True! Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" makes readers nervous. But how? Young scholars create a drawing while listening to a reading of Poe's eerie tale to understand how writers create the mood of their stories and what their writing style...

Many regard John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath as the great American novel. The lesson plan combines a variety of strategies, including partner work, independent practice, creative writing, grammar instruction, and small group...

In this reading worksheet, students read a short story about a boy and what he likes. Students answer 4 questions, then write a story about themselves.

Tenth graders analyze the use of literary elements in W.W. Jacob's "The Monkey's Paw." Literary analysis is accomplished by a review of the plot and order of events in the story. Learners work in pairs to match the events from the story...

How can you read a character's tone? What about a narrator's tone? Analyze Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a lesson plan that focuses on how word choice can change tone and how tone can affect the...

This may be a lot to ask of a high schooler, but then again, who knows? Pupils work in groups to explore, write, and then perform an original opera. They view versions of The Magic Flute and La Traviata, then compose a plot, characters,...

Have you ever wanted to tell a character what you really thought of him or her? Use a lesson plan based on Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter to encourage learners to write a letter in response to a character's actions. 

Get ready to read The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963 with a lesson about historical fiction. Spanning several centuries, the resource prompts learners to guess the historical era of a story based on a word or phrase...

What tools do archaeologists and anthropologist use to learned about what life was like in the past. After watching West of The West's documentary Once Upon a Time that details how scientists use artifacts to establish a...

A fun way to grow a class of creative thinkers, is to add creative projects to your weekly line up. Kids pretend they are small insects or spiders crawling up the side of a huge building. They use vivid imagery, rich detail, and their...

Students explore storytelling by participating in an image analysis activity. In this story structure lesson plan, students read the book Cookie's Week by Tomie dePaola and retell the story to their teacher in sequential order. Students...

Students write a funny story and illustrate it in a comic strip. In this comic strip lesson, students study comic strips and determine the plot of each story. Students then write a short story and illustrate it using a comic strip...

Fourth graders write a short story that shows their feelings on a chosen historical perspective on school integration of the past. In this school integration lesson plan, 4th graders learn about Separate But Equal, resistance to change,...

Students read and comprehend a piece of fictional writing, analyze how setting, characterization, and plot affect the theme of a story and work in a group to create a new writing assignment. This 5-day plan culminates in students writing...

Middle schoolers differentiate between fiction and non-fiction, discuss historical fiction, which combines both genres, choose historical novel from list and read independently, and write original short stories that combine elements of...

Students analyze the work of Diego Rivera. They participate in a class discussion, critique various paintings, write a short story based on a Rivera mural, and create a class mural.

Students identify their feelings and learn constructive ways of handling conflict. In this human mental health lesson, students identify their feelings, learn how to tell others about their feelings, and learn how to resolve conflict....

Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate  the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...

Refuse to alienate your scientific-minded young scholars during your creative writing unit. Learners explore how literary writing can reflect observable fact, and be based in actual science. The links include examples of fiction and...

Learners explore the elements of a narrative for its purpose, type of audience, mood, main character, minor characters, setting, and conflicts in the story. A story outline is developed and a five paragraph essay composed in this...

Students recognize the difference between the short a sound and the long a sound, then compile a list of words containing short a and long a sounds.

Young scholars complete a variety of activities as they explore/review the letter 'o' and the short /o/ sound. They recite short /o/ tongue twisters, practice writing the letter 'o', and listen to stories, identifying words with the...

First graders practice the short o and sh sound. In this phonics lesson, 1st graders listen to the stories Hot Pot: The Sound of Short O by Alice K. Flanagan and Shoes: The Sound of SH by Peg Ballard. They create word webs with...

Learners experience and study cause and effect as they assess the consequences man faces when time travel is attempted. They determine, in their imaginations, what time period they would like to visit. Each student then listens to,...