Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...

In this instructional activity, Ralph Fletcher's writing style is introduced to student writers. Students will write a rough draft about a time they ate, or a time when they saw someone else eat, something unusual. Then students will...

A learning module that gives students practice writing a short story in four lessons: Introduction; Before Writing-Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Brainstorm; Writing Prompts; Point of View; and Quick Tips for Writing a Timed Response.

A learning module that teaches students about writing a short story in six mini-lessons: Introduction, Understanding the Essence, Getting an Idea, Structuring Plot, Building Conflict, and Outlining Your Own Story.

Empower students to recognize that they are thinkers and writers! They will collaborate on a writing piece to brainstorm, organize and publish ideas with a digital tool. This lesson highlights different website creations as examples of...

When you write a narrative, you can draw your reader into your experiences by adding specific, concrete details and sensory language to your storytelling. This lesson tells you exactly how to do it. W.9-10.3d Precise/sensory details,...

In this lesson plan, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff, is used as a mentor text to highlight the trait of organization. The content focus of the lesson plan is to highlight that authors' story structures can be imitated....

Great site if you want to learn how to write a radio drama sketch. The site offers lots of examples and pointers for the beginner. W.9-10.3a Narrative Intro, W.11-12.3a Narratives

This mystery-writing lesson focuses on the structure of a short story and the elements of a mystery in particular. Students complete the entire writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Students...

Write a short story with a well-developed conflict and resolution.

A learning module that teaches students about writing a short story with a strong plot in seven mini-lessons: Introduction, Choose the Point of View, Figure Out What to Say, Suspend Readers in Midair, Write about a Central Theme, Read A...

This lesson is based on two narrative picture books that can be compared and contrasted: When I was Five by Arthur Howard and Jamie Lee Curtis' When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old's Memoir of her Youth. Students will need to think about...

After students are given time to think about the topic -"Alone Time with an Adult I Care about," they are given ten to fifteen minutes to write between five and ten sentences on the topic. They ten are told they will revise their...

After giving students the writing topic "A Special Day that I Remember, give students ten to fifteen minutes to write on the topic. Then tell them they will be revising their "Special Day" prompt writing, but first they will listen to...

You will be able to use various literary strategies and devices, including dialogue and suspense, to enhance the plot in a short story. W.11-12.3b Narratives

The point of fiction is to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story. But how do writers suck readers into stories in this way? Nalo Hopkinson shares some tips for how to use language to make your...

Students will plan a paragraph that states their opinion and cites evidence to justify their opinion about an informational text. This instructional activity uses biographies since students can easily be able to write down factual...

A collection of essay assessment rubrics are provide on this learning module. Several rubrics for narrative essays, persuasive essays, and research papers are provided on this site.

This article is filled with tips for beginners on how to write radio drama sketches or adapt stories into radio plays. You'll see examples of sketches as well as tips on writing well. W.9-10.3, 3a, 3b Narratives, W.11-12.3, 3a, 3b...

This lesson is an introduction to a unit on personal narratives including the characteristics of a personal narrative: tells a story, events are in chronological order, and it has characters, setting, and plot. Click next at the bottom...

This series of 12 downloadable activities teach students some basics of story writing, using books or videos from the PBS "Arthur" series as a springboard. Activities include creating story maps, asking questions about characters and...

Step by step guidelines to the process of essay writing. Basic, but helpful.

The goal of this activity is for students to learn how to tell a story in order to make a complex topic (such as global warming or ozone holes) easier for a reader to grasp. Students realize that the narrative impulse underlies even...

This lesson, inspired by the novel Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes is a fabulous classroom mentor text that helps teach a very powerful revision strategy: rewriting an idea in a completely different genre. Grimes' book shares short...