High schoolers evaluate several works by Edgar Allen Poe based on the criteria in his essay, "The Philosophy of Composotion" Their analysis is documented using a graphic organizer. Learners begin the pre-writing process for their own...

Collaborative writing projects can be a lot of fun for students. They use a Scholastic Story Starter and the class blog to write a creative story containing basic story elements. The web link to Scholastic is included but non of the...

What are the three types of irony? High schoolers engage in a lesson about the use of irony while reading O.Henry's short story "Gift of the Magi." They'll discuss rising action, climax, and resolution in the text before highlighting the...

As a culminating assignment for a unit study of heroes that uses The Hobbit as the core text, class members engage in a multi-genre writing project.

In this poetry worksheet, learners learn about narrative poetry. They then answer 7 questions about one of the poems they read, practice writing their own narrative poem, and complete a research project using the internet. The answers...

Students use writing logs to achieve clear and creative thinking about the story they are reading. They then describe changes in mood that happened in the story consider why such changes usually occur.

Summarizing text is a balancing act between being brief but thorough. You need to be short and to the point, but also cover all the important details, a task that presents a challenge for many young learners. In this lesson based on the...

Students discuss prior knowledge about monkeys with teacher and take a "Monkey Facts" quiz. In this language arts instructional activity, students make flash cards of vocabulary words and listen as teacher read Miko the Monkey. Students...

Eighth graders create an original scene or short one-act play within specified guidelines. Assessment is based upon the performance of student-created scenes during class time. Rubrics for assessment and connection to state standards...

In this literature worksheet, students respond to 20 short answer and essay questions about noteworthy myths. Students may also link to an online interactive quiz on the novel at the bottom of the page.

What is historical fiction? After explaining the difference to your learners, it's time to give each learner a try! With your support, encourage them to research, plan, and write their own historical fiction story. Don't forget to have a...

Students edit and improve their short stories by examining character description, dialogue, and plot elements. In peer editing groups they correct gramatical and spelling errors. they read aloud their new story drafts.

Learners read a short fiction book and demostrate comprehension by identifying the main characters, setting, conflict, theme, and summarizing the main points. They organize the information in Inspiration and create a powerpoint to show...

In this language arts worksheet, students use the explanation of conflict to answer the specific questions of examples of the element in the novel.

Explore how illustrations add to a story. Young learners will look at picture books to see how the pictures tell the story. They create illustrations to go with a chosen story, and then flip the activity so they have to write a story to...

Here is a short, but effective, four-slide presentation on the sequence of events in the story, Little Red Riding Hood. The elements of the story (setting, characters, plot, etc.) are present, then a slide which puts the story in order...

Delve into narrative writing that puts choice in the hands of the writers. Kids pick their own characters, emotions, items, and places from a list and tie them together in the exposition. Several questions help guide the writers toward...

What's theme, and can texts of every length have one? Explore the themes of fives short reading passages with your middle school class. Encourage them to highlight specific places in the text where they recognized the theme. 

Read about the darnedest can in two fables adapted from Aesop's Fables. Readers answer three reading comprehension questions that prompt them to compare and contrast animal characters in the two stories.

To better comprehend the novel, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, learners define 3 vocabulary words, define 1 literary term, and respond to 10 short-answer questions. This resource refers only to Chapter 13 of the book. 

Boost comprehension with an excellent reading guide for chapter 3 Of Mice and Men. Learners define four vocabulary words, note one allusion, define five literary terms, and respond to 31 short answer questions regarding the...

The author study gets an update in a research project designed for high schoolers. Scholars search for information about literary figures that connects them to their times, their works, their themes, and other writers. Researchers also...

Continue analyzing literature using textual evidence with a activity on "I Felt A Funeral, in my Brain" by Emily Dickinson. Ninth graders bring their annotation skills and knowledge of figurative language from the previous eight sessions...

Fourth graders look at the importance of setting in a story. In this setting lesson, 4th graders see how the setting of a story affects the actions of the characters and how you can predict these actions based on the setting. They read...