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Identify Main Idea in a Story
Help your kindergarteners identify the main idea in a story. Small groups work with the teacher to make predictions and draw conclusions. They are able to determine cause and effect relationships. The lesson is divided into several days,...
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The Landlady Pre-Reading: The Characters
Prepare your class to read "The Landlady" by Roald Dahl with these pre-reading activities about the two main characters in the story. This resource provides a brief overview of the story as well as excerpts from the text that describe...
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Reading Practice: Boris the Brainiest Baby
Boris is the smartest baby around! Beginning readers can use this short story excerpt to practice reading comprehension and fiction elements. They read the story and then discuss what they think he will do next. Scholars create an...
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Reading Short Stories
In this graphic organizer worksheet, students fill in the graphic organizer with the predictions, settings, characters, background, and more for short stories. Students complete 5 sections.
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The Rest of the Story
Third graders make predictions about the story "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" based on background knowledge. They read the story, stopping to verify or reject predictions. They write their own opinionated fairytales.
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Reading Comprehension - Short Stories
Much more than a simple reading assessment, this resource can form the basis of a review of comprehension strategies, as a learning exercise that models for readers how to employ strategies to answer questions based on passages, or as a...
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The Gift of the Magi
Test the true meaning of giving - and irony - with this lesson about "The Gift of the Magi." Using textual analysis, details, and text organization, middle schoolers make predictions about future events in the story and determine the...
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A House for Hermit Crab
Make predictions and recall details while reading A House For Hermit Crab. While you read the story, discuss aspects of the plot and encourage listeners to respond. Extension activities such as crafts, counting, puppets, and using your...
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"Rikki-tikki-tavi"
“Rikki-tikki-tavi” provides an opportunity to model for readers how to use background information to enrich understanding of a story. Class members observe animal behavior, listen to biographical background on Rudyard Kipling, study...
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You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover… But Can You Judge a Book by Its First Line?
In this literary prediction activity, students predict the topic, genre, setting, characters, and interest level of a book based on its first line. They research the title and author of the book using the line. They write a short story...
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Short Story Lesson Plan
Students read and discuss the short story, "The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm," by Mark Twain. They assume the role of the main characters in the story and write a humorous letter of complaint using a business letter format. They...
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Language Arts: Creative Reading, Predicting and Writing
In this predictions worksheet, 4th graders guess what the book Black and White will be about based on the first line. Students answer questions related to the book's genre and story line. Students write and illustrate their own short...
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Language Arts: Creative Reading, Predicting and Writing
In this predictions worksheet, 5th graders guess what Jumanji and will be about after reading only the first line. Students write and illustrate their own short story based on the first line of Jumanji .
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Lesson 2: Using Setting to Make Predictions about Characters
Fourth graders look at the importance of setting in a story. In this setting lesson, 4th graders see how the setting of a story affects the actions of the characters and how you can predict these actions based on the setting. They read...
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Changing the End of a Story
Second graders re-write a story. In this alternate endings lesson, 2nd graders read Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse, by Leo Lionni, stopping to discuss the events and predict what will happen next. Students work in groups to come up with...
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Identifying the Theme in a Story
Students recognize Theme through the use of simple, short stories. Using Pro Quest, students begin by researching the literary element, theme, and how it can be identified. They then identify the themes in Aesop's Fables and other short...
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Reading Short Stories
In this story comprehension worksheet, students fill out an organizer, making a prediction about a story before reading, and writing about what led them to this prediction. Students then complete another organizer, writing about setting,...
Scholastic
Dr. Seuss Extension Activities
Extend the exhilarating learning experience of Dr. Seuss with five activities designed to reinforce literacy skills—site word reading, dialogue writing, story mapping, and more! Featured stories include The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, The...
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Stories
Students read and write a short story. For this short story lesson plan, students read a short story and answer comprehension questions on it that teaches them about the world around them. Then they write a short story to teach something...
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Story Parts
Third graders identify the three major parts of a story. After reading the book "Stellaluna," students discuss the beginning, middle and end of the story. They write a short story depicting the events that would happen if the story...
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Comparing Characters Across Two Short Stories
Ninth graders listen to a read aloud of two short stories focusing on literary devices. The write about the settings and realism of the stories, and decide each main character handles the conflict he faces with nature.
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Academic Achievement
Academic goals can lead high schoolers toward bright futures. Get your class to think about where they want to be in 20 years and what they'll need to do to get there with this lesson plan. Learners fill out a brief questionnaire about...
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You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover
In this prediction worksheet, students answer questions about what the book and Little Women and will be about based on the first sentence of the book. Students become authors writing their own short story with the given first line.
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You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover
In this prediction worksheet, students answer questions telling what they think the book, The Little Match Girl will be about based on the first sentence. Students write their own short story using the first line as their starting point.