Curated OER
Writing a Fantasy Story - Time Travel
Students write a fantasy story about travelling back in time to the period of the Oregon Trail. They conduct research and take notes about the Oregon Trail, and write a first and a final draft of their short story about their visit to...
Curated OER
Thumbs Up to a Good Book!
Second graders read a short story and discuss whether they would give it a thumbs up or down and why. students write a group review on that story supporting why they gave it the up or down thumb. They choose and read a short story and...
Curated OER
Predictions, Predictions, and More Predictions
Third graders pose questions about the subject of a short story based on the title and cover illustration; then read the story and determine if their questions actually pertained to the story line, and, if so, how the story answered the...
Curated OER
A Picture's Worth 500-700 Words
Students write a narrative or short story of 500-700 words based on an assigned work of art.
Curated OER
What Makes a Novel a Novel?
As your authors prepare to write a hypothetical novel, they need all the inspiration they can find! Using a book they have already read (and enjoyed), learners complete a literary analysis by filling in eight short-answer...
Curated OER
The Workshop
Kids take a critical look at each other's work in order to understand the editing process while providing constructive suggestions. This handout really sets learners up to successfully offer constructive critique to their...
Curated OER
Comment le Chat et la Souris sont venus au monde
Read this Vietnamese fairy tale with your advanced French speakers. The story itself is two pages long, and there are two pages of questions that follow. Readers must do their best to guess new vocabulary words in context before they...
Curated OER
Extra Credit: It’s No Fairy Tale
Learners discuss their knowledge of payday loans and credit cards. In this Economics lesson, students complete a read an article and Q&A activity in groups, and play a vocabulary bingo game and a quiz game on payday loans. Learners...
Curated OER
E.T., Are You Out There?
Research the necessary components of a planet that supports life after reading the article "All of a Sudden, The Neighborhood Looks a Lot Friendlier" from The New York Times. After finding their information, middle and high schoolers...
California Department of Education
Plagiarism is Stealing!
Stop, thief! Do your pupils understand the consequences of plagiarism? Lesson three of six in a series of college and career readiness activities demonstrates the dangers of taking credit for someone else's work. Learners engage in...
Curated OER
"Three Shots": Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams
Analyze characterization in literature. Readers use "Three Shots," from The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway and complete classroom activities that require them to apply literary analysis techniques. They write their own short...
Curated OER
continuidad de los parques
Action! Get your Spanish speakers acting with this plan. First read a short story together, then have small groups write various endings. After they write their ending, have them bring props and film their alternate ending.
Curated OER
St. Patrick's Day: James Joyce
Whether it's St. Patrick's Day or not, this lesson can be a great way to study James Joyce and how his heritage has influenced his writing. The lesson is meant to be used with the Gale database, specifically the Student Resource Center...
Curated OER
Bambara's The Lesson
Twelfth graders read the short story The Lesson. They research the socio-economic and cultural context of the story and author. They examine the author's point of view. They analyze the first person narration in the story. They rewrite...
Curated OER
Understanding Cause and Effect
Students experience and study cause and effect as they assess the consequences man faces when time travel is attempted. They determine, in their imaginations, what time period they would like to visit. Each student then listens to,...
Curated OER
Identify Genre, Subgenre, and Author's Purpose
Explore genre, subgenre, and author's purpose in this helpful activity. Middle schoolers read several summaries of books and short stories, and identify the genre and subgenre. They also determine if the author's purpose is to entertain,...
British Council
Twelfth Night
Scholars experience Shakespeare's, Twelfth Night, with an engaging interactive. After watching the story, six activities extend the learning experience. Topics include characters, vocabulary, a sequence of events, comprehension, and...
British Council
Romeo and Juliet
An engaging video featuring William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is accompanied by six activities designed to reinforce vocabulary, story elements, and comprehension. Scholars match words to pictures, place events in sequential order,...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Introduction to Division
Examine how addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division relate to and are separate from each other. As they listen to the book, The Doorbell Rang, they demonstrate the math described in the story by cutting up paper cookies...
Curated OER
Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Young Goodman Brown"
Give your class some background information on both Nathaniel Hawthorne and his short story "Young Goodman Brown." Basic themes and characters are introduced, especially as this is an allegory with many symbolic elements. Help your...
Curated OER
“THE LORAX” by Dr. Seuss
Few children's books convey the message of conservation as well as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. Read the story aloud, emphasizing the interconnectedness of plants and animals in an ecosystem and discussing different ways people can help...
Read Works
Halloween Leftovers
Halloween isn't fun for everyone — but playing together is! Read about Esme and her space pirate friend with a short reading passage, accompanied by ten short answer questions.
Reed Novel Studies
My Side of The Mountain: Novel Study
Some money, a pocketknife, a ball of cord, and some flint and steel ... is that enough for a 14-year-old to survive alone in the wilderness? Scholars explore the topic of survival with the novel study for My Side of the Mountain....
English Worksheets Land
Great Discoveries
Compare and contrast two paragraphs describing Alexander Fleming's scientific discovery of penicillin using this compare-and-contrast reading worksheet where scholars explain what happens through writing, decide whether the excerpts are...