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Wednesday Surprise
Students practice writing surprise endings to their short stories. After listening to the beginning of a short story, students make predictions about the story's surprise ending. They write their own short story with a surprise ending...
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Story Parts
Third graders identify the three major parts of a story. After reading the book "Stellaluna," students discuss the beginning, middle and end of the story. They write a short story depicting the events that would happen if the story...
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Sequence of Events Storyline
Seventh graders practice sequencing the events in a story they have read. After reading a short story, 7th graders sequence the events of the story using a timeline. Their timeline is used to create a summary paragraph of the story...
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Writer's Workshop: Mood Endings
Students listen to a story, "My Mama Had A Dancing Heart." They discuss the feeling they had after reading the story and define "mood." Students brainstorm a list of moods and discuss the mood of each character. Afterward, they write a...
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Plot Summary for Story Elements
Ninth graders identify story elements utilizing a plot summary organizer. In this plot summary lesson, 9th graders discuss the elements of a good story and listen to the story of the three little pigs. Students complete a group plot...
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Writing a Narrative
Sixth graders read the short story "Eleven". They write a narrative composition focusing on the use of voice. Students use a computer to create a pre-writing graphic organizer and type their final draft.
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How to Write a Biography
Looking for a great lesson on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography. They follow a...
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Editing Marks, Part 1
Dander from the show Twisted Whiskers and characters from My Little Pony are featured in this three part lesson that explores using story pyramids to scaffold ideas, adding sensory details to enrich writing, and editing using common...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2
How can you read a character's tone? What about a narrator's tone? Analyze Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a lesson that focuses on how word choice can change tone and how tone can affect the development...
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Tell Me a Story
Tenth graders read short story, "The Storyteller" by Saki, and expand on concept of stories for students by reading and evaluating several popular students's stories as well as writing their own original students's stories.
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Scene Writing
Eighth graders create an original scene or short one-act play within specified guidelines. Assessment is based upon the performance of student-created scenes during class time. Rubrics for assessment and connection to state standards...
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Military Families
Tenth graders recognize and define vocabulary words. In this Military families instructional activity, 10th graders participate in a shoot n spell game. Students write the vocabulary in sentences, read words in text, and...
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Comic and Film Strip Writing
Students write a funny story and illustrate it in a comic strip. In this comic strip lesson, students study comic strips and determine the plot of each story. Students then write a short story and illustrate it using a comic strip...
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Short Stories and Sitcoms
Middle schoolers compare 19th Century short stories to 20th Century sitcoms. They address seven questions as the watch a sitcom for homework and create a web to use for further comparison.
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Comparing Characters Across Two Short Stories
Ninth graders listen to a read aloud of two short stories focusing on literary devices. The write about the settings and realism of the stories, and decide each main character handles the conflict he faces with nature.
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Improvise a Short Story through Jazz
Students evaluate jazz music and a jazz music performance. They collaborate and create an improvised group short story. They improvise a musical piece on found objects.
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Learning about Editing
Students compose their own short story, and bring the stories with them to class the next day. In this editing instructional activity, students exchange stories with another classmate, and they edit that classmates writing. Students are...
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Massive Resistance and School Integration
Fourth graders write a short story that shows their feelings on a chosen historical perspective on school integration of the past. In this school integration lesson plan, 4th graders learn about Separate But Equal, resistance to change,...
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Writing a Short Story -History
Students write a short story set in a selected period of history. They conduct research on a selected period of history, write and edit a rough draft of their short story, and submit a final draft of their story that includes details...
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Buddy Stories
Students write and illustrate short stories. They read their original stories to younger Buddy Readers.
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STORY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH JAPANESE ART
Eighth graders create a story to explain the art object being studied. The story displays students knowledge of writing conventions, elements of a short story, literary conflict, and the use of descriptive text.
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The Magic in Writing
Pupils watch a portion of a familiar film and write responses to a series of questions. They apply their observations to short stories.
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Using Color as a Pre-Writing Tool
To better understand how to compose a clear and well-organized paper, learners read short passages, write summaries, and make colored graphic organizers. This is a fully developed three-day lesson with suggested assessments.
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Writings on a River
Learners identify words that can be used to describe Mark Twain's character Tom Sawyer. Students explore stage production of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" by reading and discussing "An Older (and Calmer) Tom Sawyer". They develop their...