PBS
Pbs Teachers: Story Writing With Arthur
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...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Give That Character a Voice With Voki!
This lesson plan fuses fictional literature with technology through a project-based experience. Learners will use the free online resource Voki to bring a fictional character to "life" and deepen their understanding of character,...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Curriculum Hub: Ela Guidebooks: A Lesson Before Dying: Character Development
Form claims to prepare for a discussion about how characters Grant and Jefferson have changed throughout the story.
Other
Barbara Greenwood's Guide to Writing for Children [Pdf]
Barbara Greenwood, a Canadian author of numerous historical fiction books for children, has written this thirty-page writing guide where she explains the process she goes through in constructing a story. She covers such key topics as...
Read Works
Read Works: Grade 2: Three Lesson Unit: Character
[Free Registration/Login Required] A series of three lesson plans designed to teach learners to recognize a character's personality traits, predict a character's actions, and describe a character using rich language. Lessons are based on...
Read Works
Read Works: Character 3rd Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] In this three-lesson unit, students learn how to identify language within a text that describes a character, use evidence from a text to describe a character, and to use details from a text to identify...
Quia
Quia: Character Traits/descriptions
This reading resource provides vocabulary words with definitions. All words are related to character development and character traits. A link to associated review activities is included.
TES Global
Blendspace: What Makes Stories Scary?
A learning module that includes fourteen links to websites, videos, and activities on writing scary stories. Lessons focus on vocabulary, plot and character development, elements of gothic stories, tone and mood, suspense, and more.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Wqed Education Programs: Clifford the Big Red Dog Programming
This collection of resources has been designed to help teach character development and social-emotional skills to children ages four to seven. Each lesson follows a similar format, in which children can watch (watch video), read (read a...
Other
Building Characters With Adversity
Extensive and very interesting article advising the reader on how to develop characters through adversity.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Development of Characters Through Literary Devices
Rcognize how literary devices such as character foils can create complex characters in a short story.
Read Works
Read Works: Lesson 1: Actions
In this resource, students will practice identifying and describing the actions of a character. Teachers will model these skills through the use of text and pictures from the story No, David! by David Shannon. Students will then draw a...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Using Picture Books to Teach Plot Development and Confict Res.
Students read picture books to explore the concepts of plot development and conflict resolution. They first learn about the connections between reading and writing, and then revise their own writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: What Is Conflict?
This is the sixth in a series of articles designed to help the new writer with their novel. This article focuses on conflict and how it effects the characters and the plot of the story. W.11-12.3a Narratives
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Planning Story Characters Using Interactive Trading Cards
Students use trading cards to examine fictional characters in a story.
Caro Clarke
Historical Fiction: Who Rules?
This is the fifteenth article in a series designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on the genre of historical fiction and the role of the author. Is the author a researcher or a story-teller?
Yale University
Yale University: Elements of the Short Story
This unit from the Yale University on elements of the short story is designed to develop student comprehension skills, particularly making inferences and generalizing. It also involves students in reading a number of short stories to...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 5: Wonderstruck
Fifth graders learn about the importance of language, education, and communication. By determining how characters respond to challenges of language barriers and ineffective communication, 5th graders learn how language and stories can...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Story Little Match Girl
[Free Registration/Login Required] Using Hans Anderson's Little Match Girl teachers can engage children in high quality discussion and support language development.
Other
Cape Girardeau Schools: Inspiration Templates and Ideas
This school site provides templates and ideas for using Inspiration Software, a visual thinking and learning tool, in your classroom.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Understanding Fairy Tales Old and New
A collection of digital resources for three different English Language Arts curriculum standards for grades 3-5 that address characters' traits and motivations in works of literature. They focus on modern retellings of old stories and...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Fairy Tales Collection
A collection of digital resources for three different English Language Arts curriculum standards for grades 3-5 that address characters' traits and motivations in works of literature. They focus on modern retellings of old stories and...
Other
National Writing Project: Collaborating to Write Dialogue
In this lesson, writing partners work together to develop a plot and characters. The lesson emphasizes the use of dialogue to develop the characters and plot of the story.
Blackdog Media
Classic Reader: "A Thief in the Night" by e.w. Hornung
A.J. Raffles is a character developed by E.W. Hornung who appears in most of his short stories. Raffles is the very definition of a smooth criminal and a master cricket player. Read several of the short stories containing Raffles in the...