Learners read and analyze William Faulkner's novel, 'As I Lay Dying.' They define Faulkner's place in American literary history, describe Faulkner's "South" in the context of the historical South and examine the Bundren family through...

Do you know the setting of The Count of Monte Cristo? What about the main characters? Explore the elements of Alexandre Dumas' novel with a reading comprehension activity. Kids toss boxes with literary elements written on each side,...

No more summer reading lag! Give young readers a set of graphic organizers and worksheets to keep track of the books they read over the summer and to keep reading comprehension skills fresh. The graphic organizers include identifying...

Come up with a list of requirements for this expository essay on Esperanza's character in Esperanza Rising as a class and use the list to guide class writing. Here, learners will complete the first paragraph, discuss their notes for the...

Students read picture books in which mathematics and solutions to math problems play a role in the action. After discussing the books and how the author used math problems to tell a story, they create their own magical, math-ical story...

“The Wounded,” the title story from a collection of stories about the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1977-78), is the central text in a World Literature unit examining choices. An anticipation guide, discussion topics, vocabulary list,...

Strengthen the bonds of friendship within your class with a reading of E.B. White's award-winning novel, Charlotte's Web. Focusing on the unique characters in the story and the relationships they develop, young readers draw...

"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly." The second lesson in an 11-part unit that accompanies The Twits by Roald Dahl uses poetry to encourage positive character traits. Mrs. Twit has ugly thoughts, but those...

When viewpoints collide, conflict arises. Can your pupils identify the components of conflict? The fourth in a series of 15 lessons about peacebuilding helps participants identify the underlying causes of conflict. Teams role play to...

Examine discrimination. In this character education instructional activity, learners read two biographies, Vivien Naki and Hamilton Naki then analyze their personal discrimination experiences. They complete a Venn diagram to...

Use quotes from characters in a multitude of Shakespeare plays to identify the speaker. Some of the questions have hints about the play they come from. Ten multiple-choice questions challenge the Shakesperean reader.

Look at exact quotes from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Each answer contains four characters to choose from as the speaker. See how well your class knows this play!

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...

How would Jean-Etiénne Liotard paint the characters from "The Little Mermaid?" What would the main character from "The Little Match Girl" look like from Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes' point of view? After examining various paintings...

Students research treatments for problems associated with specific characters.  In this online research lesson, students use kid-friendly search engines to find information that will help a character from Charlie and the Chocolate...

Students exemplify non-stereotypical behavior. In this character education lesson, students read Pink and Say and discuss the negative effects of judging people on superficial characteristics. Students fill in a chart how they felt about...

In this literacy worksheet, students create a graphic organizer for the character of Anne Marie from Number The Stars. Then they write a description of her.

Students respond to works of art. For this art interpretation lesson, students examine images of art while using concepts they learned as they read literary pieces. They detail the setting, characters, and the mood and theme of the works...

Young scholars identify simple pictographs and ideographs from Chinese writing. They create their own images, and combine characters to communicate ideas to one another, introducing basic foundations of how elements of the Chinese...

Students explore bullying.  In this character development lesson, students discuss verbal and nonverbal bullying. Using the "sticks and stones" adage, students write a sentence describing a hurtful act on a gray piece of paper,...

In this comprehension skills worksheet, students read the book Henry and Mudge and complete comprehension activities. Students complete activities such as inferences, drawing conclusions, character traits, and main idea and...

Fifth graders analyze character relationships. In this analyzing relationships lesson, 5th graders read The Great Gilly Hopkins and describe how the characters feel about one another as well as the positive and negative aspects of...

Learners make a book about kindness.  In this character lesson, students read a story about kindness and discuss how it applies to life.  Learners complete a kindness counts page and then assemble them into a book. ...

Students examine the issues that many male and female teenagers are forced to deal with during their adolescence. They analyze characters from different genres through comparing and contrasting their stories and the skills they used to...