What happened to a murder case when the police eat the murder weapon? After reading Roald Dahl's dark and ironic short story "Lamb to the Slaughter," students write a persuasive essay to convince a jury that the wife who killed her...

Discover the lovely story of Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho with your class. Over the course of the instructional activity, pupils practice descriptive writing, write short narratives, collaborate in small groups, watch a powerful short film...

High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a...

Explore language arts by completing a story worksheet in class. Readers will identify the importance of plot, setting, and character while they write their own short story. They also retell their story to a classmate and participate in a...

After watching West of the West's documentary The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, class members imagine how Juana Maria/Karana may have felt about living alone on the island for 18 years and craft a blackout poem or a narrative in...

Encourage your learners 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 ideas...

Students in a special education classroom use the internet to research the characteristics of the rainforest. Individually, they decide whether to write a short story or poem with a main character who lives in the rainforest. To end the...

Respect is a must-have in healthy relationships! Pupils explore their boundaries and identify the elements of respect during a lesson from a library of digital citizenship activities. The teacher's resource section contains a printable...

Students write a story based on their research of the kelp forest. In this ecosystem lesson, students view a video and research the kelp forest ecosystem. They write a short story imagining the discovery of a new species in the kelp forest.

A great way to publish students' stories is by having them create a picture book using Pages. This simple lesson has them take a short story they have written and create a book with a title page and dedication. After they have printed...

Built around a moving short film about second chances and tough choices, this lesson mixes grammar, prediction, and narrative writing. Pupils practice with adjectives and prefixes before moving on to the film. The resource directs...

Class members are challenged to write a neutral news story about the events they observe in a short video. After sharing their stories in groups and discussing the different perceptions, the class concludes with a video of...

Eleventh graders, in groups, pre-write, draft, edit and revise a murder mystery short story to hone their skills in short story drafting, editing and revision, group collaboration and computer usage. They also evaluate writing for both...

Students evaluate jazz music and a jazz music performance. They collaborate and create an improvised group short story. They improvise a musical piece on found objects.

Students create a Thanksgiving writing piece. In this holiday lesson, students use a turkey picture to write a short story about the things they are thankful for.

Students do further research on a time period they have studied. In this history research lesson, students choose a time period to write about. Students gather information about the weather, environment, food and activities that were...

After discussing the main events in Mr. Popper’s Penguins, young writers describe in sequence what they would do if they had 12 penguins living in their house. The narratives are then glued onto a penguin cut-out, mounted on construction...

Eighth graders discuss invention of bicycle and early obstacles to riding, listen to and discuss short story "Taming the Bicycle" by Mark Twain, define vocabulary words from story, and create and present humorous "how to" project to...

Students explore query letters. In this letter writing lesson, students plan a short story that they would like to write and then locate a magazine publisher that might be interested in the story. Students write a query letter.

Young language arts learners write and illustrate a short fantasy story based on the book Corduroy. First, learners need to develop a character. Then, through their writing and illustrations, they take their characters on adventures...

Improve reading comprehension with a set of ESL worksheets. Kids read through various passages, note which facts are true or false, mark their opinion on two statements, and write a short reply based on a writing prompt.

Explore word relationships and the relationships between people with an interesting lesson. Learners practice pairing words that typically go together and write brief narratives using these words. They then go through a similar process,...

Drama is ever-present in our daily lives and eloquently depicted on stage. Middle schoolers practice writing scenes based on different prompts and frameworks, and then perform those creative scenes for their classmates. The...

What is stereotyping, and how do we handle stereotyping in our daily interactions? Your young historians will not only have the opportunity to learn about the first African American woman to publish a short story–Frances Ellen...