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Organizer
Curated OER

Cause & Effect Chart: "My Furthest-Back Person" by Alex Haley

For Students 5th - 9th
Help your class see the connection between events in Alex Haley's story "My Furthest-Back Person" with this awesome graphic organizer. Individuals write a brief description of 10 major plot events in a series of boxes. The first and last...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Characteristics of Imaginative Stories

For Teachers 3rd
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Different Strokes For Different Folktales

For Teachers K - 1st
Young readers use graphic organizers, such as Venn diagrams and story maps, to analyze a variety of folktales and the elements of a story. They use writing, sequencing activities, and creative art to identify the morals learned from a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Context Clues, Plot Structure, Conflict, and Personal Narrative Essay

For Teachers 9th - 12th
What are the elements of a personal narrative? Get your class talking by reading "The Necklace" and "A Dangerous Game." The lesson focuses primarily on defining certain vocabulary terms (like context clues, plot, conflict, climax, etc.)...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan 7: The Elements of Story

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Budding novelists work on character development by relating to the characters in their stories. They imagine their own hopes and dreams and recall those of characters from books they've read. Learners also consider struggles the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing Fiction: Using Older Characters

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Out with the old and in with the new? Not so in this lesson plan, which explores the idea of writing older characters in fiction. Students learn the value of varying their characters, exploring different perspectives, and avoiding...
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Lesson Plan
The New York Times

Writing Fiction Based on Real Science - NYTimes.com

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Refuse to alienate your scientific-minded young scholars during your creative writing unit. Learners explore how literary writing can reflect observable fact, and be based in actual science. The links include examples of fiction and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Comprehension Skills: Picture, Question and Summarize Using Fiction Stories

For Teachers K
Students build a variety of comprehension skills through the nine lessons of this unit. Picturing events, monitoring understanding during reading, forming questions, and summarizing stories form the core of the lessons being taught in...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Parts of a Story

For Students 3rd - 4th
In this story learning exercise, students read about different story elements such as setting, characters, plot, and theme. Each element is illustrator by a cartoon.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Teaching Story Elements: Jack and the Beanstalk

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers define fictional story elements. In this reading comprehension lesson, students read Jack and the Beanstalk and view an included SMARTboard lesson. Middle schoolers use the SMARTboard to match the story element terms...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Setting the Story: Techniques for Creating a Realistic Setting

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
“It was a dark and stormy night.” Thus begins the 1830's novel Paul Clifford and, of course, all of Snoopy’s novels! Encourage young writers to craft settings for their stories that go beyond Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s often-mocked phrase...
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PPT
Prezi

Song of the Trees by Mildred Taylor

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
Explore the literary elements of Mildred Taylor's Song of the Trees with this beautiful Prezi presentation. Focusing on the story's characters, setting, and major plot points, young readers are provided with a complete summary of this...
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Worksheet
K5 Learning

The Fox and the Little Red Hen

For Students 4th Standards
Read about the fox family that decides to cook a hen for dinner. After reading, individuals answer questions about the elements of plot in the story. They require drawing conclusions, making predictions, and describing specific parts in...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Guide your class on an adventure 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with this Hampton-Brown outline. It provides educators with a guide to increase reading comprehension, critical thinking, literary analysis, and reading strategies. This...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Story Mapping Abel's Island

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students are able to prioritize story elements using graphic organizers. They are able to evaluate character, setting and sequence in a non-print source. Students use visual and audio clues to help them evaluate the parts of a story.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Five Elements of a Story

For Students 7th - 12th
Here’s a graphic organizer that permits learners to chart the introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution of a story. The PDF file can be customized to work with any narrataive.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Imagining Your Science Fiction Short Story

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders brainstorm ideas for their own science fiction story. Using worksheets, they sketch the plot and setting for their story. They create appropriate characters and develop their interactions among each other. They share...
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Handout
Curated OER

The Martian Chronicles: Concept Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
If you're planning on including Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles in your science fiction unit, use a concept analysis guide to frame your instruction. It covers literary elements such as setting, narrative voice, and theme, as well...
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Organizer
Curated OER

Fiction, Poetry, and Drama Part 1

For Students 5th - 8th
Similar to a textbook, this resource includes multiple texts, plenty of explanation, lots of practice, and several graphic organizers. Use all of the materials, or pick and choose from such texts as "The Circuit," "Shoes for Hector,"...
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Unit Plan
Curated OER

Brown Bagging with Short Stories

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students participate in a study of short story elements, applying their knowledge and understanding to a selection of short stories.  In this short stories lesson, students read five short story selections, identifying conflict, plot,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing Fact and Fiction

For Students 3rd - 9th Standards
"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," from The Jungle Book, offers young readers a chance to examine how Rudyard Kipling uses setting and personification to bring to life the brave mongoose who battles cobras to protect his family. Class members explore...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Language Arts: Plotting Stories

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders read the story, "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit," as part of a unit on appearances. After reading with partners, they write their own stories that include elements about some forms of matter from their science studies. Students...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding the Elements of Fiction

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Inform your class on the elements of fiction: themes, settings, characters, plots, dialogue, narration, flashback, clues, climax, resolution. They write the definitions of the terms on the worksheet provided.l Tip: Have them write a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introducing Literary Elements in Fiction

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Identify literary elements in fiction. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, learners read the book Pigsty and record literary elements onto a graphic organizer. They specifically discuss the main characters and events in the text.