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Stories
Read, discuss, and write short stories with your primary class. They read a short story and complete worksheets for the story. They also brainstorm ideas for a class story and choose an idea to write 3 ideas and then write the story as a...
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In Search of Self: Adolescent Themes in the Twentieth Century Short Story
Students read short stories that are related to adolescent issues and behaviors. In groups, they review the elements of a short story and vocabulary they might need while reading. To end the lesson plan, they read "Sir Tatton Sykes"...
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Greek Story Vases
There are so many ways to tell a story! Develop visual storytelling skills while facilitating an understanding of Greek art and culture. Learners design Greek style images to tell a story through art. They add their designs to Styrofoam...
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Frame Story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
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...
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What If: The Seed Of A Story
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...
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Fairy Tales Unit Ideas
Students listen to children's fairy tales and watch them on a video. Afterward, they list the heroes from each story. Students write a short paragraph about a typical day for the hero. Students dress up like their character and give a...
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Every Living Thing
Students read the book "Every Living Thing." They read one story at a time, and participate in various activities. Some of these activities include the following ideas: Students write about a time when they were in a similar situation as...
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Story Writing
Students work in groups to create a story that will be presented to the class. In this story writing instructional activity, students complete a project planning sheet, work together to create a story that includes a hero and at least...
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Convince that Jury (Inspired by Roald Dahl's
What happened to a murder case when the police eat the murder weapon? After reading Roald Dahl's dark and ironic short story "Lamb to the Slaughter," students write a persuasive essay to convince a jury that the wife who killed her...
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Show Me the Story
Students examine the elements of a story, read a review of Chris Rock's new sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris" and create original sitcom episodes based on their own lives.
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Understanding Character
Readers practice character analysis by reviewing Gary Soto's short story "La Bamba" with the whole class (anything you've read together will work). They design t-shirts that feature traits and story elements to reveal the nature of a...
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What a Garden Can Teach Us
Third graders read "Seedfolks" and "What a Garden Can Teach Us" and discuss how a garden is like a community. They create a class quilt illustrating how their classroom community the lines of the poem.
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Leaf People
Kids create leaf people out of sticks, glue, and leaves. They use their imagination to construct leaf people and then glue them onto construction paper. Tip: Extend this craft by incorporating writing. Have learners write a short story...
Common Sense Media
The Masque of the Red Death
Poe goes high tech with a lesson that asks high schoolers to use the internet and various apps as they read and analyze "The Masque of the Red Death." In addition to responding to comprehension questions in Quizlet, they use Minecraft to...
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Haunting Music
Students discover music that was inspired by the spooky and bizarre. In this music of Hector Berlioz and Camille Saint-Saens lesson plan, students identify elements of music and listen to the Symphonie Fantastique and Danse Macabre....
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Life in Letters
Students explore the relationship between an author's life and their work. Students research the historical and personal events surrounding a Nobel Prize winning author and how they are reflected in the author's writing. They create a...
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Historical Fiction- Thanksgiving
Students write a story. In this historical fiction lesson plan, students research how Thanksgiving began. Students write a fictional story where they are a main character of this time period.
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Fun with Summarizing
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...
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Children's Book Creations
Students create a children's book version of the Japanese folk story "Momotaro Boy of the Peach" and present the story to elementary students. In this children's book lesson, students design their book to explain Japanese culture to...
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The Wright Stuff
For this lesson, students design an exhibition on the history of aviation for a science museum. For homework, they write short stories envisioning the future of flight in the year 2014.
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The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of a...
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Cook-A-Doodle Doo! Lesson Plan
Students enjoy the excitement in the short story, Cook-A-Doodle-Doo! For this Cook-A-Doodle Doo! lesson plan, students work to tell the difference between fact and fiction, learn vocabulary, and compare and contrast different stories.
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E.T., Are You Out There?
Research the necessary components of a planet that supports life after reading the article "All of a Sudden, The Neighborhood Looks a Lot Friendlier" from The New York Times. After finding their information, middle and high schoolers...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Mathematicus Dramaticus
The best part about this resource is that you've got four wonderful activities to choose from. Each of the projects can work together or on its own to help learners understand the history of math and how it can be seen every day. In...