Get ready for an explosive lesson! Learners read and interact with an online lesson describing the characteristics of volcanoes. They study specific historical volcanoes as well as the science of volcanic eruptions using animations and...

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.

W.W. Jacobs' story "The Monkey's Paw" provides plenty of foreshadowing which readers use to make predictions in this tightly composed, sound instructional plan. Your class reads the story, recording predictions and checking for veracity...

Tenth graders analyze the use of literary elements in W.W. Jacob's "The Monkey's Paw." Literary analysis is accomplished by a review of the plot and order of events in the story. Learners work in pairs to match the events from the story...

Students define and interpret the elements found in a short story. Then they identify the elements of plot found in a short story. Students also apply knowledge of plot to an original work of fiction. Finally, they identify the...

This graphic organizer allows readers to visualize the introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement of a story by filling in five corresponding boxes with details from a story.

Designed for third graders but appropriate for older learners as well, this packet of materials underscores the necessity of teaching kids how to summarize, how to identify main ideas and supporting details, and how to ask questions...

Learners use the provided worksheet to identify plot elements and then fill in these elements on a plot diagram. Also included is a template for a character map that asks readers to choose a character, identify two traits, and supply...

Your students already know when they like a story and when they don't, but they may not know that the plots of these stories are shaping that opinion. Like all resources in this series, the two activities and quizzes provided here deal...

In this plot summaries worksheet, students read the plot summaries and write what the expositions, inciting moments, rising actions, climaxes, falling actions, and denouements are in them. Students do this for 2 plot summaries.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a comic strip combines both images and words for the ultimate narrative effect. After reading The Three Little Pigs and deciphering the plot elements, elementary readers work through four...

Students listen to and discuss the purpose of protest music. They analyze an editorial cartoon related to Jim Crow and read questions from the literacy tests given to African-Americans. They work together to write a song about the...

Stdents explore the operation of the commercial banking system and the mechanics of money creation through the lending process. They investigate various interest rates to develop the relationship between interest rates and risk and...

A plot diagram helps readers visualize the structure of a story. Here’s a presentation that expands upon the traditional diagram and examines plot components (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) as well as...

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 would work with any other short story), they define the exposition, rising...

Students identify and interpret the value of the dragonfly as a predator of the mosquito. They create their own folktales using the dragonfly or a creature of their choice to solve the malaria problem or another issue. Students also...

Invite your pupils to express their understanding of a novel through a collaborative video project. Groups choose a novel from those you have studied in class, select four scenes, storyboard the scenes, film the scenes, edit the film,...

Ninth graders explore the French Revolution. In this French Revolution lesson, student research citizen action and public policy during the war. Students write essays regarding their research findings.

The stories in Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street form the basis for a lesson on plot elements. The class examines introduction, sequence, problem, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution and identifies these...

Students continue to read the story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek". In groups, they define the word foreshadowing. They identify the points in the story that they believe are the rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. They...

Students discover tidal pools.  In this oceanographic lesson plan, students observe the tides of the earth and the creatures that inhabit the intertidal zones.  Students role-play the tidal zones by portraying themselves as...

Fourth graders act out and write original narratives. In this theater meets writing lesson, 4th graders work in groups to create original narratives; after students act out their story, they write it down as a narrative.

Students review the literary elements of plot and conflict. In this plot and conflict lesson, students read a story and answer questions about the plot and conflict within. Students create a concept map for the novel to identify the...