This mystery-writing lesson focuses on the structure of a short story and the elements of a mystery in particular. Students complete the entire writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Students...

This lesson focuses on teacher preparation of lesson plans before attempting to teach students to write short stories. It includes questions to ask yourself, ideas for activities, and a sample lesson plan.

A printable narrative pyramid where students can record information about a story including the character, setting, problem, main events, and solution. Directions on how to use this type of graphic organize as well as lists of teaching...

This reading resource provides vocabulary words with definitions. All words are related to the elements of narratives. A link to associated review activities is included.

This is the seventh installment of a series giving advice to the author who is new to writing novels. This article focuses on how to take your characters and use them and their conflicts to develop the plot of your story. W.9-10.3b...

This activity includes primary sources from the official records of the U.S. District Court at Boston that tell the story of William and Ellen Craft, a young couple from Macon, GA, who escaped to freedom in Boston in 1848. Students will...

This is the tenth in a series of articles designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on how to develop characters through their actions instead of simply relying on dialogue and description of thoughts. W.11-12.3d...