Students examine how paintings tell stories. They read biographies about artists, analyze paintings, research and write the art history of a painting, write a creative story based on the painting, and create a painting in the artist's...

Learners identify cause and effect relationships in a short story. After reading a short story, they participate in a discussion of how one event in a story can lead to several others. Students are then paired for a matching task that...

Second graders investigate realistic fiction, holiday celebrations, making tally charts. In this multi-disciplinary instructional activity, 2nd graders listen to a story about Thanksgiving and one about the Chinese New Year to develop an...

Pupils recall details of nursery rhyme read by teacher, identify main characters, and demonstrate knowledge of poem by creating concept map about story that includes title, clip art, and changes in font and color.

Students view a classic movie in class while taking notes. They write a summary/ review of the movie which includes the name of the movie, who wrote it, the characters and a retelling of the story. They include their opinion and how the...

Eighth graders study the Civil War novel, Across Five Aprils, by Irene Hunt. They review vocabulary and literary elements and write a "Brother Against Brother" essay about coming face to face with a brother in one of the battles of the...

Young scholars investigate the Japanese version of the Cinderella tale. For this fairy tale lesson, students read Tam's Slipper and construct a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the tale with the American version.

Fourth graders compare and contrast Fudge and Peter, two main characters from "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing". They use a software template to analyze and compare the characters in a rough draft, edit their work and then produce a...

Students complete an essay documenting a conflict present in the novel Holes. They define the six types of literary discussion as a class. After identifying one of these types of conflicts in the novel, students write a five paragraph...

Students consider various reading strategies to improve their understanding and fluency. They review their assessment task and rubric for how their work will be evaluated. They read a story and predict what will happen by recording...

Seventh graders read and discuss a short story. They complete an outline of the story. They pair and share to evaluate each other's outlines.

Fifth graders take part in a panel discussion. In this character lesson students show their understanding of the connection between events in a story and the development of characters. Students provide evidence from the story to support...

High schoolers create a new ending for a familiar story that stand alone with a clear beginning, middle and end. As a class, students review a familiar text focusing on plot and character development. In small groups, high schoolers...

Students read a version of Ramayana and explore the elements of the epic hero cycle. In this Ramayana analysis lesson, students retell the basic narrative of the Ramayana and identify the main characters. Students identify elements of...

Students practice their writing skills by creating a children's book. They integrate five elements of short stories into the narrative. They share their stories with their book buddies.

Students complete a literature analysis of fiction texts to study elements of fiction. In this fiction analysis lesson, students read various fiction texts and examine them to learn about fiction elements. Students learn to draw...

Students read stories from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer and create their own tale. In this writing applications lesson, students read the tales and analyze the specific details that Chaucer use. Students work in groups to...

Students read several versions of the Cinderella story and examine variations from different cultures. They consider how point of view affects a story and develop a multimedia presentation with their observations.

In this Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone worksheet, students draw characters from the book, write descriptions about the character, and then exchange another students description and draw the character they described. Students...

Students recognize the elements of a fable and write an original fable. They make connections with morals and other law-related concepts.

Students are read the story "Gingerbread Baby". They draw and cut out the characters from the story and create a mobile to hang from their classroom ceiling. They write a sentence using a verb on the back.

Students are read the book "Gingerbread Baby". They examine the journey the baby traveled in the story and in turn create a game board. They draw pictures along the board to show different parts of the story.

Students read a variety of literature from India, including folktales and fables. They then select a scene or story to script, work together to design and craft shadow puppets of characters and scenery, narrate a story, manipulate the...

Students compose a story and tell it to the class.  In this storytelling lesson, students work in small groups to create an illustrated story.  Students are given a checklist of elements to include in the...