Support a class reading of the novel Song of the Trees by Mildred D. Taylor with this series of discussion questions. Covering a variety of topics from character and setting to historical accuracy and symbolism, these questions...

Adding details and figurative language makes any story more fun to read! After reading two versions of the same story, one devoid of figurative language and one embellished, young writers are asked to add alliteration, hyperbole,...

It's true: listening skills have to be taught and developed. Read this story about a tiger to your high school class. Then, without giving them a copy of the story, divide them into teams and have them attempt to answer a series of...

Get your scholars ready to read their first story...with a little assistance, of course. Projecting the short story (included) for all readers to see, point to each word so they can sound it out together. The strategy here is not to have...

Combine art, math, language arts, drama, and delicious Jell-o with a instructional activity based on the African folktale Anansi and the Tug o' War. Kids make predictions and discuss plot points of the story before joining in...

Identifying themes in literature is the focus of the language arts lesson plan presented here. Learners read short pieces of fiction and practice the skill of identifying the themes present in each one. The bulk of the lesson consists of...

Students read several fairy tales of Russian origin. They brainstorm common elements of a fairy tale and identify those elements in several examples. They retell a favorite fairy tale through a skit, oral storytelling, a sketch, or a...

Use the Franklin Institute's exhibition "An Inquirer's Guide to the Universe" to have students research ideas for a science fiction story. After completing their research, writers will compose science fiction stories that incorporate...

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is famous, in part, because it established a uniquely American form of humor. For this famous story, Mark Twain combines the tall-tale, the dialect story, and satire. Here is a resource...

After listening to a story about Martin Luther King Jr., first graders answer questions about the text. They discuss the importance of the illustrations, identify the beginning, middle, and end of the story, and complete a writing...

This is both a great idea and a great way to help your class organize a themed project. They use these worksheets to assist them in writing a creative historical narrative about the life and travels of an explorer. They'll compare and...

Whether it is a protagonist, antagonist, hero or heroine, characters are a must in any story. Learners analyze a character from a narrative they are reading, then use that character as inspiration. They create a ceramic bust depicting...

Students create a news story on one of the top 100 news stories of the 20th century.choose one past news event. They write a news story about that event, and provide a continuation of the story based on their research.

Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...

Polish organization skills in your youngsters. With this lesson, they are introduced to the trait of organization and participate in activities that reinforce organization. They cut apart a familiar story, receive different...

Looking for a motivating and creative technology lesson? Then this lesson is for you! After viewing a movie trailer, middle-schoolers follow that design to create a video preview of a book's story elements. They also create a storyboard...

After looking at the back of a quarter featuring Oregon terrain, learners distinguish between fiction and non-fiction and identify the beginning, middle and end of a story. First, they listen to legends that describe the creation of...

Ask your class to think about how song lyrics can go with a video and more with a well-sequenced lesson plan that focuses on the song "Two Fingers" by Jake Bugg. Class members work together to make predictions about the content of the...

Students tell about their family heritage by writing a story and illustrating it with a picture of a family item.

First graders engage in this interesting lesson on letter writing and writing skills. In it, youngsters listen to the Jan Brett story, The Mitten, as a warm-up. They think of other animals of the world they could ask Jan Brett to...

Learners examine the historical, social, cultural and economic context of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Students determine the place of the middle class woman and her role in society.

Small groups of learners read text round-robin style, and then work individually to answer three questions based on the text. Next, they share their questions and responses and add ideas from the group. The reading strategies detailed...

Introduce your young readers to fiction written by women authors. For each story, they explore the way these daughters discover and claim their own identities. Individually, class members use the literature to examine their role in their...

Students explore about big books. They create a big book version of a favorite story or an ABC book about a favorite topic. Students describe the size of a book. Students are explained that big books are books that have large pictures...