Curated OER
Mr. Peabody's Apples
Young scholars read Mr. Peabody's Apples. In this reading instructional activity, students complete pre-and post-reading activities to improve comprehension skills. Young scholars role play scenes from the story to analyze.
Curated OER
Setting Goals with Benjamin Franklin
Students discuss historical accounts and accomplishments of "Benjamin Franklin" which exemplify good character traits. They create a display of paper keys which describe these traits. They relate these traits to their future goals and...
Curated OER
Wordle It
Students discuss, define, and give themselves character traits. In this character traits lesson, students create a list of ten character traits that describe themselves. Students create a data table and poll their classmates about the...
Curated OER
Identifying Descriptive Language
Third graders analyze a text to find descriptive language. For this language arts lesson, 3rd graders read a text looking for descriptive words that describe the character.
Curated OER
Plain Polly: Adding Relevant Details
Students use a stick figure to help them learn to write with details. In this details lesson, students brainstorm details to add to the stick figure 'Plain Polly.' Students then draw stick figures for their own writing and give them a...
Curated OER
Who? What? Where? When? - Story Elements
Second graders see how to identify and describe character, setting, and plot in various stories from picture books and story videos. They use picture books and story videos to practice identifying and describing the story elements.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Exploring Key Ideas and Details in Fiction and Nonfiction
Third graders participate in activities to differentiate fiction from nonfiction. In this fiction lesson, 3rd graders describe the elements of a fiction story. Students compare and contrast fiction and non fiction elements....
Curated OER
Cuentos
Students revise Spanish mystery stories. They sequence the events from a group's mystery story and suggest revisions for the setting. They revise their stories using the suggestions from classmates and describe characters in folktales....
Curated OER
Martin Luther King Jr.
After listening to a story about Martin Luther King Jr., first graders answer questions about the text. They discuss the importance of the illustrations, identify the beginning, middle, and end of the story, and complete a writing...
Curated OER
Hubris Lesson Plan
Bring this lesson on hubris to your short story unit. After reading Jack London's "To Build a Fire," young readers discuss the role of hubris in the protagonist's death. The lesson has connections to other short stories, such as "The...
Curated OER
"Three Shots": Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams
Analyze characterization in literature. Readers use "Three Shots," from The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway and complete classroom activities that require them to apply literary analysis techniques. They write their own short...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Character in Place: Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” for the Common Core
How do writers use the interaction between elements like characterization and setting to create meaning? Readers of "A Worn Path" create a series of comic book-style graphics of Eudora Welty's short story and reflect on how Welty...
Curated OER
Presenting Ethical Dilemmas in the Classroom
Students explore the dilemma of bioethics. Students review a cast study on a bioethical topic. They research the facts, values, and stakemakers in the controversial debate. Students consider the consequences and discuss their findings...
Curated OER
Defining Character, With Help from History
In a single, soundly-designed class period, high schoolers define good character, think-pair-share about thought-provoking quotes on character (More options would enhance the discussion, worth searching online for other quotes to add.),...
Curated OER
Understanding a Narrative: The True Story of Balto
Strong comprehension questions and a list of initiating events that drive the plot make this resource worth a try in your classroom. Intended for use with tools specific to the mindwing concepts reading strategy system, the outline...
Curated OER
The Rigors of Learning a New Language
Students read an autobiography of a peace corps volunteer studying Chinese. In this cultural acceptance lesson, students compare the dialects of Chinese with English dialects. Students discuss the differences in learning and teaching a...
Curated OER
An Introduction to Of Mice and Men
By collaborating on producing a product ad and slogan, learning partners demonstrate their understanding of the difference between connotative and denotative language. This week-long activity is designed to be used as an introduction to...
Curated OER
Pop Art Personalities
Students study the artwork of Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein, and compare and contrast his art with popular comic book imagery. They create drawings in Lichtenstein's style that reflect emotions in facial expressions and thought bubbles....
Curated OER
Scrolling Along
Young scholars summarize the important parts of a story, identify the characters, and decide how to picture several scenes that describe the setting and action. They graphically represent the important elements of the story on a fabric...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Mummies in the Morning Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphics
Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...
Curated OER
Narrative Strategies
Sixth graders explore strategies authors use to make characters and setting seem real to readers. They develop characters and describe setting in original narratives. Students read myths and determine common themes found in myths from...
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss For a Day
Second graders brainstorm words to describe Thing One and Thing Two characters from Dr. Seuss computer program, use variety of adjectives to create descriptions, and create new set of characters, Thing Three and Thing Four, by drawing...
Curated OER
Keith Haring & Social Awareness
Students view four sections of one of Haring's paintings. They describe the people and characters they see. Students participate in a variety of classroom art activities such as: Making a treasure box modeled after Keith Haring's work,...
Curated OER
Picture a Character
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...