Supporting characters need detail and characteristics just like a main character. Keep your budding authors entrenched in detail as they write their novels. This lesson plan focuses on developing supporting characters using personal...

Poems For Two Voices are a great resource in any language arts classroom, whether you are studying poetry or not. Focusing on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this lesson prompts young authors to write a Poem For Two...

Connect to real-world experiences by having your primary learners create an award certificate based upon literal and inferential information from a story. They present the award to a character from a story and explain the criteria used....

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...

Guide your readers to explore character traits. As a class, discuss and record the traits of a commonly-known fairy tale character. Then do the same with the main character in the class novel. Finally, have learners use magazines...

Elementary and middle schoolers research animal facts and use them in a fable. First, they pair-share to find animal traits to use in writing a fable. They then complete a prewriting worksheet. After going through the writing process,...

Create a picture dictionary for one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays. After readers finish The Tempest, they assign each letter of the alphabet to a concept or character, and add a description and evidence from...

The book, A Week in the Woods is the focus of the very interesting language arts lesson presented here. After the book has been read, learners engage in study of certain parts of the book in order to gain a better understanding of how...

Analyze characters and stories to identify stereotyping. Learners will examine the concept of character gender to evaluate bias in classroom story books. They are asked to read a story or play and change the gender of the character to...

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...

Students explore philanthropy in literature. In this cross curriculum literacy and character development lesson, students read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and note charitable acts described in the story. Students relate story...

The simple instructional techniques described in this plan will help young readers learn and practice basic reading skills and strategies. Before reading, introduce your readers to the meaning of main character, setting, and plot. Then...

Students review the style techniques related to the American Method Acting and practice using them in groups. Using various scenes from films, they try to recreate the scene using props. In groups, they discover the proper way to get...

Students create an advertisement promoting good behavior. This character-development lesson plan from Boys Town High School involves students studying the history of the Got Milk?advertising campaign. After a discussion of marketing...

Mirroring Jerry Spinelli's style in Wringer, chapter 5, pupils use the "counting up/down technique" to recall an important moment in their lives. In the book, the character is being punched, and between blows he remembers details...

Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record...

Students analyze a piece of writing by creating diary entries based on a character.  In this reading comprehension lesson plan, students read an assigned book with their classmates and create a sketch of what they believe the main...

Learners read a story and retell it through role playing. They will read Big Pumpkin, identify the main ideas and important characters, retell the story through dramatic play, and identify their favorite character.

The Secret Garden, is a wonderful book to read with your class. After reading, why not employ the lesson plan presented here as a follow up activity? In it, pupils create character charts that portray the tremendous changes that...

Tenth graders explore narrative poetry. They analyze sections of a poem and present to groups. They compose their own narrative poems using pictures as prompts. They exchange their poems and analyze their classmate's poem.

Whether it's dark, delightful, or somber, set the mood with William Golding's Lord of the Flies. High-schoolers practice descriptive writing by creating the appropriate mood for an original scene, starring one of the book's main...

You can mix almost any subject with an arts curriculum. Find out how to use drama to find the main idea of a literary text. You'll read a story, and then learners will make tableaus showing what happened, or what they think will happen...

Sixth graders participate in a brainstorming activity in which they identify the types of decisions they make everyday. Individually, they complete a worksheet on making decisions effectively. After reading a poem, they identify the...

Students read the story A Bad Case of the Stripes and then write their own story conveying a lot of emotion. In this writing lesson plan, students select a title, an emotion, brainstorm, and then start writing.