Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" provides middle schoolers with an opportunity to hone their close reading and literary analysis skills. After annotating their copy of the story, writer's craft an essay in which they analyze...

Young scholars will hear and read different versions of a familiar fairy tale and identify what elements a story must have (character, plot, setting) for the story to be interesting and make sense. Using a Venn diagram, students will...

This activity will help children build vocabulary, become familiar with essential parts of a story, and develop story sequencing skills. They can create silly stories by drawing story parts out of a bag.

This unit from the Yale University on elements of the short story is designed to develop student comprehension skills, particularly making inferences and generalizing. It also involves students in reading a number of short stories to...

[Free Registration/Login Required] This is a film guide for the film West Side Story (1961), the musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, which is set in 1950s New York and incorporates themes around street crime,...

A site covering the story of African Americans living in Delaware and on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Just click on one of the stories to learn about their triumphs and struggles. Includes a set of lesson plans.

Read about how "the Populists challenged white supremacy by forming coalitions between black and white farmers who shared a common cause." Part of a larger website called "Jim Crow Stories", this brief article paints the Populist Party...

This is the text of the short story "A Bivouac of the Dead" by Ambrose Bierce, a story with an ironic twist set in the Allegheny mountains, in Pocahontas county, West Virginia.

This site provides a long list of literary terms complete with full definitions and examples.

Explore the different types of rocks on our Earth as you watch a one-hour video, accompanied by learning goals, details on sedimentary rocks, fossils, and supercontinents, and more.

In this lesson plan, students will engage in the technology, social studies, and language arts standards as students engage in reading by Octavia Butler's book entitled Kindred. Students will research tslavery. Students will keep a...

Students will read three different Cinderella tales, including tales from Africa, China, and America. Upon completion of a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences of these tales, the students will complete and present...

This site is provided for by the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Over forty literary terms defined by college students, each with thorough examples.

After the war, many children who survived had no home or family to return to. Children's homes were set up to meet the needs of these children. View one of these homes in Otwock, Poland. Read stories and examine artifacts, pictures, and...

In this lesson, 1st graders will work with "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" Jon Scieszkaby. They will describe the characters, setting, and key details in the story and help the teacher record the details on a circle map.

This primary source set uses physical objects, documents, photographs, and drawings to tell the story of the invention of the telephone and its transformative impact on modern-day communication. Includes a teaching guide.

A story that examines African American community in a rural setting. Zora Neale Hurston's (1891-1960) brief tale "Spunk" is provided within this resources and documents the expressions of southern black "folk."

Read the short story "A Tough Tussle" by Ambrose Bierce set during the Civil War. A young officer struggles with his irrational fear of death and dead bodies.

This short story by Jack London departs from his usual setting in the Yukon and takes place in tropical Hawaii. A young man and older man are fishing and telling tales in "The Water Baby". Read the full text on this site.

Explore characterization, plot and setting and compare these elements in mythology and modern works of literature, film and television. Retell myths in modern settings or modern-day stories using a mythological Greek setting. While this...

Read the full text of the short story "With Moore at Corunna" set in Portugal during the Peninsular War.

Text of a short story set in West Africa called "King Bemba's Point" and written by J. Landers. (Free site registration offers some additional features, e.g., the ability to insert annotations.)

When teaching a unit on the Holocaust, the use of eye-witness testimony is crucial. These documents allow students to personalize the stories of those that suffered and enhances the learning process. This article walks you through...

This collection of activities gives young scholars a chance to discover and compare fairy tales from around the world. It provides a wealth of links to resources, printable diagrams, discussion questions and the like.