Education Oasis
Creative Writing Unit: Analyzing, Interpreting, Discussing and Writing Various Genres of African-American Literature
A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...
John F. Kennedy Center
Folktale Theatre
Introduce your middle schoolers to a performance and movement activity that uses their favorite stories from fairytales and folklore. They practice basic acting skills, create dialogues with a partner, and then as guided practice,...
Curated OER
Investigating Fables
Time for a story! Learners of all ages enjoy listening to stories, so read them some common fables and have them work cooperatively to create a fable. Differentiate for varying ability levels by providing sentence frames, graphic...
Curated OER
Rural Life During the Great Depression: A Year Down Yonder
“Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.” Mary Alice, the fifteen-year-old narrator of A Year Down Yonder, is forced to leave Chicago and spend a year with her Grandma Dowdel in a small rural...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Imaginary Creatures
Drama and movement are wonderful ways to cover story elements such as setting, character, and descriptive writing. Little ones listen to a poem about imaginary creatures. As they listen, they shape their bodies into what they think the...
Tellagami Labs
Tellagami
Bring the world of video messaging into your classroom with this creative communication application. Offering the ability to create animations with customized characters, backgrounds, and recorded messages, this resource is guaranteed to...
Curated OER
Old Lady That Swallowed a Fly
Youngsters listen to the story, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." After discussing the story, going over new vocabulary, and repeating the rhymes in the story, they study the parts of a fly. They finish by creating a fly on...
Curated OER
Puppet Show
Students create a puppet show for a play. They choose the puppet characters they wish to enact the play and develop scenarios.
BBC
Floppy and The Puppies - Characteristics
Here is a wonderful online language arts activity for your emerging readers. Learners play an interactive game where they look at two characters who are engaging with each other. They must choose the word from a word bank that best...
Curated OER
Fractured Fairy Tales
Through reading and writing, learners explore common elements found in fairy tales. After discussing traditional fairy tales, class members listen to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by John Scieszka, a hilarious retelling of the...
Curated OER
Moby Dick Puppetry
Such an ambitious lesson! Third graders with special needs listen to an audio recording of the novel, Moby Dick. They stop often to discuss each of the main characters and analyze their actions in the story. They then make puppets of one...
Curated OER
Aesop's Fables
Examine the fables of Aesop with your class. Pupils identify the morals of fables and role-play a scene from their favorite fable of Aesop. Additionally, they compose letters to a favorite character in the fable. Learners role-play again...
Curated OER
"Blackbeard's Ghost" Differentiated Lesson Plan
Develop a better understanding of "Blackbeard's Ghost" with this differentiated lesson. Working in groups on a creative project, middle schoolers can reinforce their reading comprehension and literary analysis skills. Use this...
Learn NC
A Christmas Carol Chronology
Which comes first? The Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, or Future? What clues can readers use to establish the chronology of A Christmas Carol? The tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Marley, and Tiny Tim provides the text for an activity that...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 5: Motivation - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides the lens class members use to analyze and evaluate the motivations of the characters in Sylvia Plath's "Initiation" and scenes from Mean Girls. Readers then select a character from A...
Curated OER
Narrative pantomime
Assign parts to read aloud Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag and have your young mimes act out their roles. This story focus on how beauty within is more important than outward appearance. Conclude by having your class provide an illustrated...
Curated OER
Vivid Verbs
Spice up your writing! Your amateur writers will benefit from concentrating on understanding and improving verb use in writing. An introductory activity addresses weak verbs. A second exercise helps them see the importance of strong...
Curated OER
Discovering Language Arts-Intermediate Fiction
Explore the elements of science fiction. Students investigate the literary elements present in science fiction and write their own science fiction stories.
Curated OER
Through the Eyes of the Big Bad Wolf
Imagine how the wolf would tell the tale of Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs. Young writers re-imagine classic tales by adopting the point of view of another character in the story. After reading models like The True Story...
Curated OER
Retelling the African Folktale Abiyoyo
Act out the African folktale Abiyoyo. Kindergartners listen to the tale and discuss the characters, dressing as their favorite characters in order to retell and perform Abiyoyo using props. They will gain an understanding of...
Curated OER
Pablita Indian Legends
Scholars are introduced to the characteristics of a legend. They read and discuss Old Father Story Teller by Pablita Velarde. Then, in groups, they write and illustrate a poem based on one of the legends from the book. This lesson plan...
Curated OER
Literature Study Guide: To Kill a Mockingbird
Teaching tools designed to support student-centered literature study. Geared toward homeschoolers reading Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird, I would use these in my classroom. The materials are applicable to any text: graphic...
Curated OER
Mythological Word Origins
Review myths and the characters therein, connecting them to vocabulary words in the English language today. Begin by searching online for myths and character names. With at least ten names that are familiar English words, young scholars...
Curated OER
Time/Elapsed Time
Young mathematicians complete various activities to demonstrate proficiency in telling time and identifying elapsed time. They analyze and discuss television schedules, create a booklet about their daily activities, produce a TV. guide,...