anxiety, or How to Stop Padding and Plot!
This is the seventh installment of a series giving advice to the author who is new to writing novels. This article focuses on how to take your characters and use them and their conflicts to develop the plot of your story. W.9-10.3b...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Planning Story Characters Using Interactive Trading Cards
Young scholars use trading cards to examine fictional characters in a story.
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: My Sound Is the Best! [Pdf]
In this lesson, students will use music as an impetus for stating and supporting opinions. They will compose an opinion poster based on a narrative about a train using percussion instruments. This will involve group work which can lead...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 3: Louisiana Purchase
Third graders learn about the Louisiana Purchase and the characteristics of pioneers during this time period. While exploring literary and informational texts, including quotes from primary source documents, 3rd graders discuss elements...
US National Archives
Docsteach: Oh Freedom! Sought Under the Fugitive Slave Act
This activity includes primary sources from the official records of the U.S. District Court at Boston that tell the story of William and Ellen Craft, a young couple from Macon, GA, who escaped to freedom in Boston in 1848. Students will...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Larger Than Life
Students will write a tall tale narrative including larger than life characters with unusual skills or abilities using exaggeration, humor, surprise endings, and story elements (setting, characters, conflict, resolution).
Digital History
Digital History: American Ethnic Literature
Educated white men weren't the only ones contributing to a truly American literature. Read about the literature written by Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Irish Americans. All added to the melting pot of...