Curated OER
My Favorite Story
Students discuss their favorite book. In this book discussion lesson, students name the title and tell what makes the book special. Students also review the setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. Students make a book that tells all of...
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Chatty Cherry Stories
Young artists will respond to reading children's literature, by engaging in original storytelling and representing their own images through the visual arts. Then they orally describe details of people, places, and things in their stories...
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Pride and Prejudice
Help your class recognize classic literature with universal themes. They will demonstrate their familiarity with Pride and Prejudice by updating a selected scene from it to the 21st century. Tip: Bring in a modern movie clip that shows...
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AWARD CERTIFICATE FOR A CHARACTER
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....
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Creating Interesting Characters
What makes a story interesting? Complex characters! As part of a series of worksheets that prepares middle schoolers to write their own novel, the exercises included explain the role of the protagonist, the antagonist, and the supporting...
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Lesson Plan 4: Creating Main Characters
Creating a good main character is a must when writing a creative narrative or novel. Elementary aged writers create main characters for the novel they are writing. They first use themselves as a models, then create a character as a...
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Understanding the Complexities of Setting with Where the Lilies Bloom
After reading Where the Lilies Bloom and researching the wildflowers and herbs mentioned in the novel, class members create a mural that reflects the setting of the novel. Groups design the background, the houses of the characters, the...
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Dusty Locks and the Three Bears
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...
All-in-One High School
Elements of Plot
Cinderella wants to go to the ball and marry the prince. At the end of the story, she does! But how does the plot move from the exposition to the resolution? Teach language arts learners and fairy tale fans about the basics of plot...
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Language Practice
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...
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Hanging Out with Stories
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...
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Scrambled Stories II
Review story elements with your class. They will use examples from a story to develop critical-thinking questions. Then they use a graphic organizer to describe the setting, character, and plot of the story, focusing on how they...
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De-Mystifying Poetry: Understanding Narrative Poetry
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.
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
The Backpack Travel Journals
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...
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Creating Plays from Children's Stories
Students explain how individual elements (e.g., plot, theme, character, conflict, etc.) comprise the structure of a play. They write an original one-act play with developed characters, specific setting, conflict, and resolution.
Curated OER
Same Setting, Different Moods: Voice and Word Choice Using Lord of the Flies
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...
Curated OER
Awesome Allegories
Studenets are told that Peter Paul Rubens was born on June 28, 1577, in Siegen, Germany. They create their own allegorical painting, think of a favorite story. Students write a summary of one scene in that story, using Crayola Erasable...
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Noisy Nora, Studious Students: Story Elements
Alliterative adjective nicknames generate stories inspired by Rosemary Wells' book Noisy Nora (also a thematic complement to any class with children who make a ruckus to get attention). Class members explore basic story elements --...
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...
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Plot Development
Students identify the elements of plot and write a script with a strong plot. In this plot lesson, students identify elements of plot in examples by completing a chart and a graphic organizer. Students then create plots from...
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Improvisational Setting - "Where are You?"
Second graders explore setting through improvisations. In this theatre lesson, 2nd graders perform a variety of improvisations in different settings and chart how they established the setting in the different environments.
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And the Moral of the Story is...
Students discover the parts of a story through the retelling of a fable as well as characters, plot, and setting. This lesson is completed using the program Pixie to create an online storybook.
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Map It Out
Explore how illustrations add to a story. Young learners will look at picture books to see how the pictures tell the story. They create illustrations to go with a chosen story, and then flip the activity so they have to write a story to...
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Language Arts: Plotting Stories
Second graders read the story, "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit," as part of a unit on appearances. After reading with partners, they write their own stories that include elements about some forms of matter from their science studies. Students...