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Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing Fact and Fiction

For Students 3rd - 9th Standards
"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," from The Jungle Book, offers young readers a chance to examine how Rudyard Kipling uses setting and personification to bring to life the brave mongoose who battles cobras to protect his family. Class members...
Lesson Plan
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Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find": Who's the Real Misfit?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students read and analyze the short story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," by Flannery O'Connor. They write a one-page response, explore various websites, take an online interactive journey, and write a final assessment paper.
Lesson Plan
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Truman Capote: Other Voices, Other Rooms

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students read and analyze Truman Capote's autobiographical short story, "A Christmas Memory." They discuss writing styles, conduct Internet research on Truman Capote, write a book review, and write a short story based on one of Truman...
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Creative Writing Lesson Plan: Combination Creature

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Learners navigate through an online interactive virtual zoo to create imaginary animals by combining different parts of real animals. They write a short story about their combination creature.
Lesson Plan
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Human Evolution

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners recognize that achievements of human beings throughout human history can be considered part of the ongoing story of human evolution. They research settings such as the biosphere and Mars and write imaginative short stories using...
Lesson Plan
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For Richer or for Poorer

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students read about one cross-class marriage and create scenes to dramatize interactions among the family members and consider how class shapes relationships. They imagine the issues faced by cross-class couples by writing a short story.
Lesson Plan
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Young Learner's Writing Workshop 2

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students choose a short story or book and a student takes on the role of one of the characters in the story. They complete an interview worksheet and then students question each other further about the character they are playing.
Lesson Plan
National First Ladies' Library

Writing (and Rewriting!) History

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers differentiate between fiction and non-fiction, discuss historical fiction, which combines both genres, choose historical novel from list and read independently, and write original short stories that combine elements of...
Lesson Plan
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Map of Ship Trap Island

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students read the short story "The Most Dangerous Game," and create maps of Ship Trap Island and justify why items are placed on their map in certain locations.
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Mythical Beasts

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Learners explore literature and art forms containing creatures that are part human and part animal, such as the Greek Sphinx, Neptune, or the Green Centaur. Individually, students write a poem or short story to create a character with...
Lesson Plan
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Decisions: Action or Apathy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the issues of action versus apathy as related to life pressures, values, consequences and career decisions. They read poetry, short stories and plays and respond to issues personally, critically and creatively.
Lesson Plan
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Diego Rivera: Art as the Universal Language

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students analyze the work of Diego Rivera. They participate in a class discussion, critique various paintings, write a short story based on a Rivera mural, and create a class mural.
Lesson Plan
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Unit Plan for Mark Twain and American Humor

For Teachers 10th - 11th
Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. For this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...
Unit Plan
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Exploring the Dark Heart of an Obsessive Mind

For Teachers 8th
Students complete a unit of activities for "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe in part to analyze short stories, playwriting, and video production. In this Edgar Allan Poe lesson, students complete a 37 page packet of...
Lesson Plan
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Haunting Music

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Young scholars discover music that was inspired by the spooky and bizarre. In this music of Hector Berlioz and Camille Saint-Saens lesson, students identify elements of music and listen to the Symphonie Fantastique and Danse...
Lesson Plan
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Through the Looking Glass: Eudora Welty's Photography and The Ponder Heart

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars study the context of The Ponder Heart through Welty's photographs. They analyze how illustrations and photographs interact with written text and create their own images to illustrate a well-known Welty short story....
Lesson Plan
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The Missing Word

For Teachers K - 2nd
Young scholars, after reading a short story, predict possible missing words by utilizing context clues and graphophonic clues. A picture book with several words covered up sets the scene for this lesson. They share their predictions in...
Lesson Plan
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Translation Lesson to help Students Improve Vocabulary and Writing Style

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students translate an entire Internet page from English into a target language. In small groups, they create a short story or document in their native tongue or find an Internet page in their own tongue that they translate into English.
Lesson Plan
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The Science of Aging

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. They write a short story that reflects their own philosophical beliefs on aging and...
Lesson Plan
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Was the Wolf Really Guilty?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students read plays, short stories, or novels which revolve around trials, and write essays explaining or defending the assigned role in a mock fairy tale trial.
Lesson Plan
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Regions Change

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine how geography can have an impact on change in a region. They discuss what their local area might be like in 50 years, and in pairs, select a situation and write a short story to describe how it changed from one thing to...
Lesson Plan
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A Way with Words or Say What?

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Learners examine Shakespearean language. In this word study lesson, students investigate the meaning of words that Shakespeare invented. Learners draw and pantomime with the words prior to writing short stories that feature Shakespeare's...
Lesson Plan
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The Art of Adaptation

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine and discuss animal adaptation. They read an article about snakes, conduct research on ways animals adapt, develop a diagram, and write a short story written from the perspective of the animal they researched.
Lesson Plan
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Literature: Isabel Allende

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students watch and respond to a Bill Moyers Now video on the Chilean author, Isabel Allende. They brainstorm a list of recent events that might inspire writers and choose one to write about in poetic, diary, or short story form.

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