Novelinks
Wildwood Dancing: Rewriting a Fairytale
After completing Juliet Marillier's young adult novel Wildwood Dancing, class members rewrite a traditional fairy tale, making three significant changes to illustrate a theme of their choosing.
Teaching Tolerance
Identity Portraits
When you look at me, what do you see? Young learners answer this question by creating a portrait that reflects the identity of one of their peers. First, class members create interview questions. Then, they interview classmates to...
Curated OER
"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe
High schoolers read and analyze the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. They take notes while reading the story, select an element to analyze, and write an essay about the characters, theme, or the setting.
Curated OER
Final Performance of a Play
Second graders study theatre by designing a play, studying actors, and work in partners to create a story to perform. For this theatre study lesson, 2nd graders discuss theatre as live theatre, television, film, and radio. Students act...
Curated OER
Bunnicula
Students create a dictionary of vocabulary after reading a story. Individually, they create a story web making sure to include all of the basic story elements. They also create a timeline and write a book report of all important events.
Curated OER
Folktale Unit Ideas
Learners read a variety of folktales and participate in writing, drawing, measurement, and time activities that relate to the stories. They graph the number of different versions of one folktale that the class finds and reads.
Curated OER
Mark This!
In this writing and art lesson, students use their favorite story to draw a picture and write a caption for their picture. They create their picture and caption on a piece of tagboard that is to be used as a bookmark. A nice, simple...
Curated OER
Most Wanted Villians
Learners review the characteristics of various characters in fairytales. As a class, they review the story details and create a concept map using a software program. They create their own wanted poster of the villians in the fairytale to...
Curated OER
Forging Freedom
Students read the story Forging Freedom by Hudson Talbott about the holocaust. In this holocaust lesson plan, students also answer discussion questions.
Curated OER
Narrative Sketches
Second graders read "Tuesday" for inspiration. They draw three pictures that illustrate the beginning, middle and end of a story with very short notes to describe the sketches. They use the sketches as an organizer to use before writing...
Curated OER
A Turkey for Thanksgiving - Lesson #2
Second graders investigate realistic fiction, holiday celebrations, making tally charts. In this multi-disciplinary lesson, 2nd graders listen to a story about Thanksgiving and one about the Chinese New Year to develop an understanding...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Native Americans and Onomatopoeias
Fifth graders read the Native American tale, "The Frog and the Crane," focusing on the use of onomatopoeia in it. In groups, they brainstorm list of words that are examples of the device. Finally, 5th graders write their own stories...
Curated OER
Dramatizing Tam's Slipper
Students investigate the Japanese version of the Cinderella tale. In this fairy tale lesson, students read Tam's Slipper and construct a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the tale with the American version.
Curated OER
Harriet The Spy
Fourth graders investigate the style of diary writing as its own genre of literature. They read Harriet The Spy in order to have a text for this literature study. Students use the skill of prediction to preview the story, and then...
Curated OER
Developing Skills for the KS2 English SAT: Literature
Students consider the literary techniques of characterization and dialogue. In this story making and comprehension lesson, students examine characterization, dialogue, and comprehension.
Curated OER
Math: Odd Object Out
Students discover how to classify and categorize items by sorting various objects. As they sort the items, they explain how the items are alike. By repeating the sorting procedure several times, students determine there are numerous...
Curated OER
Chicken Little
Second graders listen to the story "Chicken Little" as it is read to the whole group while recognizing similarities in the character's names. They create another character to be added to the story using the same rhyming pattern and make...
Curated OER
Probably Passage
Learners apply reading strategies to improve understanding and fluency. They use their imagination and create their own short stories. They identify words as various parts of the story - including setting, character, problem, solution...
Curated OER
Into the Wild: Creating Characters
Students analyze well-known fairy tale characters to learn about characterization. After choosing two fairy tale characters and determining what the characters most want and most fear, students switch characters and stories. They...
Curated OER
Where in the World is Cinderella?
Students read several versions of the Cinderella story and examine variations from different cultures. They consider how point of view affects a story and develop a multimedia presentation with their observations.
Curated OER
What Really Happened?
Sixth graders recreate scenes from the theories about the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. In this history and theatre lesson, 6th graders review the story of Earhart using a flip chart. Students work on one act plays to depict one of...
Curated OER
Animals attributes
First graders analyze different animals in fiction and nonfiction stories. For this animal lesson, 1st graders choose an animal and read a fiction story with that animal as a character. They describe how the animal acted in the story and...
Curated OER
Characterization Group Search
In this characterization activity, students identify the traits harbored by a character in a work of literature. Students work cooperatively to locate proof that the character exhibits these traits and then vote on the accuracy of...
Curated OER
Learning About Honesty
Students read a short story about honesty, a character skill. They then answer comprehension questions and discuss the story with their classmates as well as study about the consequences of not telling the truth.