Ideas From Suzi
Responding to Literature
Guide your class through a text with resources for before and after reading. Learners ask questions, discuss characters and plot points, point out elements of the reading that stood out, and compose brief summaries.
Curated OER
Magical Creatures Land
The opening of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit provides a model of how to use rich details to create a setting. After reading the description of Bilbo Baggins’ abode, young writers create their own magical home for a fantasy creature. The...
Curated OER
Build Mastery: Sequencing
Writing a summary is much easier once you've laid out the sequence of events. Show readers how these two skills are intertwined using this graphic organizer. Review the meaning of sequencing first, presenting the chart and possibly...
Curated OER
Civil War Literature Circle
Historical fiction can be a valuable asset when learning about the past. Integrate several novels written about the Civil War into your social studies unit, with groups of four working collaboratively to comprehend the novel from...
Curated OER
Introduce: Prediction
What will happen next? Leave readers at a cliffhanger as they practice prediction strategies while listening to a story. Pupils start by making guesses based on the book's cover and title, discussing the techniques they use to make these...
Massachusetts Department of Education
Nostalgia
To prepare for crafting their own memoir, class members examine poetry by Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Robert Hayden, and Claude McKay, stories by Richard Rodriquez and Willa Cather, and Barry Levinson's film Avalon. They examine...
Curated OER
Cause & Effect Chart: "My Furthest-Back Person" by Alex Haley
Help your class see the connection between events in Alex Haley's story "My Furthest-Back Person" with this awesome graphic organizer. Individuals write a brief description of 10 major plot events in a series of boxes. The first and last...
Curated OER
TELL THE SEQUENCE IN AN ORAL REPORT
Second graders survey a favorite story he/she has read or heard read aloud. They use the graphic organizer to draw illustrations that show the beginning, middle and end of the story. They tell the title of the story, whether it is...
Curated OER
Let's Trade! The Prince and the Pauper
Students read and analyze the novel, The Prince and the Pauper. They examine character development, discuss opinions using text, and develop and present a slide show demonstrating the development of a character from the beginning to the...
Curated OER
Film Festival: An ESL Lesson Plan to Get Students Talking About Movies
If your ESL pupils love talking about movies, here is an activity ideal for providing practice with both informational reading and elements of a story. Given fictional movie posters, they decipher the information and put it into a...
Curated OER
Comparing Realistic and Fictional Settings
Young scholars explore The Hound of the Baskerville's by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. For this literature lesson, students read the book and write down the main facts about the settings. Young scholars write an essay about realistic settings...
Curated OER
Books That Stand the Test of Time
Introduce your class to some all-time favorite titles to inspire a love for reading within them.
Mark Twain Media
Understanding Informational Text Features
Everything you need to know about informational text features can be found in this resource. Recognizing these types of text features and how they are used in text allows readers to better understand information. Teachers...
Curated OER
Dramatizing History in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
High schoolers study the effect of history on fictional or dramatic works of art by reading, Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. They examine the ties between a nation's history and culture with the literature it produces.
Curated OER
Folktales around the World (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Students analyze, synthesize, and use the elements of various US cultural folk tales to describe the elements of fiction in general and in folk tales specifically.
Curated OER
Jack and the Beanstalk
Third graders examine a reading selection. In this fairy tale lesson, 3rd graders read Jack and the Beanstalk. Students are divided into groups and each group lists the elements of a fairy tale and writes a script for a puppet play of...
Curated OER
Pebbles, Sand and Silt -- Categorizing Fiction and Informational Books
Primary readers complete the activities in a Pebbles, Sand and Silt FOSS kit. As a class, they are given a group of rocks and they are to categorize them based on their activities in the FOSS kit. They use this information and apply it...
Curated OER
Character Development
Round, flat, dynamic, static, and stock. Introduce viewers to the basic character types with a brief presentation that describes how to bring these characters to life. The presentation concludes with two photos. Ask your writers to...
Curated OER
Compare and Chart the Stories
Elementary schoolers engage in a literature study. They make comparisons of two different versions of a story using a graphic organizer. Using the text and pictures elementary schoolers investigate three elements from the story. Then,...
Curated OER
The Memory Invention
Young writers edit their writing to make sure it shows good meaning and clarity. In this writing lesson plan, students are given a variety of "What If?" scenarios to choose from as writing prompts. A class discussion ensues, which...
Curated OER
Science Fiction
Do your sixth graders like science fiction? Learn to identify elements of the science fiction genre with a literature lesson. They read from Only You Can Save Mankind and identify the objects, words, and characters from the...
Curated OER
Thinking About Theme
Writers use the literary element of conflict to develop their theme. Use the conflict between the Johnny and the ScreeWees in Terry Pratchett’s Only You Can Save Mankind to model how a major theme is revealed. The conflict between the...
Curated OER
The Swimming Hole by Laura Ingalls Wilder
This PowerPoint provides a summary, comprehension questions, vocabulary words, and links for independent activities related to the story "The Swimming Hole" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Age-appropriate definitions of such literacy elements...
Curated OER
Theme Matters
Fifth graders read to find the purpose of a piece of writing. They explore the theme of Bridge to Terabithia through events in the story. Furthermore, they consider how they would find a theme and examine a new text for its theme.