Fabius-Pompey School District
Paired Passage Practice and the Extended Response Question
How do pupils relate paired passages to each other? Here's a resource that helps! The lesson includes a short story and a poem as a set of paired reading passages, followed by some analysis questions. It also includes an essay template...
National Endowment for the Humanities
A Wrinkle in Time: The Board Game
Tackle some big questions about A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle with a board game project. As learners brainstorm for and complete their board games, they consider what helps and hinders Meg on her journey and why she succeeds in...
Curated OER
Changes and the Individual
Young scholars evaluate the social effects of inventions and other developments on the lives of ordinary individuals. They create a profile of an individual who might have lived at that time and whose life would have been affected by...
Curated OER
December
Students create snowflake similes, Kwanzaa plaques, menorah banners, and more for the month of December. For this December activities lesson plan, students also analyze characters in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Curated OER
Who am I?
Students practice their writing skills by creating a character sketch of themselves. After viewing portraits, they select one personality trait and put their own picture into the painting of their choice. They include a conversation with...
Curated OER
Characters' Feelings Or Motives
Fourth graders use the text, "Fair's Fair" to examine how characters' feelings and motives are built throughout a text through descriptive phrases. They look at what a character does and says to record on their writing frames. Finally,...
Curated OER
Wax Museum
Student role play as statues in a wax museum while the teacher takes the role of the curator. They stand in a static position until the curator leaves the room. They interact until the curator returns at which point they freeze. Now they...
Curated OER
Cinderella Folk Tales: Variations in Plot and Setting
Students examine plot and setting of Cinderella, and how it changes as it is translated into different cultures, discuss universal literary elements of the Cinderella story, and write narratives with original settings and plots...
Curated OER
To Strike or Not to Strike in 1830s Lowell: A Role Play
Role play as a person living in the 1830s working in a Lowell factory. The class will take on the role of factory owner, girl on strike, talk show host, and girl not wanting to strike. Each group will analyze and research their character...
Curated OER
Ragtime: 1880-1920
Build an understanding of the social, economic, and cultural changes that were incited by the American Industrial Revolution. Learners will research the historical context of the Ragtime Era, and compose an oral presentation in the...
Curated OER
Writing in First and Third Person
Explore narrative writing by participating in a role-playing activity. In this perspective lesson, learners define first and third person in writing and discuss how it changes the mood of the reader. The first activity has pupils write...
Curated OER
Tales with a Twist
Your authors create news stories that share a familiar fairy tale from a new perspective. They review a familiar fairy tale, select a character to "interview," and write original news stories from the perspective of that character.
Curated OER
After High School— What’s Next?
Exploring and discovering what to do after high school graduation is a very real topic for 12th graders. They examine their own character traits, the traits commonly needed in specific careers, and what type of career best suits them...
Curated OER
A New Point of View
Analyze point of view and how it affects a literary work with this lesson plan. Middle schoolers create a written piece that focuses on point of view. They review the literary term "point of view," and explore examples of the term in...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 5: Motivation - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides the lens class members use to analyze and evaluate the motivations of the characters in Sylvia Plath's "Initiation" and scenes from Mean Girls. Readers then select a character from A...
Novelinks
Wildwood Dancing: Rewriting a Fairytale
After completing Juliet Marillier's young adult novel Wildwood Dancing, class members rewrite a traditional fairy tale, making three significant changes to illustrate a theme of their choosing.
Curated OER
Mythological Word Origins
Review myths and the characters therein, connecting them to vocabulary words in the English language today. Begin by searching online for myths and character names. With at least ten names that are familiar English words, young scholars...
Curated OER
Questions of Courage
Examine discrimination. In this character education lesson plan, learners read two biographies, Vivien Naki and Hamilton Naki then analyze their personal discrimination experiences. They complete a Venn diagram to compare and...
Curated OER
Historical Fiction: A Wealth of Interpretations
How can understanding the genre of historical fiction help your language arts class with literary analysis? Use this activity to help young readers learn about historical fiction. After reading a selection from the "Dear America" or "My...
Center for History Education
To What Extent Were Women's Contributions to World War II Industries Valued?
Women rose to the challenge when the nation's war effort called them—but were sent home when the GIs came back from World War II. Young historians consider whether the United States valued women's contributions during the war using a...
Curated OER
Retelling
Explore language arts by completing a story worksheet in class. Readers will identify the importance of plot, setting, and character while they write their own short story. They also retell their story to a classmate and participate in a...
Curated OER
What Can I Do?
Students investigate conflict resolution strategies. In this character education lesson, students list things that make them feel sad and are introduced to the conflict resolution strategy "think and share." Students role-play various...
Curated OER
The Catcher in the Rye: KWHL Strategy
Teen depression is the focus of a KWHL activity used to consider the problems Holden Caulfield faces. Groups develop topics, research them, and use what they have learned to analyze Holden's character. A KWHL template, and a completed...
Curriculum Corner
8th Grade ELA Common Core Checklists
How close are your eighth graders to mastering the ELA Common Core standards? Keep an eye on progress with these charts, which include every eighth grade identifier and full standard text. As you move through the year and teach,...