Supporting characters need detail and characteristics just like a main character. Keep your budding authors entrenched in detail as they write their novels. This lesson plan focuses on developing supporting characters using personal...

Learning stations aren't just for little ones; middle schoolers can have fun while learning about the main character in the book, The Kid in the Red Jacket. Outlined are three different activities that are completed as each small...

Discovering the main idea in fiction is like uncovering buried treasure; one must persevere to locate it, and the reward is priceless. Scholars delve deep into leveled stories using three questions to aid in identifying the main idea. 

Explore language arts by reading two similar stories in order to compare and contrast them in class. Young readers read two Aunt Isabel books, by Kate Duke, and discuss the main characters, plot, and setting. They complete a graphic...

What is a dynamic character? Using an interesting resource, scholars set out to answer the question. They create graphic organizers to collect details about character development as they read the novel Inside Out & Back Again. They...

Poems For Two Voices are a great resource in any language arts classroom, whether you are studying poetry or not. Focusing on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this lesson prompts young authors to write a Poem For Two...

Connect to real-world experiences by having your primary learners create an award certificate based upon literal and inferential information from a story. They present the award to a character from a story and explain the criteria used....

Use the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin to teach your third grade class about descriptive writing. Following a teacher read-aloud of the story, the class brainstorms a list of adjectives describing the main character. Learners use this list...

Boring dialogue can run a great story into the ground; get your novelists using dialogue as a tool to move their story into deeper and more developed territory. As part of a larger writing series, this lesson has a worksheet that can...

Guide your readers to explore character traits. As a class, discuss and record the traits of a commonly-known fairy tale character. Then do the same with the main character in the class novel. Finally, have learners use magazines...

Readers analyze an excerpt from Kate DiCamillo's novel Because of Winn-Dixie. They read silently, and then hear it read aloud. Definitions for underlined vocabulary words are in the margin, and other potentially difficult words...

“Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.” Mary Alice, the fifteen-year-old narrator of A Year Down Yonder, is forced to leave Chicago and spend a year with her Grandma Dowdel in a small rural...

Help kindergartners learn to identify the main events in fiction. They will review elements of fiction, retell information found in the text, and discuss their real-life daily experiences. All the while, they will be asking themselves...

Help your kindergarteners identify the main idea in a story. Small groups work with the teacher to make predictions and draw conclusions. They are able to determine cause and effect relationships. The lesson is divided into several days,...

They always say to write what you know. This approach is used to get middle schoolers prepared to write novels of their own. Using a favorite book as a model, potential novelists respond to prompts that ask about characters, plot, main...

This detailed overview of a curriculum unit suggests using travel literature to engage and stimulate your third graders’ interest in reading. The suggested reading list includes fiction and non-fiction materials and offers urban children...

Expose your class to Waiting for the Biblioburro, narrative nonfiction that will act as the bridge between ficiton and informational texts to come. Class members do a close reading of the text, looking at excerpts instead of the whole...

Elementary and middle schoolers research animal facts and use them in a fable. First, they pair-share to find animal traits to use in writing a fable. They then complete a prewriting worksheet. After going through the writing process,...

Teaching young learners about similes is easy as pie with this primary grade language arts instructional activity. Following a class reading of the children's book, Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, young readers learn the...

What are the effects of competition in an academic environment? The competition between the main characters in A Separate Peace motivates a series of activities that asks readers to take a stance on competition, and then to develop a...

How did the Civil Rights Movement affect young people in the United States? Scholars read Christopher Paul Curtis' novel, The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963. Next, they write compare and contrast essays showing how the main...

Budding novelists work on character development by relating to the characters in their stories. They imagine their own hopes and dreams and recall those of characters from books they've read. Learners also consider struggles the...

Do our childhood circumstances significantly shape us? As the close reading of “The Palace Thief” continues, groups examine how the results of the first "Mr. Julius Caesar" competition influenced the development of the characters in...

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...