Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 1: Contemporary Fiction - They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles
They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems by David Bowles is the focus of a five-week language arts unit unit. Fifth graders listen to various poems and participate in thoughtful discussions, examining vocabulary and learning new words in...
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Character Attributes in Writing
Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances. In this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...
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100 Years War and Joan of Ark
What events led up to the Hundred Years War? In small groups or pairs the class discusses several critical thinking questions and then writes a fictional dialogue that depicts both an English and a French point of view.
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 5: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Fifth graders analyze William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, paying close attention to character development, plot, and dialogue. With daily reading and thoughtful discussion, scholars take pen to paper to respond to journal...
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Understanding the Elements of Fiction
Inform your class on the elements of fiction: themes, settings, characters, plots, dialogue, narration, flashback, clues, climax, resolution. They write the definitions of the terms on the worksheet provided.l Tip: Have them write a...
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Memoir
After reading and analyzing two narrative memoirs, middle schoolers engage in a variety of activities, including writing an essay, developing a story map, and creating character charts. They then compare and contrast story maps, and...
Dream of a Nation
Writing a Narrative Essay
Imagine using narrative essays to encourage change. This multi-week unit plan does just that. After reading a series of articles from Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America, class members examine the...
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Writing Magic
Young scholars write a story. In this writing lesson plan, students are given a series of prompts to promote them in writing a story. The prompts include writing a free write, writing about characters, writing about a setting, writing...
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Imagining Your Science Fiction Short Story
Twelfth graders brainstorm ideas for their own science fiction story. Using worksheets, they sketch the plot and setting for their story. They create appropriate characters and develop their interactions among each other. They share...
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Creating Characters
Students examine the methods of effective characterization. In this writing skills lesson, students discuss how emotions, dialogue, actions, and physical descriptions build believable characters. Students then use the methods of...
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What a Character!
Middle schoolers read a novel and discuss character personality. First, they analyze a character in a novel and keep a chart or web of the character's identity, which includes specific examples from the book. They then write a script...
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Folktales around the World (Middle, Reading/Writing)
Students analyze, synthesize, and use the elements of various US cultural folk tales to describe the elements of fiction in general and in folk tales specifically.
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Writing A Short Story with a Persuasive Letter
Students write short stories. In this story creation lesson, students write their own story and include their previously written persuasive letters as a component of their new story.
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Narrative Writing--The Hobbit
Hobbits, dwarfs, wizards, trolls, and goblins. Readers track these fantastic creatures through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit noting passages of character description and habitats. Using specific passages from the novel, class members craft...
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Consequences of Individual Choices
Students take the sides of Patriots or Tories. In this colonial American lesson, students read primary sources that feature James Murray and Captain Jones. Students then write dialogues and limericks based on a fictional meeting of the 2...
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Writing A Thanksgiving Day Story
Learners write a Thanksgiving Day Story using some or all of the words included in the worksheet. These stories can be fiction or non-fiction (Personal Essays). They are graded on sentence structure, paragraph structure, grammar,...
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Gender Roles in the Mid-Nineteenth CenturyWhat Fiction Tells Us
Students examine 19th century gender roles. In this gender roles lesson, students read "The Daughter-in-Law" and discuss their impressions of etiquette and gender roles in the 19th century. Students write etiquette guides that address...
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Said Is Dead
Students revise writing to improve organization and word choice. They check for logic, order of ideas and precision of vocabulary. Students list different verbs for the word "said." They write dialogue in which the speakers tell a story...
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The Outsiders
Tenth graders complete a variety of activities related to the first two chapters of the book The Outsiders. They define metaphor, simile, idiom, and hyperbole, and take a vocabulary pre-quiz. In small groups, they write a character...
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Analyzing the Use of Irony in a Short Story
Ninth graders examine how literature connects to real-life and see how irony aids in the development of theme. They read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, and discuss elements of foreshadowing and situational irony. Then learners will write...
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Stories
Students read and write a short story. For this short story lesson plan, students read a short story and answer comprehension questions on it that teaches them about the world around them. Then they write a short story to teach something...
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The Life And Times Of The Apple
Students engage in a study about the biology of apples that includes growth and reproduction. They conduct research using a variety of resources. Students write a description of an apple brought to class by answering several questions....
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Persuasive Letter - And Then There Were None
Students read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and write a persuasive letter based on the novel. In this novel analysis and letter writing lesson, students read the story and write a persuasive letter inviting someone to their...
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Food Myths Critical Thinking and Reading
Young scholars read a series of statements made by students about the hazards and benefits of various foods. They distinguish the "facts: from "opinions" in the dialogue, summarize the facts in a short paragraph, and write an essay...