Teachers Network
Witness for the Prosecution: Online Newspaper
Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution becomes the text for an online newspaper activity. Young journalists craft news, features, obituary, and opinion articles based on the characters and events in the play.
Channel Islands Film
Cache: Lesson Plan 4 - Grades 4-5
After viewing the West of the West's documentary Cache, individuals craft either a newspaper article chronicling the discovery of the cache on San Nicolas Island, a historical narrative of the placement of the cache in the cliff side, or...
Curated OER
The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush
Third graders complete activities for the book The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, by Tomie dePaola. In this literature lesson plan, the students read the story and summarize the main events. They look for story elements focusing on the...
Curated OER
Introduction to Little House Books
Third graders identify the main characters in the Ingalls family and describe the relationships between the characters. They locate the setting of the book on a map of the Upper Mid- West. Students understand that the books are set in...
Curated OER
Imaginative Power - Exploring Superheroes
Third graders identify super human powers and their uses found in comic and cartoon characters, identify use of visual elements such as line, shape, and color, and create drawings of an original super character with at least two extra...
Curated OER
Sam and the Lucky Money
Third graders read the story "Sam and the Lucky Money". Individually, they identify new key terms from the story. In groups, they examine the setting and discuss how it relates to the plots and characters. To end the lesson, they read...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Character Comparison
Fourth graders, using Kidspiration, compare and contrast the two main characters from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. They use a teacher-created template to describe their characters. Students then create their own character analysis.
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
A Morning of Weighing Babies
High schoolers read sections of "A Morning of Weighing Babies". Individually, they write a paragraph examining the main characters and their actions. After sharing a few writings, they discuss the relationship between the author and the...
Curated OER
Every Living Thing
Students read the book "Every Living Thing." They read one story at a time, and participate in various activities. Some of these activities include the following ideas: Students write about a time when they were in a similar situation as...
Curated OER
Describing Family - Lesson Plan
Young scholars describe their family in their new language French. They use adjectives, and proper gender. Then they describe how the family is alike and different.
Novelinks
The House on Mango Street: List-Group-Label
Encourage close reading of the text and a focus on how Sandra Cisneros' develops her characters with an activity that asks teams to sort, group, and label character descriptions from The House on Mango Street.
Curated OER
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: Graphic Organizer: Venn Diagram
Get to know more about the characters of the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis by comparing and contrasting their character traits using a Venn diagram.
Curated OER
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Graphic Organizer: Venn Diagram
Compare and contrast the characters in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Using a Venn diagram, kids write in different traits to describe each person, and note their shared characteristics in the middle section.
Curated OER
Pride and Prejudice: Biopoem
Describe yourself or a character from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with a biopoem activity. Using the provided format, kids write their own characteristics or the character traits from the novel to create a poetic portrait.
Curated OER
Eyes That Talk
Students explore their personal strengths and characteristics and write a short description of themselves. Afterward, they create a dramatic self-portrait with an expression that identifies who they are. Students fill the areas around...
Curated OER
Heroes and Sidekicks from Popular Culture
Students discuss familiar fictional characters. In this fictional characters lesson students practice pronunciation of adjectives. They describe the personality of popular characters by answering questions about those characters.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Analyzing Literary Elements in Fiction
Students analyze the characters and events in fictional writing. In this literary elements lesson, students study the meaning of the words characterization and fiction. They listen to the story Pigsty by Mark Teague, or any other book...
Curated OER
Comic Theater
Young scholars explore stock characters and pantomime. In this comic theater lesson, students examine an ancient Greek statuette depicting a comic actor and an ancient Roman lamp decorated with a comic mask. Young scholars pantomime...
Curated OER
Chaucer's Characters in The General Prologue
Twelfth graders explore the characters in The General Prologue. They describe the characters and their occupations and their lands of origin. Students organize the characters using Excel spreadsheets.
EngageNY
Close Reading of Thank You, Mr. Falker: Identifying the Superpowers of Reading
Third graders read excepts from the story, Thank You, Mr. Falker in order to gain practice in understanding an unfamiliar story by focusing on the details. They use a worksheet, embedded in the plan, which directs them to certain...
EngageNY
Introducing Close Reading: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes About Rain School
This second lesson in a larger unit is perfect for the beginning of the year because it explicitly teaches 3rd graders how to use close reading skills by identifying unfamiliar words, figuring out the gist, and defining important...
Curated OER
Build an Indoor Compost Bin
Students write an essay to describe the contents of a compost bin. In this composting lesson, students create a compost bin. Students examine soil for its contents and explains in an essay the impact of the soil on the environment.
Curated OER
"Exploring Shakespeare" An Introduction of Character and "Hamlet"
Young scholars examine the literary terms "round character" and "characterization" through the play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare. They view and discuss examples of clip art, video, and comic strips, and describe the character traits....