What skills do storytellers employ to bring to life the characters and events in their tales? After listening to a recording of a Haitian folk tale, class members consider how tone of voice, pace, and gestures can be used to enliven a...

In this wonderful cross-curricular lesson, your youngsters will learn about Pueblo Indian storyteller dolls by creating their own! They discuss the tradition of story telling, especially in reference to Native Americans. Consider ending...

Shadow puppetry has an ancient past, it is also a great way to build oral expression and reading fluency. Young thespians research folk tales, compare and contrast reality and fantasy, then create and perform a shadow puppet play based...

Second graders practice their reading comprehension by analyzing stories they read in class. In this children's literature lesson, 2nd graders are assigned to read a book for 20 minutes each day in class and also reflect on it in their...

Students investigate birthdays.  In this literacy cross curriculum lesson, students listen to the book Arthur's Birthday by Marc Brown.  Students re-read the book orally, graph birthdays, design a word search, and create...

First graders demonstrate their ability to read with fluency, accuracy, and comprehension through phonemic awareness. They use a color-coding system to master the long and short vowel sounds and develop their skills in listening and...

Students listen to a story and orally explain the conclusion of the story, list three ways that the tigers in the story relate to themselves and clarify why they would rather someone read to them or read the material themselves.

Fourth graders read passages of Koya's Cousin Del before answering questions in a discussion setting. They listen to a variety of musical pieces before detailing how the music makes them feel in a short piece of writing. They share their...

In this ESL/ELL reading and speaking worksheet, students read or listen to an article entitled, "Paul McCartney's Space Station Concert." They complete a variety of comprehension activities including true/false, listing life songs,...

Fourth graders read the book, Phoebe The Spy, by Judith Berry Griffin. They complete comprehension activities, make predictions about what happen next, and create a PowerPoint book report for the story.

Students research human health by reading an educational story in class. In this oral health instructional activity, students identify the importance of brushing their teeth and consuming calcium. Students read the book A Teeth...

Seventh graders listen to a set of instructions and complete a drawing. In this listening skills lesson plan, 7th graders listen to a set of oral directions and follow a command. Students then listen to a second set of directions to draw...

Learners investigate animals that hatch from eggs. In this hatching animals lesson plan, young scholars investigate which animals are born alive and which hatch from eggs. Learners read It Started As An Egg and practice reading...

Use Aaron Copland's symphonic piece, "Lincoln Portrait" to engage learners in a cross-curricular experience. They'll listen to the piece, watch a video, read the Gettysburg Address, and write a series of fact or opinion sentences. An...

Students discuss "The Little Hungry Caterpillar." In this reading comprehension lesson, students make sock caterpillars used in retelling the story so as sequence the events accurately.

Students develop oral fluency through reading and singing. They sing "This Land is Your Land" and discuss what the pictures and words mean in the song. They connect the song and poem and previous learning and write a journal.

Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....

Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...

"Ode to la Tortilla" and "Ode to Joy"? Sure! Use Gary Soto's poem to introduce learners to the ode format. After examining the descriptive words Soto uses, class members study a poster of Ludwig van Beethoven, suggest words that describe...

Momoyama and Edo are periods in Japanese history that can be defined culturally and artistically. Learners explore and discuss how the samurai used sword guards and grip enhancers. Pupils read the story "The Inch-High Samurai," examine...

Critical thinkers compare the impact of visual versus aural perception in how they comprehend artistic intent. They consider the meaning of a set of pop lyrics first by reading them, then by listening to them orally, and finally viewing...

Stella Louella’s Runaway Book launches a study of point of view and storytelling. After reading the tale, class members retell the story from the point of view of another character. The scripted plan, developed by a teacher candidate,...

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...

Young scholars research the life of Friedrich Durrenmatt, a German playwright. They listen to a reading of his play "Die Physiker", define key vocabulary from the play and participate in a class discussion about important sections of the...