Students are provided with a three-column chart about a fictional character named Jip: looks, personality, and situation. After chapter 1 and chapter 2, students make notes on the charts and share that information with one other. They...

High schoolers investigate Native American culture reading and writing about early Native American authors. They listen to an expert to extend their understanding of the culture.

Students create fictional inhabitants to scale for a place called 'Box City'. They develop stories and personalities to go with the created people, share the stories with the class and write a newspaper for their city.

Students examine the use of symbolism in literature. In this literary elements lesson, students discuss the attributes of symbolism. Students then read selected Cinderella stories and "The Fall of the House of Usher," and identify the...

Pupils write a short story set in a selected period of history. They conduct research on a selected period of history, write and edit a rough draft of their short story, and submit a final draft of their story that includes details...

Students explore ways to write book summaries. In this summary writing lesson, students discover the steps for writing summaries of fictional books.

Middle schoolers listen to several Japanese stories and write their own Japanese-style stories, which they share with the class.

Thomas Jefferson lived a controversial life. A series of lesson plans shares information about Jefferson's Sons, a novel about the infamous founding father. Discussion questions and other tasks explore different points of view and cover...

Read and analyze the book, The Teacher From the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler with your class. They will compare/contrast the two Mrs. Greens with a Venn diagram, design a new book cover, create a paper mache mask, and complete a story...

"A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly." The second instructional activity in an 11-part unit that accompanies The Twits by Roald Dahl uses poetry to encourage positive character traits. Mrs. Twit has ugly...

A cork, a rubber snake, and a bucket of mud may not seem like the best materials for washing a car, but they are in The Twits. The fifth lesson in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl has readers role play...

Discussing great works of literature with peers is an excellent way to both comprehend and celebrate reading! Learners work in literature circles during a unit on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and share paragraphs that...

Crispin: the End of Time is the core text for this teaching guide, a valuable resource for those who use Avi's trilogy as whole-class reading, in book circles, or as independent reading.

What do a pair of stinky socks and a toy hamster have in common? The third lesson in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl uses silly objects to teach about figurative language. Zany pranks and role play make...

Learners read about Liza's first spelling bee before answering six reading comprehension questions. Skills include identifying similarities, making inferences, drawing conclusions, and answer questions based on explicit information in...

Can utopia be achieved? Included here are three literature worksheets to pair with Lois Lowry's The Giver. Pupils work in groups to come up with solutions to society's issues, individuals back up a statement related to a topic in the...

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles provides the text for a fishbowl activity. Class members to sit in concentric circles, with the center circle discussing the topics from the book, and the outer circle observing the...

Fourth graders read classic stories including "The Magic Brocade" and "St. George and the Dragon". They complete a series of lessons in which they compare stories and produce original narrative legends.

Young scholars practice biographical writing after completing research on the subject.  In this journalism instructional activity, students read a story of an important person's life and discuss the important moments along the way....

Middle schoolers create holiday story while working in cooperative learning groups, using Chris Van Allsburg's Polar Express as a writing prompt.

Students read stories. In this culture lesson, students read stories from different regions around the world. Students look for each region on the map and listen for interesting cultural details in the story. Students then discuss the...

Third graders read the book Sahara Special and participate in comprehension activities. In this realistic fiction lesson plan, 3rd graders create a brochure for where they live. Students have personal bags, a brown paper bag, that they...

Learners explore mountain formation. In this cross curriculum earth science and legend writing lesson, students listen to the poem "The Way to make Perfect Mountains" by Byrd Baylor and identify examples of vivid language used. Learners...

Students relate the facial muscle location with a person's expressions. In this visual arts lesson, students write a fictional story about a character. They use digital cameras and computer softwares to create an animation film about it.