Curated OER
What Makes a Novel a Novel?
They always say to write what you know. This approach is used to get middle schoolers prepared to write novels of their own. Using a favorite book as a model, potential novelists respond to prompts that ask about characters, plot, main...
Curated OER
De-Mystifying Poetry: Understanding Narrative Poetry
Tenth graders explore narrative poetry. They analyze sections of a poem and present to groups. They compose their own narrative poems using pictures as prompts. They exchange their poems and analyze their classmate's poem.
Curated OER
American Life
For this American Life activity and progress test worksheet, students respond to a total of 23 short answer, true/false, multiple choice, matching, crossword puzzle, and fill in the blank questions pertaining to American Life.
Frost Middle School
Write Your Own Greek Myth
Invite your pupils to create original Greek characters and myths for their characters to star in. Similar to a traditional Greek myth, the story must explain a natural phenomenon, depict a struggle between good and evil characters, and...
Curated OER
Reading a Dialect
Reading a dialect can be difficult; show readers that it can also reveal fascinating details! They read two extracts from Jane Gardam's The Hollow Land, which is written in a British dialect. Readers answer comprehension questions,...
Khaled Hosseini Found
Lesson One: Exploration of The Kite Runner Graphic Novel
What is a graphic novel? How does it differ from a traditional novel? These questions launch a discussion of Fabio Celoni and Mirka Andolfo's graphic novel adaptation of The Kite Runner. Through a series of literature circle discussions,...
Curated OER
Bucket List Poetry
What is on your pupils' "Bucket Lists" - the list of things they want to do before they die? Their choices of activities for this list could be very revealing, and is a great source of inspiration for a personal poem. The lesson prompts...
Curated OER
Creating Interesting Characters
What makes a story interesting? Complex characters! As part of a series of worksheets that prepares middle schoolers to write their own novel, the exercises included explain the role of the protagonist, the antagonist, and the supporting...
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Setting impact on the Plot
Fourth graders see how the setting affects the plot. In this setting lesson, 4th graders listen to The Three Brothers : A German Folktale by Carolyn Croll and see how the setting affects the outcome of the story. They read a new...
Curated OER
Chocolate Chaos
Second graders demonstrate the ability to examine the elements of a story (theme, plot, setting, mood) and characters, by discussing and writing about each. They have fun with chocolate related activities and enjoy reading about some...
Curated OER
Let's Watch a Story
Fourth graders watch a silent movie and identify the elements of a story. They complete a worksheet attached to the lesson and discuss their answers.
Curated OER
Writing Drama-Trying Your Hand at being a Playwright
Fifth graders chart the elements of drama. For this performing arts lesson, 5th graders discuss the role of a playwrite, practice doing some Reader's Theatre scripts, write a paragraph about a problem between two people, and perform...
Curated OER
Our Town: Using Song Lyrics in the Classroom
Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown” and Billy Joel’s “Allentown” motivate young lyricists to craft poems about their own home town. Groups compare the two songs, identifying details, symbols, and conflicts. Individuals then picture a place...
Curated OER
Connotation and Denotation: How Word Choice Affects a Paragraph
Review the terms denotation, connotation, diction, and mood in paragraph writing. After defining the terms, middle schoolers practice writing examples of both connotation and denotation. They complete a connotation and denotation...
K5 Learning
The Best Vacation Ever
Hang ten with a fun reading activity about a family vacation on a cruise. Fifth graders read along as Scott transfers his snowboarding skills to surfing in an engaging reading activity that includes six comprehension questions.
Curated OER
Gift of the Magi LP3
Pupils read the story of "The Gift of the Magi" and identify the theme and elements in the story. They discuss allusions, situational irony, simile, metaphor, allusion, irony and plot structure. Students share about sacrifices they...
Curated OER
Literary Element/ Conflict
In this language arts worksheet, students use the explanation of conflict to answer the specific questions of examples of the element in the novel.
Curated OER
Which Way is Up? The Tree of Life in Africa
Students read a book titled This is the Tree about a baobab tree and draw a picture and label the tree. In this tree lesson plan, students also write a paragraph explaining why they drew that tree.
Curated OER
The Power of 1: Individual Assessment of Anthem
Students prepare for a Multiple Intelligences based assessment after completing the novel "Anthem." As individuality is a theme in the novel, each student reflects that concept by choosing how best to show understanding of the novel.
Curated OER
The Sand Horse
Fourth graders are introduced to the book THE SAND HORSE and discuss the title and cover illustration. They listen to the story listening for words and phrases to describe the setting. They then brainstorm key words to illustrate the...
The New York Times
Writing Fiction Based on Real Science - NYTimes.com
Refuse to alienate your scientific-minded young scholars during your creative writing unit. Learners explore how literary writing can reflect observable fact, and be based in actual science. The links include examples of fiction and...
Curated OER
www.Me.Com
Create a graphic autobiography integrating images and text. Working within the structure of the programs Comic Life and Photoshop, pupils integrate the Principles of Design. They focus on balance, rhythm, proportion, and text structure....
Curated OER
Asian Cinderella Tales
Explore the world of fairy tales using this instructional activity focusing on higher- order thinking skills. Learners compare and contrast an Asian Cinderella story to other versions. It is a great way to review the characteristics of...
Curated OER
Thank You Ma'am Langston Hughes Process of Discovering Theme
Students identify the elements of the plot and identify and express this story?????™s theme.