Scholastic
A Reading Guide to A Wrinkle in Time
Accompany a reading of Madeleine L'Engle's classic tale, A Wrinkle in Time, with a detailed guide equipped with 15 informative and useful chapters. Scholars discover who the author is, why she wrote the book, and crucial story elements...
Annenberg Foundation
Masculine Heroes
What were the driving forces behind American expansion in the nineteenth century, and what were its effects? Scholars watch a video, read biographies, engage in discussion, write journals and poetry, draw, and create a multimedia...
Curated OER
The Little Prince: Problematic Situation
Your plane has crashed in the Sahara desert. What do you do? Explore the possibilities with a role-playing activity based on Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince. In groups, kids decide whether they would walk to find help to try...
Curated OER
Write a Round-Robin Story
Students discover the elements of a story (introduction, plot, climax, resolution, denouement). In groups of five, one student writes an introduction and passes it to the next person, who writes the plot and passes it to the next person,...
Curated OER
Pride and Prejudice: Unsent Letter
What would the characters of Pride and Prejudice say to each other in a letter? Draft unsent correspondence between characters from Jane Austen's novel. A great way to explore characterization and plot structure in a creative lesson plan.
Literacy Design Collaborative
Analyzing Language through Dialogue and Internal Monologue in "The Scarlet Ibis"
James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis" provides eighth graders with an opportunity to sharpen their literary analysis skills. After a close reading of the text, class members highlight and annotate parts of the dialogue and...
Curated OER
The Outsiders Project Guide
Hand out these project ideas when working with The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Pupils can choose from six different options or propose their own. The idea is that they will complete more than one project to meet the point requirement. The...
Read Write Think
Book Report Alternative: Rewind the Plot!
Have you ever looked for a new way to teach an old concept? Scholars thinking about the rising action of a story in a whole new perspective. However, Book Report Alternative: Rewind the Plot! challenges readers and allows for much...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Core Analysis Frame: Fiction
Dig into any piece of fiction with a series of analysis questions. There are two levels of questions provided: basic and in-depth. The basic questions can be copied double-sided onto a single piece of paper, while the in-depth questions...
Curated OER
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Students read a chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and define new words for their dictionaries. In this vocabulary lesson students choose two or three assignment from a list of projects and complete it using the text in the...
Nazareth College
Creative Writing
Students discuss creative writing—what makes something creative writing? Each learner starts writing a story and after 15 minutes, they pass their story to another who adds to it. After another 15 minutes of writing, the story is passed...
PBS
Shakespeare & The Renaissance: Activity Ideas
Looking for ways to implement the words and works of William Shakespeare into your curriculum? This list of activity ideas is a great starting point, as it covers a wide range of grade levels and a wealth of online references to explore.
Curated OER
Mystery Lessons
Learn about mysteries with your readers. They will investigate plot, basic elements of mystery, famous characters, and become familiar with genre vocabulary. Bring in props and mystery books to begin and then have learners create story...
Curated OER
Dear Diary
Work on narrative writing with this lesson, in which middle schoolers analyze the characters from a selected piece of literature and write narrative diary pieces as the character. They work to understand the point of view of the...
Curated OER
Call of The Wild
Prompt your class to interact with Jack London's Call of the Wild. By analyzing the events in the novel, middle schoolers discover how human experiences create who a person becomes. They critique and analyze the reading, focusing on...
Curated OER
What Makes a Novel a Novel?
As your authors prepare to write a hypothetical novel, they need all the inspiration they can find! Using a book they have already read (and enjoyed), learners complete a literary analysis by filling in eight short-answer questions....
Curated OER
Twisted Tales
Experience how a story can drastically change when the point of view is altered. Young scholars first read a review of Disney's film Tarzan, focusing on how the point of view in the classic story is important. They then select another...
Curated OER
Reading Study Guide: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Meant for use with Maya Angelou's first autobiographical volume I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the materials here are designed for a homeschool setting, but they'd suit any classroom or text. Graphic organizers, chapter summary guides,...
Novelinks
The Lightning Thief: Concept/Vocabulary Analysis
Before you begin reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, read over this comprehensive handout that gives you a plethora of information regarding the story's summary, organizational structure, central...
Curated OER
A New Point of View
Analyze point of view and how it affects a literary work with this lesson. Middle schoolers create a written piece that focuses on point of view. They review the literary term "point of view," and explore examples of the term in text....
Curated OER
Language Arts: Plot Summary
Eighth graders implement plot summary organizers to identify essential elements such as conflict and resolution in literature. In pairs, they retell fairy tales to each other and complete plot summaries about them. As students read new...
Prestwick House
Fahrenheit 451—Activity Pack
The burning questions is at what point do readers of Fahrenheit 451 recognize the many literary devices Ray Bradbury employs in his dystopian classic that warns of a society that uses media to indoctrinate the public and denigrates...
Blake Education
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
The motto for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry warns that one should never tickle a sleeping dragon, but learners will definitely be tickled by the activities in a packet of materials designed to accompany a reading of the...
Teaching English
Fairy Tales; Not Just for Kids
"Once upon a time . . ." Language learners examine the key elements of well-known fairy tales and then craft their own.