Washoe County School District
Three Skeleton Key
Conduct a close reading of George G. Toudouze's well-known horror story "Three Skeleton Key." This plan breaks up the reading into several steps and provides text-dependent questions to ask along the way. Learners will have the chance to...
Concord Consortium
Detective Stories
The truth will always come out. A short performance task has learners considering a witness statement given to a detective. They apply special line segments in triangles and Ceva's Theorem to prove that the witness is actually lying.
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 3
Just like in real life, characters in short stories show their true personalities through their words and deeds. Decipher the character development in Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a set of activities...
Health Smart Virginia
How the Namuhs Learned to be Content with Who They Are
The Namuhs have a lot to teach humans how idealized images presented in advertising can impact self-perception and self-worth. After brainstorming 10 traits the media sets as the perfect body, class members read a short story about the...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 4
Connect with the text using helpful annotation strategies. As your class reads the first section of Karen Russell's short story, "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," they note important passages that establish character...
Curated OER
Write a Story 2
In this creative writing activity, students use the picture to generate ideas for a story. Students also incorporate the elements about the plot and setting for their story.
David Suits
“Wild Readers” Decoding Skills Lesson Plan
Set young readers on the path toward fluency with this phonemic awareness resource. Based on the award-winning children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, this lesson allows beginning readers to practice isolating...
Curated OER
Telling A Story
Students discover that every story has a start, middle and end. In this literature instructional activity, the teacher models using a picture to show the parts of the story. Students each take a picture and tell a story using start,...
Ed Change
Exchanging Stories: Names
Students write short stories about their names and share them in small groups to help build community in the classroom.
Curated OER
Narrative Writing Outline
Students explore the elements of a narrative for its purpose, type of audience, mood, main character, minor characters, setting, and conflicts in the story. A story outline is developed and a five paragraph essay composed in this...
Curated OER
"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant
After reading the short story "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant, give your readers this two-page packet to assess their reading comprehension. These are not your typical recall questions-instead, readers focus on the climax, types of...
American Chemical Society
The Periodic Table and Energy-Level Models
Teach your class to think of electrons as tiny packets of energy that travel in waves. Through a short video and diagram, participants see how electrons are located around the nucleus of an atom. They then get into groups and try to...
Curated OER
Short Vowels With Clifford
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...
Curated OER
Improvisational Setting - "Where are You?"
Second graders explore setting through improvisations. In this theatre lesson, 2nd graders perform a variety of improvisations in different settings and chart how they established the setting in the different environments.
Curated OER
Changing the End of a Story
Second graders re-write a story. In this alternate endings lesson, 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 with...
Curated OER
Story Map Situations
Third graders explore a variety of ways to represent text. They represent text in story maps while on the playground. Students depict the elements of a story on a story map. They create a poster for character, setting, problem, and the...
Curated OER
Getting Ready to Become an Adult - Part One
Students read the book Ta-Na-e-ka and identify the elements of plot in the story. In this plot lesson plan, students also create a journal response to the story.
Curated OER
Story Writing
Young scholars work in groups to create a story that will be presented to the class. In this story writing activity, students complete a project planning sheet, work together to create a story that includes a hero and at least two...
Curated OER
Tales of Edgar Allen Poe
Analyze the writing of Edgar Allen Poe by reading and then writing in a similar style. Budding authors learn about the life of Poe and read one or more of his famous works online. Partner groups create an original piece of writing using...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 2: Good Novel, Bad Novel
What are the characteristics of a good piece of writing? What makes a story interesting? Give your pupils a chance to define the qualities of good novels and what they see as the qualities of bad novels. Class members record these...
Curated OER
The Meanest English Teacher Ever
Upper graders will use a reading comprehension worksheet about the meanest teacher to practice comprehension. They will read a 5 page story titled The Meanest English Teacher Ever and answer 4 comprehension questions about it.
Scholastic
Pre-Reading Vocabulary Activities Using "The Gift of the Magi"
The rich language of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" is only appreciable if you understand the words. A short instructional activity reviews 13 words from the story and prompts class members to apply each word and its definition to...
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Clique
Mean girls and bully packs are favorite topic for films and TV shows that focus on the destructive power of cliques. High school freshmen are asked to reflect on both the positive and negative aspects of cliques by reading a short...
Have Fun Teaching
When Am I? (16)
How can you tell when a story takes place? Use context clues to infer the time of day and seasons of five short reading passages. Kids then note each passage's time period as daytime or nighttime, as well as winter or summer.