Curated OER
“The Story of an Hour” Extension Activities: Teacher’s Guide and Notes
Enhance and extend instruction of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin with one or all of these ideas. You might want to cover characterization and summary, or improve understanding of context clues and irony. You can cover any...
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...
Curated OER
“I Can” Common Core! 1st Grade Reading
I can read and understand fiction and nonfiction texts! Here is a great checklist that highlights 19 first grade Common Core reading standards. The resource is three pages long. Pages one and two focus on comprehension for fiction and...
Curated OER
Story Map for Bud, Not Buddy
Why should your class complete a story map? After reading Bud, Not Buddy, divide your class into pairs or small groups to complete the included worksheet. They list the main characters, the conflict, main plot events, the resolution, and...
Curated OER
Fairy Dictionary
Use artwork to illicit responses in a writing journal, and then present your class with the short list of key terms provided. Can your learners add any of their own key terms? Segue for a second, and read tales such as Peter Pan or...
Curated OER
Into the Wild: Creating Characters
Students analyze well-known fairy tale characters to learn about characterization. After choosing two fairy tale characters and determining what the characters most want and most fear, students switch characters and stories. They...
Curated OER
Adapting a Fairy Tale
Learners read and prepare a new oral version of a selected fairy tale. They read and compare/contrast two fairy tales and identify the main story elements. In small groups they create a new oral version of one they fairy tales and...
Curated OER
Scrapbook of Evidence
Students read three different genres of fiction. They create a story map and brainstorm possible collage inclusions. Each student prepares a minimum of two scrapbook page entries for each text or passage. Students write beside each...
Curated OER
Cinderella Is A Fella
Second graders identify the universal theme in the Cinderella story. In this fairy tale lesson plan, 2nd graders develop their vocabularies as they read a variation of Cinderella.
Curated OER
Plot Development
Students identify the elements of plot and write a script with a strong plot. In this plot lesson, students identify elements of plot in examples by completing a chart and a graphic organizer. Students then create plots from...
Curated OER
Henry and Mudge: comprehension skills
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...
Curated OER
Seedfolks
Students explore sequencing. In this sequencing lesson, students sequence events to analyze character actions as cause and effect or the plot of the story. Students discuss character actions and list them on a chart.
Curated OER
My Brother Sam is Dead: A study of the Revolutionary War
Fifth graders complete an analysis of the Revolutionary War through literature. After "My Brother Sam Is Dead," students create a time capsule containing items that would be relevant during the Revolutionary War. They identify key...
Curated OER
Send Lincoln a Letter
Students discover the postal service through a letter writing activity. In this U.S. Government lesson, students read the book Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers, and discover the life history of President Abraham Lincoln. Students write...
Curated OER
Essential Narrative Concepts
Students interact with the main concepts of a narrative text in the six lessons of this unit. The setting, prediction, retelling, sequencing, and the identification of the beggining, middle and end of a story are investigated.
Curated OER
Guided Writing: Writing a Story on the OHP
Students practice fluency as well as story-writing skills. They work together to prepare and write their stories. Students are told that they are going to write a story entitled 'A Wonderful Day' and that they are going to be the...
Curated OER
Character Comparison: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Fourth graders compare and contrast Fudge and Peter, two main characters from "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing". They use a software template to analyze and compare the characters in a rough draft, edit their work and then produce a...
Curated OER
Nonfiction Genre Mini-Unit: Persuasive Writing
Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge About Physical Environment: What Makes it Hard for Some People to Get Books?
How far would your pupils go to be able to have access to books? Revisit Heather Henson and David Small's That Book Woman and challenge class members to take on the role of Cal or the Book Woman. By putting themselves in someone else's...
Penguin Books
The Jungle
It's a jungle out there! Teachers gain information to guide learners through reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Instructors give an overview of the characters in the story and a summary of each chapter. The resource includes questions...
Curated OER
During Reading Strategy for Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations
Readers create a literary scrapbook for one of the characters in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and fill it with mementoes, journal entries, letters, etc. A great way to get kids to think about characterization.
EngageNY
Close Reading of Nasreen's Secret School: How Do People Access Books in Afghanistan?
Third graders continue to practice the close reading skills of capturing the gist and reading again for important details in the sixth lesson plan in a larger unit. This is a great beginning-of-the-year unit for establishing visible...
Lied Center of Kansas
The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare
Both The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare are great additions to an elementary language arts lesson. Young readers focus on the literary elements of each story, including characters and plot development, and apply...
Curated OER
The Study of Theme and Figurative Language in Poetry and/or Prose
Identify and analyze the use of figurative language used in select pieces of writing. These pieces of literature will represent at least two pieces by one writer and at least two pieces by different writers. This lesson would be a great...