Students investigate acting and performing arts by portraying a story in class. In this pantomiming instructional activity, students read the story Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and discuss the characters amongst themselves. Students...

Students are introduced to the technique of pantomime. In groups, they take a story and create a pantomime for it to perform in front of the class. They also practice ways to change their body posture and facial expressions to...

Middle schoolers pantomime the story of The Great Kapok Tree for younger students.  In this The Great Kapok Tree lesson, middle schoolers warm up with a game before volunteering for parts in the story. Students practice acting out...

Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...

It's time to party like it's 1899! Incorporate a research-based celebration of the Victorian Era into your unit on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. After learners read the novella or view a production of the play, they craft a...

Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...

Fourth graders become familiar with the culture and history of Indiana.  In this James Whitcomb Riley lesson, 4th graders read poetry which includes the dialect of Indiana.  Students analyze the poem.  Groups memorize and...

Students discover the life of Benjamin Franklin by studying his inventions.  In this biography lesson, students identify the inventions of Benjamin Franklin and their impact on society today.  Students create a commercial in an...

Students read slave narratives and retell the stories to the class, identifying sensory details. For this slavery lesson, students discuss the importance of sensory details, then read the slave narratives looking for specific examples. ...

Students explore poetry by completing a webquest in which they hear poets reading their own work. Later, they examine the dramatic impact of reading poetry out loud. Finally, they practice reading poetry aloud and performing.

Students recite the poem, "The Frog on the Log" paying particular attention to precise diction, pacing, projection, inflection, volume and rhythm.

Students write about the importance of trees. In this natural resources lesson, students look at deforestation occurring across the globe and present what they learned to the class. As closure, all students write a poem about the...

Students, in groups, research a Canadian Olympic sport and design a uniform for a Canadian Olympic team.

Tenth graders participate in a lesson that is focused on the concept of writing persuasive speechs. They conduct research from a variety of sources in order to gather information to write well informed speeches.

Seventh graders examine various stories that have a Cinderella theme.  In this Language Arts lesson, 7th graders compare and contrast stories.  Students write various journal assignments in regards to the stories. 

Students recite the poem, The Frog on the Log, paying particular attention to precise diction, pacing, projection, inflection, volume and rhythm.

This site contains links to five articles about storytelling by Heather Forest. Articles include the following: "Crafting Personal Vision in Telling Folktales," "The Voice as an Instrument," "Copyright and Fair Use of Published...