Curated OER
Essay Outline Template
The strength of this essay outline template is its specificity. By the time your young writers fill in the requested information, they are well on their way to compiling their multi-paragraph essay. Learners craft topic sentences,...
Curated OER
Story Pyramids
Young writers generate descriptive words. They use pictures of various landscapes (from books, magazines, or the Internet) and complete a story pyramid. The pyramid (included here) asks to describe the main character, the setting, and...
Curated OER
Frame Story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
Mark Twain's frame story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" provides an opportunity for a study of this story-within-a-story pattern. Using an illustrated template, class members record a plot summary of the frame story...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Dramatic Structure of the Short Story
The second lesson in a series of fourteen, this plan takes the short story basics a step further. Learners complete a quiz about the story from the previous day, discuss the text, learn about Anton Chekhov, and work in groups to begin...
Illustrative Mathematics
Grandfather Tang's Story
It's amazing the complex figures that can be made using only a few simple shapes. Following a class reading of the children's book Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert, young mathematicians use sets of tangrams to create models of the...
Curated OER
Outlines are Fun and Easy
Students goal is to achieve summarization. They read familiar words and decode words at their reading level. They summarize articles through the use of an outline in order ot improve reading comprehension. Students complete a basic...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Introduction to The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a great story to share with your class, and this lesson plan focuses on just that story! The eighth in a fourteen-lesson plan series on short stories, the plan has learners study some vocabulary, read...
Curated OER
Writing Template
Give your writers the chance to organize their thoughts before writing a story with this graphic organizer. Simple and easy to understand, the lines provided prompt elementary learners to write the main characters, main events, and...
School District of Palm Beach County
Framed Paragraphs characterization, problem and solution, symbolism, conflict
Support your learners as they work on writing paragraphs by providing graphic organizers, outlines, and frames. Sift through this packet to find the perfect organizers and templates to prepare pupils for writing. The resource...
Curated OER
Adding Sound to a Story
Middle schoolers 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.
Curated OER
Little Engine That Could Lesson
Students read The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper and create the trains featured in the story. In this reading comprehension lesson, students create cardboard trains resembling The Little Engine That Could, painting them...
American Museum of Natural History
Make Your Own Mythic Mask or Puppet
No need to wait until Halloween to create a mask. Young anthropologists get involved in the centuries-old tradition of mask and puppet making with the help of an engaging resource that shows them how to craft their own masks or puppets.
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Two Settings in One Text
Look for the signal words! Scholars get both instruction and practice comparing and contrasting. Although it is completely scripted, it can also serve as a detailed outline. Demonstrate this as you read a passage (included) and search...
Curated OER
Narrative Literature Response Letters: Original Lesson Plan
Readers write a formal letter to an author offering an alternative ending to a story the author has written. First, the class reads a story or novel. Upon finishing the reading, they are introduced to the format of a formal letter. They...
Curated OER
Poetry Coffeehouse
This resource contains a vague plan for a poetry unit conducted at an elementary school during the month of February. Although this plan does not included detailed instructional strategies, this does outline a basic unit, some creative...
Curated OER
Bollywood, Philadelphia
Students conceive a simple boy-meets-girl story. They write a screenplay, compose a storyboard, and produce the story with music and dancing in the style of a modern Indian operetta, using digital filming and editing. They screen the...
Curated OER
Narrative Literature Response Letters
Third graders write endings to a story that has already been written. They offer alternative endings in their version. The lesson includes a rubric that is to be given to the students in order that they know the requirements.
Curated OER
Family Tree
First graders read with teacher several books about families and their relationships such as ALL KINDS OF FAMILIES. They take a family tree template home to fill out with their families and design and draw their own family tree on paper...
Curated OER
Writing Your Heroic Quest
Students assess the patterns repeated throughout stories, focusing in on heroism. They recognize that each experience is a journey. They write and understand one's own story applying Joseph Campbell's heroic quest elements.
Curated OER
Poe ... in the Real World?
Eleventh graders work in groups to choose a project/presentation from a list of approved activities to develop. They select and use appropriate software for organizing and refining their product. Groups produce a short...
Curated OER
Gingerbread Baby Ornaments #4
Pupils are read the story "Gingerbread Baby". They use patterns from the book's website to use as templates for ornaments. They use clay and colors to make the ornaments and give them to someone as a gift.
Curated OER
Out of the Dust: Questioning Strategies
Bloom's Taxonomy is a great way to address the many levels of comprehension. With explanations and examples of each level, you can create questions that focus on knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Curated OER
Sense of Place Through the Eyes of an Inuit Children's Author
Students read books by Michael Arvaaluck Kusugak to explore life in the Artic Circle. After reading the books, students compare and contrast life in the Artic Circle to life in the United States. They write and illustrate a story about...
Curated OER
Plagiarism Workshop
What do George Harrison, Vanilla Ice, and Steven Ambrose all have in common? The Warner Brothers’ films Batman Forever and The Devil’s Advocate? All are guilty of plagiarism. And if you are considering a research project and want to...