Through reading and writing, learners explore common elements found in fairy tales. After discussing traditional fairy tales, class members listen to The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by John Scieszka, a hilarious retelling of the...

Students explore sequencing. In this sequencing lesson, students sequence events to analyze character actions as cause and effect or the plot of the story. Students discuss character actions and list them on a chart.

Take a trip to the library! Elementary schoolers visit the library and choose books to read independently. They use the cover-up method of deciphering unknown words and use timed-readings to increase fluency. They discuss characters,...

Fourth and fifth graders use their knowledge of developing character, dialogue, and setting to produce an original story. An excerpt from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is used as inspiration to get everyone's...

Students explore the elements of film to analyze character, action, and the themes in the movie, "Quiz Show." The lesson encourages students to make personal connections and real life applications as they view the movie, critically.

Examine character in depth. Over the course of these six lessons, learners explore their own character traits, determine the traits of characters in the books they read, practice comparing and contrasting, and collaborate in small...

A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...

Earth Day is a great topic to write about, and graphic organizers can really help learners classify their thoughts. Here is a fantastic set of themed worksheets that will allow your class to explore and write about conservation. Each...

A fancifully illustrated guide to Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox, this series of lessons, activities, and tasks could be used in its entirety or picked apart and used piecemeal. Have young readers investigate the role of dialogue in...

Fourth graders are introduced to a list of vocabulary words as it relates to the story Eleanor and Amelia Go for a Ride and a use graphic organizer to clarify the meaning of the text. In this "Eleanor and Amelia Go for a Ride"...

With several online resources for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, as well as many reading and literary analysis activities, this novel study guide is a great way to keep your young readers organized during a book report. The guide...

Students read a chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and define new words for their dictionaries. In this vocabulary lesson students choose two or three assignment from a list of projects and complete it using...

Everyone loves the tales involving King Arthur and his knights. After reading Knights of the Round Table by Gwen Gross, learners draw inferences and conclusions, analyze story elements, and discuss figurative language, including...

In this Of Mice and Men viewing guide worksheet, learners study movie terminology as they read brief descriptions and respond to 26 short answer questions as the watch the film based on Steinbeck's novel.

Students complete a variety of activities related to the book "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White. They create a comic strip based on the characters, setting, and plot of the story, and examine the author's writing process. In small groups...

Students define fictional story elements. For this reading comprehension lesson, students read Jack and the Beanstalk and view an included SMARTboard lesson. Students use the SMARTboard to match the story element terms with the specific...

Seventh graders identify story elements utilizing a plot summary organizer. In this story elements lesson, 7th graders discuss the elements of a good story. Students use The Three Little Pigs to practice finding the plot elements....

Third graders practice identifying characters and story elements by creating a character cluster in class.  For this story analysis lesson, 3rd graders discuss the story Snow White and identify the characteristics of the evil witch....

How do we know how a character was affected by the conflicts they encounter in a story? We use evidence from the text to make assertions about the characters we read about. Third graders practice finding and using evidence in a...

Second graders discuss important things to know when reading stories, identify setting in variety of stories, create story map to record information as they are reading, state setting in their own words, discuss whether they thought...

Students explain how individual elements (e.g., plot, theme, character, conflict, etc.) comprise the structure of a play. They write an original one-act play with developed characters, specific setting, conflict, and resolution.

Collective story writing is a great way to reinforce the concept of story elements and collaborative learning. Young writers discuss story elements such as, setting, character, action, climax, conclusion, foreshadowing, dialogue, and...

Young readers write a descriptive paper on the fantasy characters in The Hobbit. They take notes as they read the novel in order to provide descriptions of the character traits of hobbits, dwarfs, trolls, wizards, and goblins. They...

Budding novelists work on character development by relating to the characters in their stories. They imagine their own hopes and dreams and recall those of characters from books they've read. Learners also consider struggles the...