National Wildlife Federation
It's A Bird...It's A Plane...It's...CARBON!
An interesting lesson takes pupils on a trip through the carbon cycle. A reading passage allows scholars to take notes and make choices about what happens to the carbon on its journey. This third lesson in a series of 21 discusses...
Curated OER
The Cat in the Hat is 50!
Have your class react to a number of statements about The Cat in the Hat, then read a news article about a special event honoring the birthday of the popular book. The teacher introduces an article with a discussion and vocabulary...
Curated OER
5 Broken Cameras: How Storytellers Shape the Story
5 Broken Cameras, the award-winning documentary nominated for a 2013 Academy Award and winner of the Sundance 2012 Directors Award is the focus of a resource packet that includes a lesson plan, discussion guide, reading lists, background...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
I Need a Superhero
Once the class learns about the hero's journey, they'll find it in every story and movie they see! Take characters from their humble beginnings to their atonement and apotheosis with a set of lessons about the hero's journey...
K20 LEARN
OPTIC - A Reading Strategy Recipe: Visual Literacy
A visual literary lesson provides learners with OPTIC (Observations, Predictions, Themes, Inferences, Conclusions), a reading strategy to help them understand and interpret visual and written texts. Scholars practice the strategy with a...
Apple
A Curriculum for Digital Media Creation
Consumer technology has made it possible for filmmakers to create entire movies from the comfort of their home computer. Guide high school film buffs through the process of designing a documentary with an extensive unit published by...
Curated OER
Creating a Story Map Using Kidspiration
Fourth graders use computer software, Kidspiration, to create a graphic organizer detailing main characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme of their favorite short story. Students also discover how graphic organizers can help them...
Curated OER
Painted Story Quilt
Emmulate some of Faith Ringgolds famous painted story quilts in your classroom. Have your class choose a story or you choose one for the whole class to portray. They will select their favorite scene to paint onto their story quilt. What...
Curated OER
Story Impressions-Gary Paulsen's Canyons
What is a story impression? Learn about the strategy with the first page of this two-page resource. Before reaching chapters 21-24 in Canyons, readers use a list of words (taken from these chapters) to predict what is going to happen....
Code.org
Discover a Data Story
"Data is so boring, there's no way to find any patterns in them." Or is there? Pairs investigate data sets using different data visualization tools to discover a trend that may exist in a data set. Once they find a trend or...
Curated OER
Greek Story Vases
There are so many ways to tell a story! Develop visual storytelling skills while facilitating an understanding of Greek art and culture. Learners design Greek style images to tell a story through art. They add their designs to Styrofoam...
PBS
Finding Story Ideas
Pitch your best news story to your news team, or the peers in your journalism class, with a lesson about finding, reporting, and presenting a story. After watching clips of different examples, as well as strategies for finding...
Prestwick House
Understanding Language: Slant, Spin, and Bias in the News
We live in a time of fake news, alternative realities, and media bias. What could be more timely than an activity that asks class members to research how different sources report the same topic in the news?
Tune Into English
America – West Side Story
Anita's iconic rooftop ode to American life in West Side Story is the focus of a lesson on immigration. As class members listen to "America," they follow along with printed lyrics, and discuss whether they agree with Anita's...
Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, considered by many to be a seminal piece of American literature, contains many complex literary themes that carry through United States history. Use a series of discussion questions and classroom...
K20 LEARN
Being Mindful Of Sadness In "The Scarlet Ibis": Theme And Characterization
James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis" provides readers with an opportunity to consider how they can support others who are experiencing distress. Participants learn self-care tips and connect to the short story's characters. They...
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Jack London's The Call of the Wild
The Yukon provides plenty of opportunity for adventure. A study guide for The Call of the Wild by Jack London, also the author of White Fang, helps readers navigate the novel which is set in Yukon, Canada. Chapter summaries give a...
K20 LEARN
I Need A (Super)Hero: Literary Elements And Narrative Writing
Need a hero? Super! Groups create their modern-day marvel and craft a narrative with all the elements required in such a tale.
Curated OER
Fill-In - October Event in History
A lot has happened in the month of October in the past 100 years or so. Kids fill in the blank for 31 events, each of which occurred on a day in October. Each event can be found in a New York Times article from the past 100+ years....
Prestwick House
Rhyme and Repetition in Poe's "Annabel Lee"
Many and many a year ago Edgar Allan Poe crafted the chilling tale of "Annabel Lee." The poem is the perfect vehicle to introduce Poe's concept of unity of effect, the idea that every element in a poem or story should help to develop a...
Curated OER
What If: The Seed Of A Story
Students read and comprehend a piece of fictional writing, analyze how setting, characterization, and plot affect the theme of a story and work in a group to create a new writing assignment. This 5-day plan culminates in students writing...
Curated OER
Elements of A Story
Eighth graders read stories and identify the six elements of a story. As a group activity, they illustrate random examples of Frankinstein stories, identify the element illustrated, and post the picture in the appropriate station in the...
Curated OER
Identifying Setting and Completing a Story Map
Second graders complete a story map for Frog and Toad Are Friends. In this making inferences lesson plan students find specific details from the book to complete their story map. They map one chapter at a time.
Curated OER
Write Me a Story
Second graders use the writing process and submit a story to www.kids.com. In this story writing lesson, 2nd graders choose a topic for a story contest. Students develop their stories. Students complete a her...