The elements of good writing are the focus of a presentation designed for short story writers. Included is advice from famous writers on how to develop a style, emphasize the tone of a story, utilize the predictable, and maintain interest.

Using a SMART board presentation (provided), your class discusses the characterization of Lenny, George, Curley, Curley's wife, and the farmhands in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The presentation includes a list of traits for...

True! Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" makes readers nervous. But how? Young scholars create a drawing while listening to a reading of Poe's eerie tale to understand how writers create the mood of their stories and what their writing style...

How do novels differ from plays? Explore with your class the text features of fiction and drama by reading The Hidden One: Native American Legend and then performing a reader’s theater script based on the story. Class members create a...

Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...

Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado" is a bit of a puzzle. Critics have long debated Montresor's motives for killing Fortunato. Young scholars examine examples of the three types of irony (verbal, dramatic, and...

George Bailey learns that it truly is a wonderful life when he discovered how many lives he has touched—not to mention how many new generations of lives the story touches every year. A study guide on It's a Wonderful Life ...

"The Hare and the Water," a Tanzanian folk tale, lends a global perspective to literary analysis. Learners spend the first two days reading and storyboarding. On day three, they examine folk tale elements (worksheet included), and design...

After reading The Minister's Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a homework assignment your class will complete a literary analysis.  Learners will analyze important element of the story and take notes to help support their...

Remember reading "The Lottery" and "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson? Learners can experience and analyze the tension, themes, and human experience found in these pieces through reading and class discussion. They use...

If you're tired of defining allusion, onomatopoeia, and satire for your language arts students, hand out a complete list of literary devices to keep the terms straight. Each term includes a definition that is easy to understand and...

How do writers use the interaction between elements like characterization and setting to create meaning? Readers of "A Worn Path" create a series of comic book-style graphics of Eudora Welty's short story and reflect on how Welty...

Focus on plot and the impact-specific events in The Cay. Class members use their double-entry journals, created in a previous lesson in this series, to record their thinking about the guiding question as they read chapters 15 through 17....

Students discover that every story has a start, middle and end. In this literature lesson, the teacher models using a picture to show the parts of the story. Students each take a picture and tell a story using start, middle and end.

Third graders understand how to find the theme of a fable. In this theme instructional activity, 3rd graders use graphic organizers to record the events of a fable. Students use that information to determine the instructional activity of...

Learners will read then analyze the story "Goblin Market" then discuss themes of sex and lost virginity. There are 5 questions and a series related links to help them take a critical look at an interesting children's story. This story...

Once upon a time are four words most children are familiar with when reading a fairy tale. But do they know that fairy tales are a great way to learn the literary elements of reading and writing? Use a thorough fairy tale unit...

Working in small groups, scholars look closely at a children's book to evaluate narrative techniques. Next, they complete a Children's Book Scavenger Hunt worksheet to analyze the literary elements of their selected stories. 

Need a hero? Super! Groups create their modern-day marvel and craft a narrative with all the elements required in such a tale.

How should pupils read short stories? Set them up for this unit with an introductory lesson that goes over the main characteristics of a short story and starts learners off reading their first short story of the unit. In order to get a...

What's theme, and can texts of every length have one? Explore the themes of fives short reading passages with your middle school class. Encourage them to highlight specific places in the text where they recognized the theme. 

"What is the theme of this story?" Now there's a question that can strike fear in the hearts of learners. Here's a lesson that uses photographs to introduce the concept of theme. Scholars examine six photographs and then attach a theme...

The world may indeed be a stage, and players certainly need to know drama vocabulary. This list of 16 terms (and their definitions) often found in scripts will prompt actors to perform their role.

Incorporate sculpture into your art curriculum. To start, pupils discuss the artistic process and topics of marginalization. With the discussion in mind, individuals select images to inspire sculptures of people that they will present to...