Young readers use graphic organizers, such as Venn diagrams and story maps, to analyze a variety of folktales and the elements of a story. They use writing, sequencing activities, and creative art to identify the morals learned from a...

Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...

Introduce your young readers to fiction written by women authors. For each story, they explore the way these daughters discover and claim their own identities. Individually, class members use the literature to examine their role in their...

As the culminating activity in a unit study of science fiction, young writers demonstrate their understanding of the genre by producing their own graphic novel. After deciding on the main elements of their story, individuals use a comic...

Read this twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell. Kindergartners listen, predict, and discuss the story. They then participate in a dramatization of the story and draw a picture...

Analyze the setting behind the Great Depression in California with Pam Munoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising. Middle schoolers assess the protagonist during her coming-of-age moments, while migrant workers manage the hardships of the...

Students read and comprehend a piece of fictional writing, analyze how setting, characterization, and plot affect the theme of a story and work in a group to create a new writing assignment. This 5-day plan culminates in students writing...

Students complete a literature analysis of fiction texts to study elements of fiction. In this fiction analysis lesson, students read various fiction texts and examine them to learn about fiction elements. Students learn to draw...

Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...

Help your class listen and respond to a fictional story by creating a story structure mobile illustrating the main characters, setting, plot, problem, story events, and solution. Using a coat hanger, they will create an artistic element...

Students read both fiction and nonfiction books with desert themes. Then they write desert stories and reports, reviewing texts for information to include in writing. Students also design desert scenes with details and setting elements...

Students create a dodecahedron shaped visual report of the literary elements of a short story.

Students analyze a book's characters and create a scrapbook to print and save. For this on line interactive characterization lesson plan, students identify character traits and gain a deeper understanding of a book's characters.

What's the best way to start a story? Learners write a memoir using effective openings. They research the process and work through a list of hooks to use in their writing. They use at least two hooks to begin their personal memoir. A...

Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...

Twelfth graders analyze Ray Bradbury's use of techniques and elements of fiction as well as nonfiction in the novel Dandelion Wine. For this novel analysis lesson, 12th graders analyze the sensory techniques in Dandelion Wine. Students...

Students read three different genres of fiction. They create a story map and brainstorm possible collage inclusions. Each student prepares a minimum of two scrapbook page entries for each text or passage. Students write beside each...

Students participate in a study of short story elements, applying their knowledge and understanding to a selection of short stories.  In this short stories lesson, students read five short story selections, identifying conflict,...

Students analyze Jack London's use of anthropomorphism to identify the importance of adaptability in life. In this literature lesson, students use the novel The Call of the Wild to identify key elements in survival. Students...

Students use the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" to identify and analyze drama vocabulary, literary terms and elements of fiction. They write an original version of scenes from the play and develop a character analysis for the lead.

Students read about Scheherazade and Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp. In this literature/writing lesson, students understand the excitement of foreign places as the setting for a story. Students rewrite their own version of Scheherazade.

Learners write a science fiction story.  In this science fiction lesson, students read selections of science fiction and compare them to supernatural stories from the Bible.  Learners identify themes and discuss elements that...

Students visit web sites with information on space fiction and collect information for their stories.

Students read and analyze the story. In this language arts lesson, students read Come on, Rain! and examine how mood and tone are created, the use of figurative language and the characteristics of the genre. Students research the...