Eighth graders implement plot summary organizers to identify essential elements such as conflict and resolution in literature. In pairs, they retell fairy tales to each other and complete plot summaries about them. As students read new...

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...

Examine the lives of four women—Blanche Stuart Scott, Madeleine L'Engle, Margaret Evans Price, and Sybil Ludington—in a 23-page activity packet. Each profile comes with a set of vocabulary and reading comprehension questions. Further...

Seventh graders write a few sentences explaining the most important events of their lives during the past year. As a class, they discuss why they chose the elements they did for their sentences. To end the lesson, they read a variety of...

Seventh graders explore the various elements found in the advertisement of a dramatic experience. Playbills are created that reflect the plot without revealing the climax of the play. Costumes, set construction, and character description...

Students examine American culture through research on various soap opera websites. They access a soap opera website, participate in a chat group, evaluate the contents of the website, and write a summary of a character and plot.

Students read a short selection of a story individually or as a class. On their own, they create a story pyramid for the selection and write a one page summary. They use text from the story for their supporting details. To end the...

Students explore The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. In this plot summary lesson, students read the book and take notes about the plot.  Students write a plot summary of The Fellowship of the Ring.

Students explore The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  In this book review lesson, students examine the elements included in a book review, such as author, opinions of the book, summary, character information, main points and plot summary....

Students will explore And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.  In this analysis lesson, students read And Then There Were None and take notes about the book as they read. Students write a plot summary of the book. 

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...

Students demonstrate an evaluation of how the culture of a time period influences storytelling narratives by comparing Adeline's story to the plot summary of Cinderella and Anne Sexton's poem Cinderella. They write a poem which reworks a...

Students summarize a story, identify the plot structure, and create a symbol that represents the essence of the story.

Students write summaries that contain the main ideas and the most significant details of a reading selection. In this language arts lesson plan, students first play a game in which groups compete against each other to put the summary of...

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...

Students examine the differences between standard and non-standard English and use text-speak to rewrite a plot summary and a news story. They identify a type of non-standard English and determine the characteristics that make it...

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.

Learners view the Masterpiece Theatre presentation of Oliver Twist. the lesson plan includes plot summaries of the three episodes as well as before and after viewing activities. In addition, there are discussion and activity...

Third graders practice using visualization to aid in their reading comprehension. After a reading a chapter from the book "Charlotte's Web," students write a brief summary of the plot using their visualizations, aided by reading...

Students review the literary elements of plot and conflict. In this plot and conflict activity, students read a story and answer questions about the plot and conflict within. Students create a concept map for the novel to identify the...

What makes a good leader? Use the curriculum guide for William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to help scholars answer that question. Pupils research the play's historical context and other background information before engaging in...

Explore literature through the completion of reading comprehension worksheets in class. After reading the classic book, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, middle schoolers review each chapter by completing study questions and story webs....

Students take an in depth examine baseball record breakers. They calculate statistics, not just for one year, but over whole careers, to compare some famous players and find who was the best all-time home run hitter.

Learners complete a unit of lessons on William Shakespeare's Hamlet. They analyze the plot, themes, and characterization, relate songs to thematic issues, develop plot summaries and translations, and compare the play to a movie version.