Characters, settings, and events, oh my! In this lesson, students will dig deeper into each of these components and learn to provide specific details from their texts.
This lesson helps your students practice making text connections so they can write about their reading. It can be taught on its own or serve as a precursor to the Reading Response Letters lesson.
Help students learn about descriptive writing with this engaging lesson. Your class will learn to show character emotions though the “show, don’t tell” writing technique with videos, practice writing, and class participation.
In this lesson, your students will identify adjectives in noun phrases and understand how noun phrases are used to describe characters and settings in fictional texts. Use it as a stand-alone lesson or as support to Tell Me More.
Integrate reading, writing, and social studies in this lesson about famous jazz musicians! This lesson would fit perfectly in a unit about biographies or Black History Month.
This lesson will have your EL students exploring characters' dialogue and actions to determine their personality traits! Use it on its own or as a support lesson.
Every great reader and writer knows that syntax matters. During this lesson, students will use the close reading strategy to focus on word choice, and use their understanding of syntax to develop theories about patterns in the text.
Using Story Elements to Compare and Contrast Fiction Texts
All fictional stories have story elements but they sure can differ between stories. In this lesson, students will compare and contrast the story elements of two fictional stories and document their findings in a graphic organizer.
Using your acting skills and a great book by Chris Van Allsburg, you will lead your students on an adventure to compare characters and events throughout a book.
Use this lesson to help your ELs describe a character’s emotion based on actions. It can be a stand-alone lesson or used as support to the lesson Close Reading: Reading Through Character Emotion.
Have students justify their thought process in this lesson about order of events. This lesson is a great way to start discussing the importance of understanding causal relationships to fully understand chronology in fictional texts.
Close reading isn’t about just ticking through words on a page; it’s about absorbing ideas and expanding on them. In this lesson, students will use this strategy to make interpretations about a character's emotions through their actions.
How can you *see* what your students are thinking while they read? Try reading response letters in your class. Students will practice formatting letters and learn to discuss their thinking about literature in writing.
Understanding Character Traits, Understanding Plot Lesson Part III
Have you ever read a story and immediately began to compare the characters to those of your favorite story? In this lesson, students will learn to read context clues and descriptions in order to understand characters and compare them.
Use this lesson to help your ELs compare and contrast supporting characters from excerpted texts. It can be a stand-alone lesson or support the lesson Understanding Character Traits, Understanding Plot Lesson Part III.
This lesson plan integrates art and reading to create a character by personifying a pumpkin. Your students will enjoy writing a story about a character that they have created!
Reading the Clues, Understanding Plot Lesson Part II
Have you ever wished that books, like movies, would state their conflict and genres on the cover? With the help of an Education.com workbook, students will learn to find the clues and read like a writer.
Sometimes authors choose to describe their setting for readers to imagine, but don't actually tell them where the story is set! In this lesson, students will learn to deduce settings from context.