If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing...

Binoculars are used as a metaphor for good descriptive writing. Class members first view a small picture and then an enlarged view of the same image in which the details come into focus. Next, learners examine a paragraph lacking sensory...

Young writers have written, revised, and peer-edited their historical fiction narratives by the 10th lesson plan in a language arts unit. Fourth graders finally combine their revision notes to create a second draft. The double-spaced...

Need a hero? Super! Groups create their modern-day marvel and craft a narrative with all the elements required in such a tale.

Young writers examine dialogue conventions, including indentation, quotation marks, and expressing thoughts and feelings through a fictional text. By noticing where and when authors use dialogue, they decide how to incorporate dialogue...

Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.

Boring dialogue can run a great story into the ground; get your novelists using dialogue as a tool to move their story into deeper and more developed territory. As part of a larger writing series, this lesson has a worksheet that can...

Every good novel needs a solid beginning! Setting the stage can have your budding authors stumped, so use this lesson to get them thinking. After examining the plot rollercoaster image (included) they consider the four places...

It's all about using peer resources in this writing process lesson, which includes a fantastic novel revision worksheet packet. Learners have read a partner's story draft the night before, and groups have a "lightning round of...

As part of their reading of Leslie Marmon Silko's "Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit," class members analyze how the author develops her narrative through dialogue, description, and multiple plot lines.

Encourage young writers to edit text based on conventions. After reviewing the conventions, fourth graders watch a teacher demonstrate how to revise a paragraph for correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or dialogue. Then, pairs...

Fifth graders analyze William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, paying close attention to character development, plot, and dialogue. With daily reading and thoughtful discussion, scholars take pen to paper to respond to journal...

Working in pairs, class members use the provided narrative writing rubric to assess the effectiveness of dialogue, pacing, and description in two model paragraphs with similar content. Writers then use the insights they have gained from...

They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems by David Bowles is the focus of a five-week language arts unit unit. Fifth graders listen to various poems and participate in thoughtful discussions, examining vocabulary and learning new words in...

What's the story? Learners create the first of four storyboards about the invention of the television, incorporating narrative techniques and descriptive details. Next, they offer and receive feedback by participating in a peer critique...

Young balladeers analyze examples of ballads and generate a list of common traits (story, quatrains, rhyme schemes, refrains, etc.), then identify these traits in Robert W. Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and a ballad written by...

Eyes on the finish line. Serving as the first part of the end of unit assessment, learners answer questions based on a text about how to write a graphic novel. Using what they've learned, they then create a storyboard about the invention...

Help the class put a plan in place. With the detailed resource, pupils plan the first section of their graphic novelettes about an invention, creating and labeling their pages. Next, they work with partners to give and receive feedback...

How do the narrative and play versions of the myth "Pyramus and Thisbe" affect meaning? Scholars reread Act 5, Scene 1 from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and compare its structure to "Pyramus and Thisbe." Next, they use a...

Through an informative WebQuest and group work, learners explore the human body and cell structure. They create a cell diagram, research a disease, write a letter explaining the causes of human disease, and work in small groups to create...

Do your young readers have difficulty visualizing what they read? Although the activity described here is for The Call of the Wild, the strategy could be used with any narrative. At the conclusion of each chapter of Jack London’s novel,...

“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life” and an excitement that comes with finding a good teaching resource. Included in a richly detailed packet designed to accompany The Call of the Wild, are a tableaux exercise, a...