Mark Twain's frame story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" provides an opportunity for a study of this story-within-a-story pattern. Using an illustrated template, class members record a plot summary of the frame story...

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,...

Youngsters practice summarizing and retelling the story of The Three Little Pigsin their own words as well as the original version of the book. They color the pictures and cut out a similiar house on their own as well.

Explore the concept of retelling a story with the Gingerbread Man. Read various gingerbread man stories with your class. They will create character puppets and retell the story to one another and in small groups. Additionally, they will...

Students explore world literature through completing several varied exercises. In this compare and contrast lesson students compare and contrast stories and how time and culture impacts the stories.

Does your class love reading cartoons? Use their talents and interests to examine the process of writing a story they wish to tell through a cartoon. They develop the beginning, middle, and end of a story based on their original...

Students examine the rock cycle by watching videos and then use creative storytelling techniques to tell the story of a rock as it undergoes geologic changes.

What a fantastic project idea for discussing not only the history of America's expansion into the West, but for reviewing any major unit of history in your class. Pupils build stamp collections to visually represent themes of the...

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...

Do figures of speech enhance a play or story? In small groups, learners locate and describe figures of speech they find while reading a reader's theater play. After making predictions, they describe how the figures of speech make the...

High schoolers examine the culture and history of the Hmong. Using story cloths, they investigate how they were used as expressions of their culture. They discover the Hmong's economic conditions and how they were able to form a new...

Students investigate how quilt making was a family and community activity. They read and discuss books, complete various handouts, and create a paper quilt celebrating philanthropic activities.

Students create a canteen and binoculars before reading, Going on a Lion Hunt.  In this reading lesson, students reenact the story they have just heard by using the props they have created.   

Seventh graders examine the setting in pieces of fiction.  In this story analysis lesson, 7th graders investigate the setting in fictional stories and the importance it has.  Students discover new vocabulary terms applying to...

Sometimes it's okay to text in school. Young computer scientists work in the Scratch program to write a text message conversation among friends. They use different sprites within the program to represent each side of the conversation to...

Students choose a short story from the class literature book. They find information about the author. They read the short story from the literature textbook. They create a PowerPoint to retell the short story.

Scholars summarize sections of a book and compile them to create a book trailer. They are assigned sections of a book to read and summarize before recording as short video segments. The segments are put together in order to create a book...

The Yukon provides plenty of opportunity for adventure. A study guide for The Call of the Wild by Jack London, also the author of White Fang, helps readers navigate the novel which is set in Yukon, Canada. Chapter summaries give a...

Students gain an understanding of relationships between music and language arts. They analyze a story and create a musical composition that reflects and enhances the story. The musical accompaniment will be produced in a book on tape.

Students practice summarization by creating a story map. After reading Freckle Juice, students working in groups, create a story map of the main events of the story. Groups use their story maps to summarize a chapter of the story and...

Students read summaries of the books written by the author Mildred Taylor. In this summaries lesson plan, students read the summaries of 6 books and answer discussion questions about them after they read them.

Students practice using visualization to aid in their reading comprehension. After a read aloud of a selected story, students write a brief summary of the plot accompanied by an illustration of the characters they have visualized.

Students practice summarizing text by retelling what they have read. They read selected, leveled passages and use enthusiastic and createive ways to members of their group. Students complete a journal entry documenting their experience...

Students practice visualizing elements from a poem or story. While reading a poem aloud, the instructor models what they see as they read the passage. Students draw a picture of the main character of the story "Because of Winn-Dixie"...