Trace a survivor's story using a timeline, map skills, poetry and/or prose and photography, and make a visual representation of a survivor's journey through his or her life as a culminating activity for the class and the survivor....

Students read "The Magic School Bus in the Human Body" and discuss the importance of maintaining a healthy body. They create a hinge and joint paper skeleton, follow the journey of a hamburger through the digestive tract, jump rope and...

If you are looking for a great way to present natural selection in humans, look no further. This handout is intended to accompany the 14-minute video The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans, which can be found on the...

November is National Novel Writing Month, so if your young authors are embarking on this journey, be sure they understand plot elements. This collaborative lesson plan fits into the context of the larger NaNoWriMo project; however, the...

Scholars get to know famous Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh, as an artist as well as a person. After reading personal letters and analyzing paintings, participants paint two self-portraits that represent their personality. Then, write a...

Eyes on the finish line. Serving as the first part of the end of unit assessment, learners answer questions based on a text about how to write a graphic novel. Using what they've learned, they then create a storyboard about the invention...

Discuss the concept of main idea in a story or other reading material. Middle schoolers identify the main idea in a passage using a technique that eliminates unnecessary words not relevant to the main idea.

Students explore individual differences. For this literacy and self-esteem lesson, students listen to the story Elmo by David McKee, then describe what characteristics make Elmo special. Students complete a T chart showing how Elmo...

Students recognize Theme through the use of simple, short stories. Using Pro Quest, students begin by researching the literary element, theme, and how it can be identified. They then identify the themes in Aesop's Fables and...

Students read two stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne and write an essay comparing plots and themes. In this Nathaniel Hawthorne short stories instructional activity, students read "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister's Black Veil." After...

Students read short stories and write a response to the story about the character and their significance. In this character lesson plan, students also create a poster to represent their character.

Students read the book Because of Winn Dixie and then create a personal decalogue, which is a list of 10 personal beliefs. In this decalogue lesson plan, students then write a decalogue of a fictional character and write a story based on...

Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...

Read and discuss "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and the gender issues that the story brings up. Use articles from the time period to analyze, complete with specific discussion questions. After two days, scholars write an essay based on topics...

Feeling high is not the only side effect of abusing prescription opioids. Middle and high schoolers learn more about specific painkillers, including Fentanyl, Oxycodone, and Clonazepam, as well as their common brand names and extensive...

After analyzing newspaper articles portraying different perspectives of the explosion of the Battleship USS Maine, your young historians will take a stand on which position is the most believable in both discussion and writing.

Analyze magazines as a class, looking carefully for the target audience, advertisements, and topics presented. Small groups then work as a publication team and receive a magazine that they have to "sell." Each individual has a different...

Phonetic masters identify and recognize short vowel sounds by reading and listening to a story that highlights select words. They use picture clues to aid comprehension and construct a story by actively choosing and identifying...

Second graders re-write a story. In this alternate endings lesson plan, 2nd graders read Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse, by Leo Lionni, stopping to discuss the events and predict what will happen next. Students work in groups to come up...

Fifth graders use context clues to help them understand unknown words. In this context clues instructional activity, 5th graders practice identifying context clues on a worksheet, then work with a peer to write their own story. Stories...

Students identify key story elements in a fiction text. In this literacy lesson, students are introduced to the various elements of fiction such as the setting, plot, and theme. Students read a short story of their choice and identify...

Pupils create a dodecahedron shaped visual report of the literary elements of a short story.

Twelfth graders examine the elements of literature. They each read a chapter of a novel, sequentially list the main ideas, present a summary of the chapter to the class, sequence the events, and review the novel by summarizing the timeline.

Young scholars answer reading comprehension questions using the "story grammar" technique. They listen to a story and then answer questions using the technique: main character, setting, main events, and resolution. Students complete an...