Designed as the final project concluding a study of Mississippi Trial, 1955, readers select a character from Crowe's novel and craft a portfolio of six entries that reveal not only aspects of the character, but similarities between...

Looking for a great lesson plan on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography. They follow a...

Students write about main characters. In this dramatic writing lesson, students brainstorm character ideas. Students create actions and give the character a voice. Students act out the scene in groups and create a final draft.

Students explore tangrams. In this tangrams lesson, students read Three Pigs, One Wolf, and Seven Magic Shapes and then complete a WebQuest on tangrams. Students explore shapes and rotation during the WebQuest and create a new character...

Learners read a story and retell it through role playing. They will read Big Pumpkin, identify the main ideas and important characters, retell the story through dramatic play, and identify their favorite character.

Are you in need of a new way to teach learners sequence of events and how to interpret a character's external motivations? Why not engage them in dramatic play? The class will use tableaux to convey the sequence of events in a familiar...

Created for a 10th grade English classroom studying George Orwell's Animal Farm, this mini-project promotes exploration of character and plot. In the first section, young readers are required to characterize one character from the story,...

A thorough and well-designed resource for older learners, this lesson focuses on Chaucer's character the Wife of Bath from his classic novel, The Canterbury Tales. As a way of understanding Chaucer's complex characterization and...

Young language arts learners write and illustrate a short fantasy story based on the book Corduroy. First, learners need to develop a character. Then, through their writing and illustrations, they take their characters on adventures...

To demonstrate their understand of the characters in Wuthering Heights and their motivations, readers assume the identity of one of the characters and write a letter to another character in the Bronte's novel.

Exploring and discovering what to do after high school graduation is a very real topic for 12th graders. They examine their own character traits, the traits commonly needed in specific careers, and what type of career best suits them...

Examine the fables of Aesop with your class. Pupils identify the morals of fables and role-play a scene from their favorite fable of Aesop. Additionally, they compose letters to a favorite character in the fable. Learners role-play again...

Students discover characterization techniques and methods. In this characterization instructional activity, students choose favorite fiction characters and discuss what makes a character come alive. Students then describe a family member...

Teach your young readers how to summarize a text using a strategy called Somebody Wanted But So. Kids identify the character (Somebody), the motivation (Wanted), the conflict (But), and the resolution (So). The resource comes with...

The works of Carol Ann Duffy, Scottish poet and Britain's 2009 poet laureate, serve as a model for a writing activity that asks class members to select a character card, brainstorm lists of words, phrases, actions, and items associated...

Examine the characters in Willa Cather's My Antonia with a group project. Small groups illustrate their chosen character on a large piece of paper and choose quotes from the text that tell about the character. Where students choose...

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...

Young drama pupils will perform a number of expressive speaking exercises as they consider the themes of responsibility, consequences, and justice in the very modern Australian play The Stones. With a lot of role playing and...

Analyze point of view and how it affects a literary work with this lesson. Middle schoolers create a written piece that focuses on point of view. They review the literary term "point of view," and explore examples of the term in text....

Explore narrative writing by participating in a role-playing activity. In this perspective instructional activity, learners define first and third person in writing and discuss how it changes the mood of the reader. The first activity...

Role play as a person living in the 1830s working in a Lowell factory. The class will take on the role of factory owner, girl on strike, talk show host, and girl not wanting to strike. Each group will analyze and research their character...

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...

Following the method used by Truman Capote, class members research a major character from his novel, In Cold Blood, and then conduct an interview with that character. The resulting research is used to craft a newspaper article about the...

How does our moral reasoning shape our identity? After a study of Kohlberg's Levels of Moral Reasoning, readers use Kohlberg's theories to analyze the speech, thoughts, and decisions of a character in A Separate Peace. They then...