EL Education
El Education: Vinnie Di Carlo
An online book entitled Vinnie DiCarlo by fifth and sixth grade students from Shutesbury Elementary School in Shutesbury, Massachusetts. The book includes an in-depth character study based on a character created by the students and...
Daily Teaching Tools
Daily Teaching Tools: Customizable Graphic Organizers
This Daily Teaching Tools resource provides a series of graphic organizers for reading students. Forms are provided for plot, character analysis, reading logs, and reading responses.
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: 103 Things to Do Before/during/after Reading
The highly-respected Reading Rockets program offers both teachers and students a toolkit of ways to connect more actively with the materials they read. Some of these techniques are specifically for fiction-reading, others are designed...
PBS
Pbs: Endgame: Ethics and Values in America
At this interactive site from PBS, viewers enter the lives of fictional characters who are forced to make critical decisions about their roles in a fatal car crash. A variety of media--video, polling, and audio interviews with an expert...
TES Global
Blendspace: The Giver
This blendspace includes thirty-two spaces with content connected to Lois Lowry's dystopia novel, The Giver. Links include novel discussion questions, author interviews, and video tutorials to review literary topics.
EL Education
El Education: Camilla E. Church
This character file was created by a 5th/6th grade student in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, as part of a Learning expedition on architecture. Though only one is shown here, each student's character file (CF) tells the detailed life story,...
PBS
Pbs: American Masters: Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light
Associated with the PBS program, this site contains a biography, a career timeline, video interviews with some of Poitier's fellow actors and an interview with the director of the PBS special. This site provides an in-depth look at the...
University of Manitoba
Cm Magazine Profiles: Andrea Beck
Andrea Beck, a Canadian children's writer, is the creator of a book series starring the character Elliot the Moose. This is an interview with her from 2003. The bibliography lists her books up until then, with some links to reviews.
University of Texas at Austin
Francais Interactif Descriptions of People
Interactive videos make use of extensive vocabulary in context to illustrate physical and character descriptions of people. Has audio and video clips as well as interviews - great listening comprehension.
Other
Kirkus Media: Judith Viorst
An interview with Judith Viorst where she talks about her children's book Lulu Walks the Dogs. She describes how she created the character Lulu and her admiration of her illustrator, Lane Smith. She also talks about the impact her book...
![De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: See Our Progress [Pdf] Unit Plan](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: See Our Progress [Pdf] Unit Plan")
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: See Our Progress [Pdf]
"See Our Progress" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about students planting a prairie garden in a vacant lot close to the school. TV reporters interviewed the students and took pictures of the garden for the news that evening....
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: Using Tableau and Role Drama to Examine the Ecosystem [Pdf]
In this lesson plan, 4th graders use tableaux to dramatize their roles in the food chain of an ecosystem. Next, they write in role arguing why they are important to the ecosystem. This is followed by a debate in the format of a Character...
Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: Walk Two Moons
Discussion question, a lesson plan, and links to related resources for teaching students reading "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech.
Read Works
Read Works: Instrumental Talent
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read about Ruby Jane Smith, a 12-year-old who plays 11 different instruments. A question sheet is available to help students build reading comprehension skills.
PBS
Pbs Online News Hour: American Revolutionary?
An interview of Thurgood Marshall's biographer, Juan Williams, from the PBS Newshour. Provides insight into the character, background, and motivation of Thurgood Marshall.