Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce’s short story, is used to model how structural moves, the decisions an author makes about setting, point of view, time order, etc., can be examined to reveal an author’s purpose. Groups...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Stories Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology
An anthology created for kindergarteners explores classic stories that have been told for generations. Young scholars listen to 10 read-alouds, answer reading comprehension questions, and practice a skill related to the text. Stories...
Curated OER
Hanging Out with Stories
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...
Curated OER
Write a Story
Here is a great way to explore narrative writing! Learners review a previously constructed story map and identify the characters, setting, and main events in the book Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock retold by Eric A. Kimmel. They...
Curated OER
Story Summaries; The Three Little Pigs
Students explore language arts by completing a graphic organizer in class. In this story structure lesson plan, students read the classic tale "The Three Little Pigs" and discuss the main characters, conflict and setting. Students...
For the Teachers
Story Strips Sequencing
What happens next? Work on story sequence with a lesson plan that prompts kids to put a story back in order. Additionally, they discuss what would happen if one event was missing from the sequence.
Curated OER
Annie and the Wild Animals
Here is a reading comprehension lesson in which learners predict the story plot of Annie and the Wild Animals, by Jan Brett, after viewing the cover. They listen to the story, and answer story structure questions during and after the...
Scholastic
Folk and Fairy Tale Readers: The Princess and the Pea
Enrich a primary grade unit on fairy tales with this printable version of the classic story "The Princess and the Pea." With a simple story structure and a blend of short and long sentences, this is a great resource for developing the...
Scholastic
Folk and Fairy Tale Readers: The Tortoise and the Hare
Slow and steady wins the race to fluent reading with this printable version of "The Tortoise and the Hare". Presenting children with fun illustrations and a repetitive story structure, this resource is perfect for developing the...
PB Works
The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
There is more going on under the surface of Ernest Hemingway's work than one can glean in an initial reading. A literature resource compares the themes and structures of several of Hemingway's works before prompting class members to use...
Indiana University
World Literature: "One Evening in the Rainy Season" Shi Zhecun
Did you know that modern Chinese literature “grew from the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud”? Designed for a world literature class, seniors are introduced to “One Evening in the Rainy Season,” Shi Zhecun’s stream of...
Curated OER
Predicting a Mystery's Solution
Practice making informed predictions. Have your class create a paper fortune-teller and ask questions about the future. They compare the fortune-telling process to the more informed kind of predictions they make while reading. They...
Curated OER
Come Fly with Me . . . Open a Book: Travels through Literature
This detailed overview of a curriculum unit suggests using travel literature to engage and stimulate your third graders’ interest in reading. The suggested reading list includes fiction and non-fiction materials and offers urban children...
Curated OER
Where
Kindergartners identify where a story takes place. For this literature lesson, learners take a picture walk and discuss how pictures can provide clues to the location of the story. They then illustrate where a new story of their own...
Vanier College
Analyzing Short Stories/Novels
Good questions can help focus readers' attention on the elements writers use to add depth to their stories. The questions on this worksheet do just that and encourage readers to think critically about a story and author's purpose.
Curated OER
Characteristics of Imaginative Stories
Third graders explore genre characteristics. In this genre literacy lesson, 3rd graders listen to a variety of fiction stories and classify them according to genre. Students identify common features in each genre and complete a chart by...
Hood River County School District
Text Structure: Features and Organization
Teach learners how to interact with both fiction and non-fiction text with a packet of activities and worksheets. After looking over text structure and the difference in text features between different types of writing, readers analyze...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Introduction to Short Story Writers Say
There are so many authors of short stories, and your class can have the chance to study quite a few. This seventh lesson in a series of fourteen continues the decision-making process for the final assessment: a short story author study....
Curated OER
Guest Readers
Young readers explore reading comprehension by creating a class presentation. In this storytelling lesson, puils read an assigned text in class and analyze the characters, settings and story. They create an illustrated presentation in...
Curated OER
Identifying and Using Parallelism and Balance in Literature
Analyze the use of balanced sentences and parallelism in a narrative. Included in this resource is a narrative about serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan titled, "The Train Ride Home". Middle and high schoolers review...
College Board
The Departure
Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...
Curated OER
Plot of a Short Story (SMART Board)
Help your pupils track the plot of a short story with this SMART Board activity. Using the short story "The Dinner Party" by Mona Gardner (though the lesson plan would work with any other short story), they define the exposition, rising...
Curated OER
Exploring Contrasting Story Elements Through Tapestry and Poetry
Young thinkers view two narrative art tapestries and study the images included that tell a story about the Roman Emperor Constantine. As they examine the details of the tapestries, pupils use a Venn Diagram to record the similarities and...
Education Oasis
Creative Writing Unit: Analyzing, Interpreting, Discussing and Writing Various Genres of African-American Literature
A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...