Pupils participate in a drama circle to read Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream aloud. They work with partners to discuss Shakespeare's use of language and analyze how specific lines of dialogue within the play help propel the...

Scholars consider how dialogue reveals aspects of a play's characters as they read Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and complete a written conversation note-catcher. Additionally, pupils participate in an I Have/Who Has jigsaw...

If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing...

Explore how photographs can represent a whole story to a viewer. Middle schoolers work on narrative writing techniques in this instructional activity, focusing on photographs from the New York Times to write first-person descriptive...

Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...

Students read a chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and define new words for their dictionaries. For this vocabulary lesson students choose two or three assignment from a list of projects and complete it using...

Here’s a series of exercises designed to be used after readers have finished reading The Hobbit. Pairs identify the speaker of a series of quotes, match characters with qualities, and provide evidence from the story to support their...

Who would you love to see at your table? Groups research a decade, ranging from the 1840s to the 1960s, read a short story associated with that decade, and plan a dinner party, complete with table set-up and menu. After researching...

If you can find the book Caps for Sale in the target foreign language, this is a great activity to accompany it! After reading and modeling the story, the teacher models a dialogue that would take place between a salesman and a...

The goal of this lesson plan is to have learners understand how character is created through a combination of what they say and do, and what others say about them. In pairs, learners construct a short dialogue between a parent and child...

Students work in pairs to out act and then retell a story.  In this personal experience lesson, students act out an event in their life and their partner retells the story. Students discuss sequence of events and dialogue. Students...

Inform your class on the elements of fiction: themes, settings, characters, plots, dialogue, narration, flashback, clues, climax, resolution. They write the definitions of the terms on the worksheet provided.l Tip: Have them write a...

Kids paraphrase an entry from The Elements of Style, and then revise a sentence. They use the Visual Thesaurus and find synonyms for the phrase very pretty, brainstorm a list of intensifiers (as alternatives to really and very),...

Students use their research skills to determine the famous person given in clues. Using a character recently dicussed in their classroom, they discuss how they would create a costume for them. They write sentences to be used as dialogue...

Learners use documents from California As I Saw It: First Person Narratives, 1849-1900 , in American Memory to create a script depicting the motivations, expectations, fears, and realizations of immigrants who settled California between...

Third graders watch negative puppet scenario and discuss the dialogue used. They offer ideas and discuss whether their friendship can be saved. They watch a new puppet play and discuss why the second scenario had a more positive outcome...

After teaching your French classes family-related vocabulary, quiz their knowledge with this two-page worksheet. In the first exercise, your test-taker has to complete a dialogue between a girl and her grandmother. The second exercise...

Students create a sample interview between an employer and employee. They practice using prepositions and gerunds. They complete a final evaluation activity.

Students create scripts about California settlers. The document reflects the settlers' fears, expectations, and realizations.

After reading and analyzing two narrative memoirs, middle schoolers engage in a variety of activities, including writing an essay, developing a story map, and creating character charts. They then compare and contrast story maps, and...

No wonder the ship was called the Titanic. An investigation of Norse, Roman, and Greek Mythology provides insight into mythological characters and corresponding words in the English language. A close look at roots, prefixes, and suffixes...

Let's peer edit! Have your writers exchange their personal narratives with another learner! While peer editing, they will look for any missing information and identify strong details. They can practice literary analysis skills using a...

Fill in the blank on these quotes from Romeo and Juliet. The tricky part is that you are only told the speaker in two instances. Choose from four words the one that belongs in the quote. Test your class's knowledge of the play!

Use any story with this characterization worksheet! On the first page is a graphic organizer that encourages the reader to look for examples of direct characterization. On page two, read about direct and indirect characterizations,...