Film English
The Man Who Planted Trees
Grow an understanding of short story with a well-sequenced plan built around an Academy Award-winning short film. Class members explore the elements of an effective short story, and practice writing their own. They also watch the short...
Curated OER
Understanding Short Stories and Their Elements
Students identify short story elements. In this story elements lesson, students review vocabulary about the elements of a story and then practice finding the elements in the short story links.
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The Too Small House: Story and Craft Activity
Engage students in setting and character with this story and craft activity set. To begin the activity, learners read the short story "The Too Small House." They then cut out and color a picture of the house and paper figures of the...
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Greek Story Vases
There are so many ways to tell a story! Develop visual storytelling skills while facilitating an understanding of Greek art and culture. Learners design Greek style images to tell a story through art. They add their designs to Styrofoam...
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Comparing Characters Across Two Short Stories
Ninth graders listen to a read aloud of two short stories focusing on literary devices. The write about the settings and realism of the stories, and decide each main character handles the conflict he faces with nature.
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Pumpkin and Ghost Garland
Reading scary stories on Halloween is frightfully good fun! As elementary learners read several stories for the holiday, they choose a favorite and create a decorative garland representing the characters and setting elements found...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Making Dances From Stories
After reading a short story, learners will create dances that show homophones and verbs. Their dance sequences involve three verbs and transition movements in between each verb. Tip: Have the class dance out the sequence of events from...
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Story Retelling
Students explore storytelling by participating in an image analysis activity. In this story structure instructional activity, students read the book Cookie's Week by Tomie dePaola and retell the story to their teacher in sequential...
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Elements of a Short Story
Students read a short story and then map out the elements of a short story using "Inspiration" software. They read 'Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allen Poe.
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Illustrating and Writing a Short Story
Middle schoolers use their art materials to go outside and draw a picture of a scene. They can also write down specific notes in a small spiral notebook about the scene they want to remember so they can write their stories. They complete...
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Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" in Graphical Representation
Young scholars analyze graphical forms of Eudora Welty and interpret the shorts stories in the representations. In this graphical representations instructional activity, students analyze the short story genre in comic strips. Young...
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Details, Details: How Choices Reveal Character, Setting, Tone, and Theme. (Analyzing and Interpreting, Making Inferences)
Students respond to works of art. In this art interpretation lesson, students examine images of art while using concepts they learned as they read literary pieces. They detail the setting, characters, and the mood and theme of the works...
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Short Stories and Sitcoms
Students compare 19th Century short stories to 20th Century sitcoms. They address seven questions as the watch a sitcom for homework and create a web to use for further comparison.
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Short Story's
Students create a storybook from a list of short stories. In this creative lesson students break down scenarios into a sequence for their storyboard.
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Palace Adventure
Young language arts learners write and illustrate a short fantasy story based on the book Corduroy. First, learners need to develop a character. Then, through their writing and illustrations, they take their characters on adventures...
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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 lesson.
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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.
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Guest Readers
Young readers explore reading comprehension by creating a class presentation. For this storytelling lesson, puils read an assigned text in class and analyze the characters, settings and story. They create an illustrated presentation in...
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The Magic in Writing
Students watch a portion of a familiar film and write responses to a series of questions. They apply their observations to short stories.
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Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: Mixing Words and Pictures
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...
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Adding Sound to a Story
Students read a short story about the rain forest. They listen to a recording of rain forest sounds and break into several smaller groups to create a soundtrack to the rainforest story.
Art Institute of Chicago
Lesson Plan: A Writer’s Odyssey
Looking for a fresh approach to an end-of-unit project for The Odyssey? Check out a resource that has class members write their own hero's journey short story and then craft an illustration that depicts their tale. Apollonio di...
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Literature and Art Through Our Eyes: African-American Artists
Examine the contributions of African-Americans in the worlds of art and literature. Over the course of a few days, young scholars will read and analyze a poem, a short story, and a piece of art. They complete a range of...
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Picture Prompt: Skunk And Bunny
In this picture prompt worksheet, students practice writing their own short story from being given a picture prompt of a skunk and a bunny. Students choose a few of their words from a word bank generated by the teacher.