Students choose a short story from the class literature book. They find information about the author. They read the short story from the literature textbook. They create a PowerPoint to retell the short story.

In this literature learning exercise, students respond to 26 short answer and essay questions about Cervantes's Don Quixote. Students may also link to an online interactive quiz on the novel at the bottom of the page.

In this online interactive literature instructional activity, students respond to 9 short answer and essay questions about McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. Students may check some of their answers online.

Students examine websites about Gail Carson Levine's book, "Ella Enchanted."

Young scholars dramatize scenes from the picture book Turk and Runt. In this holiday lesson, students view the book Turk and Runt and identify the events of the text. Young scholars dramatize scenes from the text to demonstrate...

Be as romantic as a poetic. Appear as clever as Einstein. Wow others with your powers of observation by using similes to point out the similar aspects in two different things. This short video focuses on similes found in Shakespeare and...

Although dated in appearance, this PowerPoint presents current content in how learners can identity a theme, main idea, subject, and topic. The information is formatted for easy note taking, but offers no explanation of the themes...

Middle schoolers are asked to identify the alliteration used in John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, Emily Dickinson's "May-Flower," and a passage from Robert Lewis Stevenson's Kidnapped.

In this exercise, learners examine the difference between a theme, topic, and moral. After a class discussion on the definition of literary themes, the instructor reads The Cello of Mr. O by Jane Cutler. Next, individuals analyze the...

Students read and discuss the literary elements of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis. They explore the elements of dramatic performance and create a TV news program based on life in Narnia. They videotape their...

Beyond Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, tall tales can be a great way to teach young writers about word choice and voice in their writing. Using Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee  and the Six-Trait Writing process, they begin to write...

After a unit on Jan Brett's books, this resource would be a great way to discuss what everyone has learned. Each of the slides in this presentation focuses on one of Brett's books. There are also links to quizzes and other supplementary...

Designed to be used with a showing of the 1951 version of The Red Badge of Courage staring Audie Murphy, this learning guide includes discussion questions, suggestions for activities, and topics that can be discussed with parents.

students examine the historical, political, religious and culture aspects of the Renaissance. Using this information, they read "Galileo" by Bertolt Brecht. They use the internet to research a specific event of the time period and come...

Story elements such as conflict, character analysis, resolution, and moral are discussed and charted as elementary children read folktales involving animals. An element of science is also introduced as learners discover what a keystone...

An informational text about Lemony Snicket leads to a discussion of the books class members have read in the Series of Unfortunate Events series. Children then compare and contrast the settings, plots, and characters in the...

Students engage in a instructional activity that investigates the elements that are necessary in a short story. Each element is covered separately while they take notes for each part. Then the teacher points out each element while...

Students read "The Great Kapok" and choose to agree or disagree with the main character's decision. They gather and organize details from multiple sources to defend their standpoints. They begin prewriting steps of process writing.

Discover the differences in dialect. Inquisitive minds read poems and discuss how words or phrases are different in standard English and other dialects. Using a dictionary, class members locate the definition of each word, find...

What's the difference between an accent and a dialect? Examine the difference between the two with your scholars. In groups, they compile a dialect dictionary. They interview adults to gather information about accents and ethnic words....

Did you know that there are comic books that can help learners discover economic concepts like supply and demand. The format of this lesson is highly engaging and enables them to discover how economics can be an exciting field of study....

Young readers consider ten questions regarding murder mystery stories. The must choose from one of five options: strongly disagree, disagree, depends, agree, or strongly agree. A sample questions is, "A murder mystery must describe the...

A picture is used to begin considering point of view. Then, have kids role play included scenes which all involve some type of conflict where the character's have very different perspective. Discussions ensue each role play, with kids...

Use the dystopian novel After by Francine Prose to spark discussion about individual and student rights. Learners read the novel, evaluating how far a school can go to control its attendees. As they read, scholars...