Curated OER
Story Elements
Third graders identify story elements. In this story elements lesson, 3rd graders look at main idea, characters, point of view, theme and setting. They create a five paneled comic strip from a book.
Curated OER
Making a Magical Story
Fourth and fifth graders use their knowledge of developing character, dialogue, and setting to produce an original story. An excerpt from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is used as inspiration to get everyone's...
Curated OER
"The Three Billy Goats Gruff:" Retelling the Story
Youngsters retell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. They write a sentence for speech bubbles for a character in the story, identify the phrases that can be used for retelling a story, and in small groups write a sentence for the...
Perkins School for the Blind
Language Experience Stories
Here is a great way to bring core content to your special education classroom. Included is a set of instructional ideas intended to help learners increase their verbal and written expression through storytelling. Tape recorders, story...
Curated OER
Retelling Main Event in Sequence
Second graders practice retelling events from a fiction book. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, 2nd graders read Harry and the Lady Next Door and retell the main events of the story to a partner.
Curated OER
Story Boards
Students devise story boards to sequence the main events in a story. They draw a picture that demonstrates the main event in each chapter of a story and label it with a sentence.
Curated OER
A Photo Essay
Students analyze photographs, then create their own photo essays by using photos, magazine pictures or drawings to illustrate their stories.
Curated OER
Pumpkin Carving Sequencer
Pupils arrange illustrations in sequential order. In this text organization lesson, students access a webpage where they must follow the instructions to learn about the steps of pumpkin carving. Pupils then click and drag illustrations...
Film English
Theo’s Story
Encourage your class to consider a beautiful short film about a boy named Theo who happens to be visually impaired. Over the course of the lesson, pupils work in pairs, discuss their ideas and the film as a class, view the film,...
Curated OER
Primary Sources and Protagonists: A Native American Literature Unit
Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...
Curated OER
The Beginning, The Middle, & The End
Cut magazine pictures into three sections, having your youngsters piece the pictures back together. With this fun activity, they discover the importance of sequencing a story. Then they use a fun template (shaped like a burger) to write...
Curated OER
Stone Soup
Students examine the topics of conflict, resolution, and solution using the book "Stone Soup." They create a class pictograph using real vegetables brought in by the students, answer story comprehension questions, and sequence the events...
Curated OER
ELD Lesson Plan: Courage
What is true courage? Your class can explore the answer with these three Houghton-Mifflin stories ("Hatchet," "Passage to Freedom," "Climb or Die," and "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle"), which feature courageous characters and...
Curated OER
Developing a Topic for Writing Using an Idea Web
Teach your upper graders how to use an idea web to develop a topic for writing. After reading a variety of stories about friendship (a list of stories with the theme of friendship is included), model using an idea web. Class members...
Curated OER
Mo Willems Author Study
Who is Mo Willems? Explore the author with your class. Learners read books written by Willems, compare and contrast the characters therein, and make predictions about what will happen. Finish off this author study by having small groups...
Curated OER
The Final Copy
Write short stories in which events are presented in logical order, point of view is clear, theme and characters are developed. Middle schoolers also work on sensory language, concrete language and/or dialogue. They establish their...
Curated OER
Episodic Writing Using Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff
Help your middle-schoolers expand their writing skills with this lesson on episodic writing, which focuses on story details, idea development, and organization. After reading "The Eighth Picture: End of Summer" from Patricia Reilly...
Curated OER
Maus: Making a Visual Representation
How do you represent a tragic event? Are stories of tragic events better left untold? After reading chapter two of Maus and studying other representations of the Holocaust (suggestions are included), class members create a representation...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
“Tell Me a Story”: Moving from Reading to Writing
Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...
Curated OER
Summer Nature Activity: Carrots! Carrots!
Students investigate reading, cooking, and planting activities that teach that a carrot is the root of a plant. In this early childhood science activity, students explore the world around them as they read The Carrot Seed and complete...
Curated OER
Sequencing
Second graders retell a story focusing on sequence. in this sequence activity, 2nd graders read the story Carry Go Bring Come by Vyanne Samuels. They retell parts of the story and put them in the correct order.
Curated OER
May I Take Your Order, Please?
Pupils read a story, boil down that story to 5 to 7 key events, create a sequencing quiz to go with the story and have their classmates take the quiz. They will the strategy of sequencing by reading various stories (that they are not...
Curated OER
How can we write a silly story?
Second graders use the writing process and create a silly story. In this silly story instructional activity, 2nd graders will review person, event and setting and complete a chart for each. Students will put a person,...
Curated OER
Story of Silk
Students investigate the steps of the silk-making process through a reading of the story, "The Empress and the Silkworm" by Toy Hong. Sequencing cards are utilized to enhance the process and a silkworm's cocoon is unravelled.