Orlando Shakes
The Best of Enemies
History comes to life with the play The Best of Enemie. Scholars learn literary elements as well explore racial issues in American history. The play is based on a true story and addresses the universal truth that people are capable of...
Nazareth College
Creative Writing
Students discuss creative writing—what makes something creative writing? Each learner starts writing a story and after 15 minutes, they pass their story to another who adds to it. After another 15 minutes of writing, the story is passed...
Curated OER
Clay Animation
Eighth graders create a visual story without using words. A study of the history and process of clay animation is explored and discussed. Students storyboard a plot of a story and students divide up into groups designing characters and...
Curated OER
Connecting Characters and Themes in Julius Caesar
Fourth graders prepare for the literary analysis. They locate, interpret, evaluate and analyze the relationship between a character and the theme. After a lecture/demo, 4th graders write topic and detail sentences, then correctly put...
Curated OER
Character Scrapbook Teacher's Guide
Students analyze a book's characters and create a scrapbook to print and save. In this on line interactive characterization lesson plan, students identify character traits and gain a deeper understanding of a book's characters.
Curated OER
Create a Chart
Young scholars create charts for story elements. They read two selections that share a common theme and discuss the story elements. They create a chart for the characters, plot, and setting and complete it while reading the selections.
Curated OER
A Jewel of a Book
Students read a book, noting the characters, setting, plot, and events. They gather, synthesize, and then select the most important data from their book to prepare a book report by decorating a charm bracelet with pertinent information...
Curated OER
Story Elements
Review story elements with your class using this resource. Learners can take a story they have read as a class and identify story elements. They focus on characters, setting, the introduction, and plot. Then, they use graphic organizers...
Curated OER
Pop-Up Puppets
Students read "Peter Spier's Circus!" and identify the literature's setting and characters. They work in small groups to create a circus stage set and puppets based on their reading. Students perform a puppet show using their set and...
Curated OER
Elements of Fiction
Learners investigate themes and settings in their favorite fiction stories. In this creative writing lesson plan, students discuss the reasons a fictional story works well and discuss ways to create their own. Learners create...
Curated OER
The Winter's Tale: Fun Trivia Quiz
This online quiz asks basic comprehension questions for Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. Test-takers answer fifteen multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, and receive immediate feedback. These basic questions focus mainly on...
Curated OER
Academic Vocabulary
Arm your writers with an arsenal of literary terms. With definitions of everything from plot structure and figurative language to point-of-view and types of irony, learners will gain an understanding of elements in stories and be able to...
Have Fun Teaching
Silly Stories
Young writers get a jump start on story telling by selecting a plot, a setting, and multiple character cards and then use these basic elements to create a tale.
Internet Archive
Daz 4 Zoe
It is rough trying to make your way through Romeo and Juliet with young readers. The language can set up barriers that prevent conversations about the conflicts and themes. Robert Swindells Daz 4 Zoe is similar in structure and theme,...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 11: Beginnings
Every good novel needs a solid beginning! Setting the stage can have your budding authors stumped, so use this lesson to get them thinking. After examining the plot rollercoaster image (included) they consider the four places...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 17: Novel, Take 2
It's all about using peer resources in this writing process instructional activity, which includes a fantastic novel revision worksheet packet. Learners have read a partner's story draft the night before, and groups have a...
Curated OER
Narrative Strategies
Sixth graders explore strategies authors use to make characters and setting seem real to readers. They develop characters and describe setting in original narratives. Students read myths and determine common themes found in myths from...
Curated OER
Teaching Language Arts in Kindergarten Using Stories, Aesop's Fables, and Tall Tales
Students search into a variety of story elements in the eight lessons of this unit. The title, author, illustrator, setting, main character, problem, solution, events and the story are the components of the lessons.
Curated OER
Egg Carton Stories
Students create stories with better structure when they are able to focus on its characters, setting, and plot. Teacher creates settings, character, and problem cartons with information written on strips of paper.
Curated OER
Story Planner
In this pre-writing graphic organizer, students fill in a chart with the characters, setting, plot, beginning and ending that they will use to write a story.
Curated OER
One Pager
Students read the novel, Freak the Mighty and describe and illustrate the setting. They create a graphic organizer that demonstrates the major plot elements and character development.
Curated OER
Cinderella Cinderella
Students compare and contrast various versions of the story Cinderella and create their own version. They read versions of Cinderella and identify their components including setting, characters, events/plot, magic and biographical...
Curated OER
Nursery Rhymes
Students recall details of nursery rhyme read by teacher, identify main characters, and demonstrate knowledge of poem by creating concept map about story that includes title, clip art, and changes in font and color.
Curated OER
Cause and Effect with the Treasure of Green Lake
Students, after reading the book, "Holes," answer questions about the story's plot, make decisions about game play that involve cause and effect relationships and utilize problem-solving skills and hand-eye coordination to navigate a...