Curated OER
Comprehension Skills: Picture, Question and Summarize Using Fiction Stories
Students build a variety of comprehension skills through the nine lessons of this unit. Picturing events, monitoring understanding during reading, forming questions, and summarizing stories form the core of the lessons being taught...
Curated OER
Minnie and Moo and the Thanksgiving Tree
Third graders practice retelling stories. They read a story and work with a partner to discuss the key elements: characters, setting, events, beginning, and end. They assess one another as they retell the story. They rewrite the story in...
Curated OER
Evaluating Media Materials
Students demonstrate the ability to select and evaluate media materials. They demonstrate comprehension when listening and reading for literary experience, to be informed, and to perform a task. Students evaluate a fiction book based on...
Curated OER
Cause and Effect with "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs"
Fourth graders explore reasoning by reading a book with their classmates. In this cause and effect lesson, 4th graders read the children's story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and discuss the story elements, characters and plot....
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 1: Introducing NaNo and Novels
Did you know that November is Novel Writing Month? In the first of a series of lessons, class members are introduced to the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) project.
Curated OER
Comparing The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring
Students write an essay comparing The Hobbit to The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. In this The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring lesson, students compare the plot, theme, writing styles, and other elements in the two books.
Teachers.net
How to Write a Movie Review from a Pet's Perspective
When would two paws up denote a blockbuster film in your classroom? Only when young writers create movie reviews from a pet's perspective in this imaginative expository writing practice. This engaging topic begins with a class discussion...
Curated OER
A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
The Nashua River serves as the focal point of an investigation of the treatment of and care for natural resources. A reading of A River Rand Wild: An Environmental History by Lynne Cherry, launches the study and class members consider...
Curated OER
Unwind: Vocabulary Strategy, Creating an Unwind Glossary
Prior to reading Unwind, Neal Shusterman's 2007 young adult science fiction novel, class members research the common definition of words drawn from the novel that will come to have a very different meaning to them as they are...
Curated OER
Dramatizing History in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
Young scholars study the effect of history on fictional or dramatic works of art by reading, Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. They examine the ties between a nation's history and culture with the literature it produces.
Curated OER
Journey to the Center of the Earth I
Students identify the elements of science fiction and write their own example. In this Journey to the Center of the Earth lesson students complete several activities about science fiction, authors and novels.
Curated OER
Nature’s Fury—Myths and Drama
Fifth graders explore the elements of theatre. For this dramatic performances lesson, 5th graders discuss the structural elements of theatre and dramatize "The Origins of the Season," an explanation myth.
Curated OER
Five Parts That Contribute to the Whole
Students listen to and read an online story. Then they use a graphic organizer to learn the basic story elements. They select another online story and create a graphic organizer for its story elements.
Curated OER
Book Review
Students write a five paragraph theme that explains how the novel which they read in this unit effectively utilized various literary elements to portray the impact of a disease on a population. They then decide which three literary...
Curated OER
Wrapped in Mystery
Sixth graders can identify five basic elements that most mysteries contain. They put the elements of mystery into a graphic organizer they can follow. They construct meaning after reading Poe's short story and identify or infer the...
Curated OER
The Name You Once Gave Me, by Mike Phillips and The Dying Wish by Courttia Newland
Students read, analyze, critique and study the novels, "The Name You Once Gave Me," by Mike Phillips and "The Dying Wish," by Courttia Newland. They evaluate an extract from each novel and consider how a theme can provide a framework for...
Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to Chraisma by Jeanne Ryan
Often, science fiction makes a lot of connections to real life. An educator's guide for the novel Charisma by Jeanne Ryan, has readers discuss many of the real-life issues that come in the text. A brief summary helps garner interest...
Curated OER
Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: Mixing Words and Pictures
Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...
Curated OER
Come On, Rain!
Students read and analyze the story. In this language arts lesson, students read Come on, Rain! and examine how mood and tone are created, the use of figurative language and the characteristics of the genre. Students research the...
Curated OER
Short Story Inspiration
Tenth graders write an original story using a picture of a scene inspiration. In this short story lesson, 10th graders write short stories using a picture.
Curated OER
Beautiful Butterfly Tiles
Third graders create a butterfly drawing that includes the elements of art and principles of design. They create artwork that can be made into ceramic tiles to be installed around the classroom doorways in our new addition.
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 5: Creating a Supporting Character
As a class, young writers learn how to develop a strong supporting character. They think and discuss a good friend they know, they use that friend as a basis for a potential supporting character. They create a supporting character as a...
Curated OER
Introduction to Archetypes
Here is a full lesson with all the needed materials and PowerPoints attached! Introduce your class to archetypes by showing them the included presentation. The presentation gives definitions and examples of archetypal characters,...
Curated OER
Picture This
Students explore finding facts from the Internet to create a nonfiction story. In this writing lesson, students fill out KWL charts and do internet research about the given topic of spiders. Students then create and illustrate...