Need a creative idea for an elementary book report? Use a cereal box project to engage your readers beyond plot, setting, and characters. The lesson includes templates for the project and examples from Charlie and the Chocolate...

Double the fun of studying Shakespeare with an interactive that introduces English learners to Macbeth. After watching a short, animated video that presents key elements of the plot, class members complete a worksheet identifying the...

Get the most out of your guided reading lessons with this collection of literacy materials. Offering a system for using color-coded tags to mark pages while reading books, as well as an assortment of comprehension and grammar...

Encourage scholars to share their love of reading with informative and engaging book reviews. Here, you'll find a series of guides that walk learners through the review writing process. Included in the collection is information about...

Fifth graders explore mystery stories.  For this reading and writing lesson, 5th graders complete a planning guide for an original mystery.  Students use the writing process to create a mystery story. 

Students look at a picture book and observe what the facial expressions show.  In this character's feelings lesson, students write what they think the character might be saying on each page and the punctuation they use. ...

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.

Students identify characters, their qualities, and examples of their qualities and use Inspiration to organize them in a clear and understandable format. After a lecture/demo, students use the program on the next story by themselves.

Students examine and create their own interpretation of a particular character from the play, King Lear. They read the speeches, write a paragraph about their character, and present a short performance of their scene.

Students analyze Act 4, scene 1 from the play, Merchant of Venice. They hypothesize the content of an unscripted moment and response, look for evidence in the text to support their hypothesis, rewrite the scene, and perform it for the...

Students create a quilt to represent an important event in their life. In this visual arts instructional activity, students research Faith Finggold and her quilts. Students use art supplies to create their own quilt and share the...

Students investigate themes and settings in their favorite fiction stories.  In this creative writing lesson, students discuss the reasons a fictional story works well and discuss ways to create their own.  Students create...

What do Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and The Odyssey have in common? Why, they are all epics, of course, and are presented here as examples of the literary term. If you are beginning a study of epics, consider previewing the terms included...

Students compare and contrast two different presentations of Holocaust experiences. They participate in class discussions and write journal entries to explore the differences between the book "Until We Meet Again" and the film "Devil's...

Here’s a cross-curricular program music activity that uses Peer Gynt to engage class members. Groups take one section of “In the Hall of the Mountain King,” choreograph their section of the tune to represent the story as they imagine it,...

From Mr. Merdle to Mr. Madoff? A viewing of the PBS adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” launches an examination of greedy characters in literature and a study of greed, unfairness, and economic hardship today. The richly...

 Young scholars describe the sensory experience of a character's journey in an essay.  In this precise details writing lesson, students explain the effects on the senses of weather, time of day, landscape, and other...

Students participate in cross-curricular activities and readings to become familiar with the works of Brian Jacques. In this heroes lesson, students discuss the character traits of legends and how their characters develop through events...

As the title suggests, this packet is loaded with activities that can be used at any time. The common element in all the exercises is that they are connected to books by Dr. Seuss.

Focus on vocabulary, comprehension, and analysis while reading A Weave of Woods, a colorful picture book by Robert D. San Souci. Young learners use worksheets to preview, predict, practice paraphrasing, and make comparisons. The...

Students identify the elements of plot and write a script with a strong plot.  In this plot instructional activity, students identify elements of plot in examples by completing a chart and a graphic organizer.  Students then...

Students look at the role of characters in a story. In this character lesson, students discuss how different types of characters change the plot of the story. They see how storytellers use their body, face, and voice to tell stories. 

High schoolers examine the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Cask of Amontillado." In this character lesson, students discuss and analyze the characters in the story. High schoolers make personal connections to the characters and create a...

Students interact, answer questions, and extend the story plot. They write a Haiku or basic poetry with their words, name characters, create a new ending for a story, and write a new story with one of the characters.