Curated OER
Making A Story Map
Sixth graders learn to plan a story by using a story map. They analyze a detailed sample story map and answer 5 questions about it. Then, plan their own story using a story map template.
Pinecrest Preparatory Middle and High School
Short Story Planning Guide
A short story is only as strong as its characters, development, and conflicts. Encourage the young authors in your class to plan their stories based on the elements of narrative writing, all provided in brainstorming graphic organizers.
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
What We Eat, Where We Sleep: Documenting Daily Life to Tell Stories
This is not just a New York Time article to read, this is a set of amazing activity ideas all related to the slide shows "Breaking Bread Everywhere" and "Where Children Sleep." Your class can view each show, read about what they mean...
IPDAE
Themes in Short Stories
"What is the theme of this story?" The very question can spark fear in the minds of readers and incinerate confidence. Here you will discover an exercise that shows how writers use the tools of setting, plot, conflict, and...
Curated OER
What Makes a Novel a Novel?
They always say to write what you know. This approach is used to get middle schoolers prepared to write novels of their own. Using a favorite book as a model, potential novelists respond to prompts that ask about characters, plot, main...
Curated OER
Getting to Know Characters
This set of worksheets constitutes enough work and materials to be considered a lesson. They guide readers through a process of exploring characters and their motivations, and writing a paragraph about them. Here are seven handouts that...
Curated OER
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Provided here is a packet of worksheets to accompany The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. To start, readers research words commonly associated with the time period. Then, a list of 30 tough vocabulary words are listed (including...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Three Skeleton Key
Encourage your middle schoolers to interact with the text as they read. While reading "Three Skeleton Key," class members note predictions, define words and study their meanings, take notes on how the suspense builds, and jot down...
Scholastic
A Reading Guide to Sarah, Plain and Tall
Eliminate the hard work of creating an entire literature unit with this reading guide for the novel Sarah, Plain and Tall. From background information about the author and her motivation for writing the story to...
Curriculum Corner
Fiction Graphic Organizers
Get an in-depth look into a narrative text with a three-page worksheet that examines a story's character—actions, sayings, thoughts, and appearance—setting, and challenges scholars to write a brief summary about what they've read.
K12 Reader
Find the Main Idea: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Readers are asked to use the provided graphic organizer to list the main idea and supporting ideas in a passage from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
K12 Reader
Anne of Green Gables
A passage from Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables provides young readers with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify the main idea and supporting ideas in a paragraph.
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...
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 5 ELA/Literacy)
Check in on the development of your fifth graders' reading and writing skills with this Common Core-designed assessment. Given a series of six reading passages ranging from narrative stories to informational texts, young...
California Education Partners
Tuck Everlasting
An assessment takes a close look at the story, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, and tests writing abilities. Over the course of two days, scholars read an excerpt, answer questions on a worksheet pertaining to the author's...
Syracuse City School District
Literary Elements
Address the literary elements in a piece of writing using these materials. The packet includes plenty of resources, and focuses mainly on theme, character, and point of view, with some materials for setting, symbolism, and author's...
Scholastic
Developing a Main Character
Asking kids to craft their own stories? Get them starting with a character planning sheet that asks them to identify the character's likes and dislikes, his or her strengths and fears, a goal the character wants to achieve, and...
Curated OER
Story Writing Plan
In this story writing guidelines worksheet, learners examine the 4 sets of considerations for writing stories. Students use the guidelines to write their own stories.
Curated OER
"West Side Story"
In this music history worksheet, learners discover the musical "West Side Story" by first reading a summary of the plot. Students answer 5 questions about the story line. Learners then read and analyze the lyrics to "America" and discuss...
Curated OER
Character Map
A character map worksheeth as this would be handy for your class to support characterization study for any text. It is completely adaptable: your learners choose a character, write three traits in ovals and identify two instances that...
Curated OER
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe
Quiz your class with a review of the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. These reading comprehension questions cover a breadth of ideas but aren't overly detailed. Questions come from The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, The...
Curated OER
St. Patrick’s Day
Combine math, creative writing, and leprechauns in a fun St. Patrick's Day activity! Using a bag of gold coins and marshmallows, kids write a math story about a leprechaun that includes a multi-step equation to solve.
Curated OER
A Beautiful Mind: Main ideas and supporting details
This worksheet that accompanies a reading of A Beautiful Mind includes over 20 questions that address theme, fact and opinion, supporting details, characterization, and quote comprehension.