INTERPRETING A WORK OF ART THROUGH CREATIVE WRITING

Why is Mona Lisa smiling? What is the thinker thinking about? What lurks in the Hall of the Mountain King? Writers imagine the before, during, and after the moment captured in a work of art.

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.

Story chains connect literary concepts, reinforce context clues, and even help learners predict what's coming next! Using words from the next chapter of Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons, middle schoolers craft story chains to determine...

Guide young readers through their first book report with a story map designed for a Dr. Seuss book. After your class finishes their story of choice, they list the title, characters, conflict, and other elements of literature on the book...

Thirty-six pages familiarize scholars with the story and vocabulary of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. After reading and listening to an abbreviated version of the holiday tale learners show what they know about the sequence of...

Explore the elements of a story with this two-page graphic organizer. Readers write and draw descriptions of each element, including setting, plot, conflict, rising action, climax, dialogue, and narration.

Use short stories to teach English? Yes! Designed as a professional development opportunity for English language teachers, the ideas in this booklet can easily be adapted to advanced ESL/ELL classes.

Where does it happen? When did it happen? These are two questions that play a key role in understanding the setting of a story. The fourth and final video in a Language Arts playlist uses a song to explain how the setting connects to...

Feeling conflicted? Work out those issues with a language arts lesson on internal and external conflict. Using "The Interlopers" by Saki, class members identify the conflicts between the characters before writing their own short stories...

Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...