Indiana University
World Literature: "One Evening in the Rainy Season" Shi Zhecun
Did you know that modern Chinese literature “grew from the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud”? Designed for a world literature class, seniors are introduced to “One Evening in the Rainy Season,” Shi Zhecun’s stream of...
Curated OER
Dirt Babies
Dirt babies are an excellent way to show young botanists the plant life cycle. They explore the functions and industry behind grasses before growing some of their own. Use the informational text here and consider implementing some...
Roald Dahl
Matilda - Throwing the Hammer
Full truth, or an exaggeration? How can you tell when a storyteller is exaggerating a story? Readers analyze a story told by Hortensia, and identify the exaggerative language she uses. Then, learners write their own narrative story using...
Curated OER
Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One...
Explore language arts by reading two similar stories in order to compare and contrast them in class. Young readers read two Aunt Isabel books, by Kate Duke, and discuss the main characters, plot, and setting. They complete a graphic...
Curated OER
Heart of Darkness: List Group Label Strategy
Heart of Darkness can challenge even the best readers. Here's a pre-reading strategy that will engage class members and provide background and context for Conrad's study of racism, savagery and imperialism. Class members brainstorm,...
Curated OER
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dou
Ninth graders explore the concept that education is related to freedom. In this human rights lesson, 9th graders read The Narrative of Frederick Douglass. Students dialogue about their readings and education as it relates to human...
Curated OER
Narrative History - Hypertext Dialogues
Students create scripts about California settlers. The document reflects the settlers' fears, expectations, and realizations.
Curated OER
Family Stories and Personal Narratives
Fourth graders read various stories in their literature books about families. Individually, they make a timeline showing the most important events in their lives. They bring in one artifact from their lives and write a paper about it...
Curated OER
Exploring the Personal Narrative
Pupils define the characteristics of a personal narrative, explain the difference between a 'memoir' and an 'autobiography', and create a reading journal in which they will log their reading activities. In this personal narrative lesson...
Curated OER
Writing a Fictional Narrative
Fourth graders write a fictional narrative using the computer. They can use files to help them focus on including a beginning, middle and end, characters, setting and plot or planning a story by answering questions.
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 1
Here's a fresh approach to the dreaded personal narrative required by most college applications. The Autobiography of Malcolm X is the anchor text for a unit that, through modeling and guided practice exercises, encourages the...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment: Perspectives on Natural Disasters
Caption this! Scholars complete the end of unit assessment by rereading In the Middle of the
Storm. Learners answer written response questions about the text, and then create drawings to accompany their work. To finish, they caption...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 15
Chapter 12 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X discusses Haley's narrative techniques, mainly how he uses point of view and foreshadowing to build interest and suspense. Class members read and annotate chapter 13 of the text as homework...
EngageNY
Revising for Organization and Style: Exciting Endings
Young writers compose a gripping ending to their historical fiction narratives. Following the previous lesson plan, where learners wrote a bold beginning, class members examine exciting endings from a literary text. They then draft their...
Ford's Theatre
How Perspective Shapes Understanding of History
The Boston Massacre may be an iconic event in American history, but perhaps the British soldiers had another point of view. Using primary sources, including reports from Boston newspapers and secondary sources from the British...
Curated OER
Scrambled Stories II
Review story elements with your class. They will use examples from a story to develop critical-thinking questions. Then they use a graphic organizer to describe the setting, character, and plot of the story, focusing on how they...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 26
Readers use their annotations and questions about chapter 19 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X to guide their discussion of the final chapter of the text.
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment: Writing a Rainforest Field Journal Entry about Howler Monkeys
Give me more details. Scholars complete an end of unit assessment by creating an information text box to go with their field journal entries about howler monkeys. Learners use the class time to work independently.
Curated OER
Adventures in Toyland
There are many ways to tell a story; Richard Patterson's three-dimensional painting If serves as the inspiration for some creative storytelling for elementary school writers. They watch a clip from Toy Story (you'll need to...
EngageNY
Planning for When to Include Dialogue: Showing Characters’ Thoughts and Feelings
Young writers examine dialogue conventions, including indentation, quotation marks, and expressing thoughts and feelings through a fictional text. By noticing where and when authors use dialogue, they decide how to incorporate dialogue...
Curated OER
Daughters Come of Age in Women's Fiction
Introduce your young readers to fiction written by women authors. For each story, they explore the way these daughters discover and claim their own identities. Individually, class members use the literature to examine their role in their...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Evaluating a Novel Versus a Script
How are novels and scripts alike and different? As part of the mid-unit assessment, scholars complete a Venn diagram to compare two types of writing: a novel and a script. Next, they respond to short-answer questions, evaluating passages...
K20 LEARN
Bear Tale: Author's Purpose - Informing Or Entertaining
After reading The Mitten by Jan Brett, scholars discuss the author's purpose. Small groups compare and contrast a book written to entertain and a book to inform, then create a T-Chart detailing the characteristics of...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 4: Unit 1, Lesson 4
High schoolers read the final section of E. B. White’s Death of a Pig and examine the impact of the words and tone he used. In pairs, learners discuss their homework from the previous night, answer questions about the text, and write in...