Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using a Mentor Text to Develop a New Style of Writing

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students examine some of the author's writing traits and then make an effort to incorporate his style into their own writing. They show how richly written literature can be used as a mentor text, or model, for improving one's own writing.
Lesson Plan
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Panther Exam: Writing a Play

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students demonstrate their knowledge of panthers by writing a play on the subject.  In this animal life lesson, students view a slide-show on school computers of a veterinary exam of a panther.  Students utilize this...
Lesson Plan
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Using Effective, Evocative Writing as a Model

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students analyze the author's style to learn techniques for strengthening their own writing. They re-read "Music in the Fields" and highlight images that create vivid pictures in their minds-places where Young "shows, not tells" and...
Lesson Plan
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Pam Munoz Ryan Shares Writing Secrets

For Teachers 2nd - 7th
Learners conduct interviews. In this interviewing lesson plan, students read an interview of Pam Munoz Ryan to see where she got her ideas from in her story.  They interview someone and create a scrapbook to show details of the...
Activity
Ed Change

Exchanging Stories: Names

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students write short stories about their names and share them in small groups to help build community in the classroom.
Lesson Plan
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Connecting Literature, Writing and Music

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students assess the impact of music to portray emotions and tell stories. Examples are taken from the life of Rosa Parks and a piece of band music called "A Movement for Rosa". Evaluation is accomplished through in-class participation...
Lesson Plan
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Creating a Short Story

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students examine how to outline their story, to write a story and then edit their work. They illustrate their story using drawing features like squares, circles, and other shapes or a drawing program if they have it on the computer.
Lesson Plan
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A Photo Essay

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students create a photo essay and present it to the class. The students bring photos to use for their essay and develop a story using the photos. The students write captions including characters, setting, and plot for each photo. They...
Lesson Plan
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Literary Element : Setting

For Teachers 4th - 5th
In this language arts worksheet, students focus on story setting. Using the graphic organizer provided, students fill in the time, place, and backdrop of the given story.
Lesson Plan
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Writing a Historical Fiction Story

For Teachers 6th - 8th
What is historical fiction? After explaining the difference to your learners, it's time to give each learner a try! With your support, encourage them to research, plan, and write their own historical fiction story. Don't forget to have a...
Lesson Plan
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Literary Analysis of The Minister's Black Veil

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Explore the short story "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. First, read the short story and take notes on specific uses of the elements of writing such as characters, setting, plot, similes, personification, metaphors,...
Lesson Plan
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Awesome Allegories

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Studenets are told that Peter Paul Rubens was born on June 28, 1577, in Siegen, Germany. They create their own allegorical painting, think of a favorite story. Students write a summary of one scene in that story, using Crayola Erasable...
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

5 Broken Cameras: How Storytellers Shape the Story

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
5 Broken Cameras, the award-winning documentary nominated for a 2013 Academy Award and winner of the Sundance 2012 Directors Award is the focus of a resource packet that includes a lesson plan, discussion guide, reading lists, background...
Unit Plan
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Core Knowledge Foundation

Fairy Tales and Tall Tales Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology

For Teachers 2nd Standards
Enrich a unit on fairy tales and tall tales with a set of read-aloud lessons. Second graders hone writing, vocabulary, comprehension, and literary analysis skills as they read classic stories. Complete with extension projects, discussion...
Worksheet
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M&M’s Math Worksheet

For Students 3rd - 8th
Who knew you could cover prediction, histograms, fractions, decimals, data collection, and averages (mean, median, and mode) all with a bag of M&M's®? Here's a fantastic set of worksheets to help you make candy a mathematical journey...
Lesson Plan
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Understanding What Makes a Good News Story

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students explore the news sources at their school in order to write stories that reflect what's going on in all communities and to identify what makes a good story. In this news writing lesson, students journal about what makes a...
Lesson Plan
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Learning to Summarize a Story

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students with hearing loss read independently and understand what is being read to them. For this independent reading lesson plan, students sequence and discuss the book that is read.
Lesson Plan
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Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Map for Me: An Original Story

For Teachers K - 3rd
Students read Blackbeard and brainstorm their knowledge of maps. In this language arts and geography lesson, students use landmarks on their playground to review north, south, east and west and discuss the compass rose. Students read...
Lesson Plan
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Story Stew -- Teaching Character, Plot, And Setting

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students examine the story elements of characters, plot, and setting. They identify the story elements from various "ingredients" taken out of a pot, and add their own story element "ingredients" on index cards into the pot.
Unit Plan
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Teaching Language Arts in Kindergarten Using Stories, Aesop's Fables, and Tall Tales

For Teachers K
Students search into a variety of story elements in the eight lessons of this unit. The title, author, illustrator, setting, main character, problem, solution, events and the story are the components of the lessons.
Lesson Plan
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Story Blender

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders write a story with many paragraphs that include a plot, setting, and ending. In this writing lesson plan, 5th graders create stories as a class.
Lesson Plan
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Writing a Short Story - Weather

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners use the information they wrote about on the topic they chose in studying About Weather. They then write a short story using the information choosing a theme, setting, characters, and the plot.
Lesson Plan
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Authoring Stories for Guided Reading

For Teachers Higher Ed
Students in a teacher education program write their own children's book. Using books already written, they review age appropriate for their grade level placement. They write their own story and illustrate it using various software...
Lesson Plan
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Classic Short Stories- Locked Room Settings

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students read the short story "The Problem of Cell 13" and examine the plot devices that build suspense. In this lesson students create their own short story using the same locked room setting.