Introduce your young thespians to the elements of drama! Key vocabulary helps them through their first week of class. The presentation outlines parts of a script, stage direction, and strategies for reading a script. Tip: The strategies...

"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...

Discuss life in the 1930s in relation to the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, then do a cross-media analysis. Here you'll find background information on film maker John Ford, writer John Steinbeck, and 1930s America. You can compare the...

As the culminating activity in a unit study of science fiction, young writers demonstrate their understanding of the genre by producing their own graphic novel. After deciding on the main elements of their story, individuals use a comic...

Read this twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell. Kindergartners listen, predict, and discuss the story. They then participate in a dramatization of the story and draw a picture...

If your ESL pupils love talking about movies, here is an activity ideal for providing practice with both informational reading and elements of a story. Given fictional movie posters, they decipher the information and put it into a...

Invite your pupils to express their understanding of a novel through a collaborative video project. Groups choose a novel from those you have studied in class, select four scenes, storyboard the scenes, film the scenes, edit the film,...

Elementary learners explore fiction storytelling through partcipating in a survey. They identify the characters, themes and plot of the Harry Potter series while discussing their opinions in class. Learners conduct a survey about their...

Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...

Help your class listen and respond to a fictional story by creating a story structure mobile illustrating the main characters, setting, plot, problem, story events, and solution. Using a coat hanger, they will create an artistic element...

Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy instructional activity focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then...

Students explore language arts by reading and reflecting on literary examples. In this fiction writing lesson plan, students read several different cultural versions of the story "Cinderella" and discuss their interaction with the story...

How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Class members read some of Ellison's non-fiction writings about blues and jazz, listen to records, watch videos, and engage in student-centered discussions. They then produce podcasts...

Students use the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" to identify and analyze drama vocabulary, literary terms and elements of fiction. They write an original version of scenes from the play and develop a character analysis for the lead.

How are films made? As part of their study of film, middle schoolers investigate the pre-production, production, and post-production process and consider the role of the director, the screenwriter, production designer, cinematographer,...

Students assess the literary quality and elements of Jackson's journey to write a ballad about his automobile adventure.

Students explore the elements of a narrative for its purpose, type of audience, mood, main character, minor characters, setting, and conflicts in the story. A story outline is developed and a five paragraph essay composed in this lesson.

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.

Fifth graders explore the elements of theatre. In this dramatic performances lesson, 5th graders discuss the structural elements of theatre and dramatize "The Origins of the Season," an explanation myth.

Students navigate Doodle Splash to create a painting.  In this doodle splash instructional activity, students explain their splash painting relationship to a piece of literature.

Students complete word study activities, read a story and write a descriptive paragraph about the setting of Goo Goo Avenue in Lawton 1901.

Students read a work of fiction and investigate literary values and structure of the work. They demonstrate understanding of the family values, cultural and historical context of the novel;

Learners discuss elements of fairy tales, examine selected piece of Robert Harris' art, and compose fairy tales based on what they see and imagine. Students then view homes in Harris' artwork collection, create home in which they would...

Students practice dramatic 'living' through various drama activities. In this drama lesson, students define drama, view examples of dramatic elements in Cyrano de Bergerac and Roxanne, define characterization within the dramas, study the...