Learning to Give
What Are Your Thoughts?
The varying responses of the characters in Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to the discrimination they experience or perpetrate provides readers with an opportunity to not only examine the feelings of the characters but to...
Curated OER
Gingerbread Baby Unit
Learners participate in a variety of activities surrounding the book, Gingerbread Baby, by Jan Brett. They can create a house, a map, ornaments, and their own books. Additionally, they can draw, paint, or write out attributes for each...
Curated OER
Dusty Locks and the Three Bears
Read this twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell. Kindergartners listen, predict, and discuss the story. They then participate in a dramatization of the story and draw a picture to...
Curated OER
Shizuko’s Daughter: Biopoem
The characters in Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori are complex and vivid. Compare their characteristics with a biopoem, which prompts learners to complete a format with adjectives, relationships, and additional details that describe each...
Novelinks
Sense and Sensibility: Anticipation Guide Reading Strategy
Begin your discussion about Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility before you even open the book. Kids fill in a worksheet that lists five statements about the literary themes of the novel, and then discuss their opinions as a group. Once...
Curated OER
Shizuko’s Daughter: Unsent Letter
Have you ever wanted to tell a character what you really thought of him or her? Use a lesson based on Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter to encourage learners to write a letter in response to a character's actions.
Anti-Defamation League
Say Something: Discussion Guide for Grades 2-4
Empower pupils to stop bullying when they see or experience it with a lesson that showcases the book, Say Something by Margaret Paula Moss. After reading the tale and thoughtfully discussing its characters, they share their own...
Curated OER
Inferring Character Traits
Here is a lesson which is "flexible," and can operate as an individual or whole class activity. After reading a book of their choosing, with the use of a semantic map, learners identify character traits. They infer how their feelings...
Curated OER
Guest Readers
Young readers explore reading comprehension by creating a class presentation. For this storytelling lesson, puils read an assigned text in class and analyze the characters, settings and story. They create an illustrated presentation in...
Curated OER
Storytelling in the Classroom
What makes story telling special? Young readers demonstrate how to tell a story to others. Kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders read biographies of "Building Blocks" characters and tell a story about a character to their...
Curated OER
Comprehension-Characters/characterization
Fifth graders discuss characterization as well as to define antagonist and protagonist. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders write questions for an interview of a character in the book "The Three Little Pigs" and then answer them....
Curated OER
Character Traits
Sixth graders explore details from a story to develop ideas and opinions about character traits. Using a Smart Board, 6th graders create a chart explaining the character's action and traits. In groups, students discuss and describe...
Curated OER
Character Traits
Using a three-column chart labeled "Character," "Action," and "Trait," pupils analyze the traits of several characters from a short story. The lesson is designed for a SMART board, but a teacher could easily do the lesson without the...
Curated OER
Characterization of Mice and Men
Using a SMART board presentation (provided), your class discusses the characterization of Lenny, George, Curley, Curley's wife, and the farmhands in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The presentation includes a list of traits for...
Curated OER
Stereotype Characters Activity
Here is a lesson designed for middle schoolers which helps them recognize stereotypes one way or another against a particular group of people. They also determine what may have motivated the author to use a stereotype in the first place....
EngageNY
Author’s Craft: The Poetry of the Play
Feel the rhythm! Pupils begin reading Act 2, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as they continue participating in a drama circle. With discussion, they examine Shakespeare's use of rhyme, rhythm, and meter, analyzing how...
Nemours KidsHealth
Self-Esteem: Grades 6-8
It would be lovely if we all had mirrors that told us were were fabulous. Alas, such devices designed to boost self-esteem have yet to be invented. However, there are activities that can prove effective. Two activities in a four-page...
Overcoming Obstacles
Becoming a Good Friend
A lesson puts a spotlight on becoming a good friend. After pointing out TV friendships, scholars listen to several scenarios and discuss whether the characters exhibit good or bad friendly behaviors. Learners reflect on the friendships...
Curated OER
Say It Like A Character
Middle schoolers read a story and retell it to the class by role-playing one of the characters. In groups, they use the correct facial expressions along with body language and voice to convince the others in their group that they are...
Curated OER
Character Traits
First graders identify the story elements in stories. In this story element lesson, 1st graders read The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter and they identify the characters, character traits, setting, problem, and solution. They...
Curated OER
Story Creation Magic: Character, Setting, Plot
Students review the terms plot, setting, and characters and examine how all of these elements are needed to make a story. They are given parts of stories and they try to identify all of those parts of the story.
Curated OER
LETTER FROM ONE CHARACTER TO ANOTHER
Fourth graders read stories and pick one with characters they find interesting. Then students create a dialogue of writing a letter from one character to another. The letter must relate to the original story in some way that can easily...
Curated OER
Where the Red Fern Grows: A 4th Grade Literary Focus Unit
Fourth graders explore the human and animal connection along with the idea that death is a part of the life cycle. They read "Where the Red Fern Grows." Students examine the feelings and emotions surrounding death and they discover the...
Curated OER
Gingerbread Baby Language Arts/Grammer #6
Students are read the story "Gingerbread Baby". They draw and cut out the characters from the story and create a mobile to hang from their classroom ceiling. They write a sentence using a verb on the back.