Stories That Really Add Up

If you're working on a unit about When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, use these notes to guide your instruction. It lists the key characters, prominent literary themes, chain of events in the plot, and other elements from the...

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...

Learn the stories a formula holds. An interesting lesson takes a unique approach to teach how to use formulas. Beginning with a formula, learners predict what the variables stand for and then use the formula to make calculations and tell...

All ages love to engage in cartoon writing –- little do they know that they actually learn quite a bit from it! In an instructional session focused on literacy syntax and vocabulary, your pupils work cooperatively to draw six pictures...

What would the world look like if there were a way to stop the aging process? Take a look at Kurt Vonnegut's vision of this future in "The Big Trip Up Yonder." Class members read the short story and then respond to a series of text-based...

Here are some very useful worksheets which help children to plan their original written stories. I really like this 3-page packet! The first part of the story plan is to create the main characters in the story. Then, there are spaces to...

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...

Multiple heads are better than one! Learners pair up to write short stories that have three solid paragraphs: the introduction, body, and conclusion. To keep all learners on track, the teacher times each segment. Consider including time...

How can reading short stories benefit people? To conclude a unit study of this genre, class members script and film a public service announcement addressing this essential question.

So much fun! After reading and summarizing each chapter of the book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, pupils will create a Photostory. The class is divided into six groups, each responsible for summarizing, story boarding, and creating a...