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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Guy Fawkes

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders access their prior knowledge of the job of Parliament and its relationship to the monarchy. In this Gunpowder Plot lesson, 6th graders research the Gunpowder Plot, summarize key story ideas, and role play the plot. They...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Helpful Animals and Compassionate Humans in Folklore

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students define elements of stories from around the world that include helpful animals. They explore animal character motivations and use graphic organizers to compare and contrast animal stories from different cultures.
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Introducing Close Reading: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes About Rain School

For Teachers 3rd Standards
This second lesson in a larger unit is perfect for the beginning of the year because it explicitly teaches 3rd graders how to use close reading skills by identifying unfamiliar words, figuring out the gist, and defining important...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What a Character!

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Young scholars look at the role of characters in a story. In this character lesson, students discuss how different types of characters change the plot of the story. They see how storytellers use their body, face, and voice to tell stories. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Saturday Market by Patricia Grossman

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Readers make personal connections to Saturday Market by Patricia Grossman and answer comprehension questions while reading the book. Comparing and contrasting the different characters in a Venn diagram leads to a kinesthetic activity...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Who's Got Game? The Lion or the Mouse?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Discuss bullying, folk tales, and more using this resource. Learners read the story The Lion and the Mouse by Toni and Slade Morrison, engage in cause and effect activities, make predictions, and discuss bullying. This is a motivating...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reading and Activity Suggestions for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students learn about characterization techniques in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  For this Adventures of Tom Sawyerlesson, students write a description of one character through the eyes of another character and identify scenes that give...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creative Characterization

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students write a character description journal in which they take on the voice of one of the character's made-up friends or relatives. They write a sketch of that character from the friend or relatives' point of view.
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Activity
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Curated OER

James and the Giant Peach Character Study

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Every book has a few great characters, but James and the Giant Peach is the only one whose characters travel in a piece of fruit. The class creates T-charts for the main characters of the novel, while reading the book. They write actions...
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Lesson Plan7:34
TED-Ed

Pixar: The Math Behind the Movies

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
When will we ever use this? A Pixar movie maker explains to students how math is used in the creation of animated films. The movie maker discusses the importance of coordinate planes, transformations and translations, and trigonometry.  
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Character Analysis

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students analyze the motivations behind characters. In this character analysis lesson, students reflect on conflicts from previous stories and watch a clip from 'East is East.' Students answer questions for the movie and watch the movie...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mystery Writing Lesson Plans

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Introduce your class to the genre of mystery. Included is a vocabulary list, a rubric, and a sample mystery story called "Lethal Lesson." There are very limited directions on what to do with these resources, so you will need to plan some...
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Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Sequence of Events

For Teachers 4th
Are you in need of a new way to teach learners sequence of events and how to interpret a character's external motivations? Why not engage them in dramatic play? The class will use tableaux to convey the sequence of events in a familiar...
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Lesson Plan
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Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.3

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Focus on complex characters with a lesson from a series that teaches individual skills from the Common Core. Specifically, this resource provides practice with standard RL.9-10.3. Get pupils thinking and talking about characters with the...
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Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Crow Boy

For Teachers 4th
There is a difference between actions, motives, and the appearance of a character in a narrative text. Fourth graders explore character analysis through the dramatic arts. They create a series of movements, tableaus, and pantomimes to...
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Unit Plan
1
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Book Units Teacher

Story Elements

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This 97-slide PowerPoint uses Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember, to illustrate the elements of a story. Setting, plot, characterization (both flat and...
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Website
Shakespeare Globe Trust

Macbeth

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Why do characters do what they do? Scholars use the resource to explore character motivation in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. Additionally, they discover pictures, interviews, and videos from the Deutsche Bank production of the play. 
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Measure for Measure: Anticipation Guide

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
Be bold and never fearful! Tempt your scholars with an Anticipation Guide for Measure for Measure. Before reading Shakespeare’s problem play, class members label a series of statements as either true or false in their opinion. (It’s okay...
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Lesson Plan
2
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Maryland Department of Education

The Concept of Identity Lesson 6: Kohlberg's Levels of Moral Reasoning

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
How does our moral reasoning shape our identity? After a study of Kohlberg's Levels of Moral Reasoning, readers use Kohlberg's theories to analyze the speech, thoughts, and decisions of a character in A Separate Peace. They then create...
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Unit Plan
Oxford University Press

The Jungle Book

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Most every teacher dreams of a ready-to-teach and print book study. Well, here it is! The Jungle Book novel resource includes 12 complete lessons studying poetry, author's craft, themes, characters, and more. Scholars role play, research...
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Activity
Novelinks

The House on Mango Street: Letters/Unsent Letters

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Class members conclude their reading of The House on Mango Street with an assignment that asks them to compose letters to characters using their own voices or that of another character in Cisneros' story.
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Activity
Leading Learner

Using Music to Tell a Story or Describe a Scene

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
Young composers demonstrate their understanding of the stylistic features of descriptive music, including pitch, tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and timbre, by developing a melody and countermelody for a main character in a story. As part of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Alexander And The Wind-Up Mouse

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Use drama techniques to recreate the story, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni. They engage in problem-solving as they identify the roles they will fufill in their groups for the performance. This is a motivating way to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

During Reading Strategy for Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Readers create a literary scrapbook for one of the characters in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations and fill it with mementoes, journal entries, letters, etc. A great way to get kids to think about characterization.