Curated OER
Seeking a Fortune in 18th Century Maritime Boston
Study the Revolutionary War era practice of recruiting seamen to prey upon the British shipping industry, and discuss the impact this practice had on the Colonial war efforts. Learners read and interpret recruiting advertisements for...
Curated OER
Theatre Lesson Plan: Finding Your Way
Second graders identify story elements in familiar stories from their lives. For this story elements lesson, 2nd graders act out familiar activities by following directions. Students read a story and discuss the story elements....
Curated OER
Story Elements/Characterization
Students investigate language arts by analyzing a book with their classmates. In this children's literature lesson, students read the story Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant and discuss the setting and characters. Students create a T-Chart in...
Michigan Department of Education
Family Fundamentals for Summer Learning
Just because it's summertime, doesn't mean that learning has to stop. Support children with continuing to develop their reading fluency with this extensive collection of literacy activities.
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 15
How much progress has Claudette made at the end of "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves"? Ninth graders note evidence for and against Claudette's successful adaptation into human society with a graphic organizer. Additionally,...
EngageNY
Grade 11 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 2
What do your words say about you? Scholars look closely at the Duke's words about the Duchess in Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess. Readers talk in groups to determine how the words help them learn more about the Duke. Learners also...
Lesson Plansos
Guided Reading Activities with Pizzazz
Get the most out of your guided reading lessons with this collection of literacy materials. Offering a system for using color-coded tags to mark pages while reading books, as well as an assortment of comprehension and grammar...
Curated OER
Using Inspiration Software to Explore Characters In Stories
Learners identify characters, their qualities, and examples of their qualities and use Inspiration to organize them in a clear and understandable format. After a lecture/demo, students use the program on the next story by themselves.
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast: Literary Analysis
Seventh graders are able to use active listening skills, take notes and identify literary elements of a short story. They use/create graphic organizer, compare/contrast literary elements from various stories and compare and contrast traits.
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast: Literary Analysis
Great for a reading intervention or remedial Language Arts class, this instructional activity uses two stories from Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III ("Terri Jackson" and "Mary Lou" to reinforce note-taking skills, story elements,...
Curated OER
Hairy Monster Stories
Students work together to create a hairy monster. They discuss the elements of a character sketch. They use a rubric to guide them as they write a sketch of their hairy monster.
Curated OER
Literary Devices Paper
Fourth graders write a character analysis of someone they know describing them through similes, metaphors, and hyperboles. They may include themselves and how their person relates to him or her.
Curated OER
Comprehension Webs
In this character webs worksheet, 6th graders draw lines connecting characters and descriptions from the book Tennessee Blueprint. Students complete 2 webs.
Curated OER
Sherlock Holmes Database Investigation
Students conduct a character study using the literature of Sherlock Holmes. They use a database with different cases that need to be solved. Students use the computer software to work through a list of suspects and match them with the...
Curated OER
"Lawd! Lawd! Lawd!"
From British accents to Texan drawls, a character's dialect can be an important part of the reading experience. A Six-Trait writing activity guides learners through the analysis of a character's dialect (Daniel Keyes's Flowers for...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Faces of Climate Change
How does climate change affect you? First in a three-part series, the activity focuses on how individuals living around the world are affected by climate change. Individuals take on the role of a given character and share their...
Curated OER
How are People Portrayed by Different Media?
Your 9th - 12th graders can hone their analysis and critical thinking skills by studying the way a subject is portrayed across media types. They examine how various print, visual, and online sources have portrayed key players in the 9/11...
Curated OER
Folktale Writing
Review literary analysis techniques with this reading lesson about folktale writing. Middle schoolers read different folktales from many authors, and write their own folktales to share with the class. They identify the plot, morals and...
Curated OER
Constructing Narrative from the Migrant Experience in Literature
Excerpts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and from John Fante's Ask the Dust, as well as a variety of primary source documents provide the background for an examination of the migrant experience from 1920-1945.
Curated OER
Teaching a Short Story
Students work in small groups and prepare an analysis of a short story to be presented to their peers. They research the story and create a handout or a visual aid that cites sources of information and summarizes the main points of the...
Curated OER
Reading and Writing Program Using Core Knowledge Literature
Students improve their reading and writing skills using Step Up to Writing and Six Traits of Writing techniques. Students complete a Robinson Crusoe vocabulary crossword, a Treasure Island character analysis web, reading comprehension...
Curated OER
Story Elements
Students create a "character T-shirt" that exemplifies their ability to analyze a character. The students also compare and contrast characters in a given story. Finally, the students write a presentation about the story's characters,...
Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
Curated OER
Beanie Baby Biographies
Learners write a biography for their favorite Beanie Babies and then share their biography out loud. A simple, yet effective idea! Everyone loves their Beanie Baby!