Curated OER
Short Story's
Students create a storybook from a list of short stories. In this creative lesson students break down scenarios into a sequence for their storyboard.
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...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Surprise!: Extra Support Lessons (Theme 2)
Surprise! is the theme of a unit covering such topics as consonants, blending, short vowels sounds, high frequency words, and number words. The unit's lessons also include teachable moments covering story structure, illustrations,...
Hampton-Brown
Esperanza Rising
Accompany a reading of the novel, Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, with a series of lessons that dive deep into the literary world of a young girl and the journey she takes to start a new life. Lessons and their...
Curated OER
Integrate Reading and Writing this Valentine's Day
Spend Valentine's Day reading, writing, or creating gifts with your students.
EdHelper
George Washington's Socks by Elvira Woodruff
A solid, straightforward book report form is an excellent addition to your literature unit. Class members note the main characters, point of view, plot elements, and other important details from a story, adding their favorite part from...
Wasatch County School District
Context Clues
Using context clues is an effective way to define unfamiliar words. Encourage elementary learners to look at the sentences around the word in question, with a short informative slideshow presentation.
Curated OER
Polar Bears
What do you know about polar bears? Get your youngsters writing about these majestic animals with this short writing activity. They simply use the six words provided to create a short story about the picture provided. Review the words...
English Worksheets Land
Compare and Contrast
Even though two passages discuss the same topic, they contain different facts and details. Scholars analyze two reading passages about the Gettysburg Address and list the ways they are the same and different.
Curated OER
Short Story Framework
The class gets creative after listening to a short story containing a definitive structure. They are required to think about character, relationship, and setting, while attempting to show rather than tell, in their writing. Dialogue,...
Curated OER
Creative Outline for Your Short Story or Book
Middle schoolers discuss the information listed about how to make an outline for a short story or book. They then begin writing their short story and edit it and revise before turning it in to be graded.
Curated OER
Short Stories and Sitcoms
Students compare 19th Century short stories to 20th Century sitcoms. They address seven questions as the watch a sitcom for homework and create a web to use for further comparison.
Curated OER
Analyzing and Evaluating Literary Works
Students evaluate the literary elements found in short stories. In this literature activity, students read short stories of their choosing and list the examples of the literary elements they encounter in the story on the provided graphic...
Curated OER
Buddy Stories
Students write and illustrate short stories. They read their original stories to younger Buddy Readers.
Roanoke County Public Schools
Be a Sequence Detective!
Authors are constantly leaving clues that help the reader to understand the sequence of events in a story. Teach young readers how to pick up on these key temporal words and phrases with this slide show. After an introduction to commonly...
Curated OER
Show Me the Story
Students examine the elements of a story, read a review of Chris Rock's new sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris" and create original sitcom episodes based on their own lives.
Curated OER
With Detective Fiction in the Urban Classroom
This abstract for an instructional unit using three-minute mysteries, stories by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe includes a short history of detective fiction, sample plans, and suggestions for exercises and activities...
Teach-nology
Making My Swimming Pool
If you'd always wanted an expensive swimming pool, how would you make the money to build it? Kids read a short passage about a quest to create a dream swimming pool, and use a list of words to fill in eight spaces throughout the reading.
Ohio Department of Education
A Glossary of Literary Terms
If you're tired of defining allusion, onomatopoeia, and satire for your language arts students, hand out a complete list of literary devices to keep the terms straight. Each term includes a definition that is easy to understand and...
Curated OER
"Reflections" by Janet Chuang
Five questions go along with your reading of "Reflections" by Janet Chuang. The story is not included, but these questions encourage thoughtful reflection on the plot and literary devices used.
Macmillan Education
Happy 40th Birthday Brown Bear
What do you see? Wish a happy birthday to Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The lesson includes six extension activities for the books and its companion stories, including a maze and animal...
Education Center
Safety Sequence
Follow up a class reading of the children's book Officer Buckle and Gloria with this simple sequence-of-events learning exercise. Including pictures of six key moments from the story, young learners must first number them in the correct...
Curated OER
Make a Memory with Movie Maker
There is nothing more exciting than allowing learners to express themselves through a creative medium. In groups, they write narrative stories, focusing on building a strong storyline and dialogue. Next, they transform their stories into...
Great Schools
A Questionnaire: What Do You Like to Read?
What do your fifth graders know about types of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry? Find out as they fill out this questionnaire that requires them to list authors and texts that exemplify each genre. Not only will you be able to assess what...