By fourth grade, most students are familiar with story elements such as setting, characters, and plot. In this lesson, students will compare and contrast the elements in two stories with similar themes.

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.

Your students will hone their creative writing skills as they design their own fictional characters. Use this lesson to introduce the concept of using key details and descriptive language during the prewriting phase of storytelling.

Your students will learn all about what makes a fictional character special when they become character detectives! Use this lesson to introduce the concept of using key details from a text to gather information.

Help your ELs familiarize themselves with prepositional phrases as they search for supporting details in nonfiction texts. This lesson could stand alone or be taught prior to teaching the Detective Reading lesson.

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.

Use this lesson to help your ELs search for signal words in texts to determine if a statement is a fact or an opinion. It can be a stand-alone lesson or used as support for the Is It True? lesson.

Use this lesson to help your ELs understand main idea and supporting details. They'll analyze non-fiction word, sentence, and paragraph structures. It can be a stand-alone lesson or a support lesson to the In Search of Main Ideas lesson.

In this support lesson, ELs will learn how to identify the characters and setting in a story while using noun phrases to support their understanding. It can be used alone or as support for the lesson Exploring the Features of a Book Series.

This lesson will provide your EL students with support as they explore the elements of fictional text and learn about verbs in the present participle tense. This lesson can be used as a stand alone activity or a support lesson.

How do you build spatial reasoning, critical thinking, and problem solving skills while doing something that is fun? With tangrams! In honor of Chinese New Year, this lesson introduces your students to the Chinese puzzle of tangrams.

Help your ELs see the connection between nouns and pronouns and the author's point of view, or perspective, in fiction and nonfiction texts. This lesson can be taught on its own or used as support for the lesson Two Points of View.

In this lesson, students will use conjunctions to compare and contrast scary stories. It can be taught independently or used as a pre-lesson to Using Story Elements to Compare and Contrast Fiction Texts.

In this support lesson, your ELs will learn how to determine point of view in a text while using pronouns to support their understanding. It can be a stand-alone lesson or used as support for the lesson Mythological Creature: Vampire.

Use this lesson to help students identify the elements of a fictional text while gaining more knowledge about parts of speech. Use as a stand alone activity or a support lesson for Fairy Tales: Identifying Story Elements.

This lesson provides students with the opportunity to compare and contrast two athletes who have been instrumental in changing the world of women's sports.

This lesson will provide your ELs with support as they learn about the key elements of fictional text, including characters, setting, and plot. Use as a stand alone activity or a support lesson.

In this literary lesson, students use fairy tales to practice identifying character traits. Students are challenged to justify their reasoning using text based support.

In this lesson, students will learn about the different regions of the brain and connect them to compassion and empathy. They will also learn how all brains are wired for empathy.

Help students learn how to read passages with multiple main ideas and differentiate between main ideas and supporting details by creating a graphic organizer with proof from the text.

Use this lesson to help your ELs identify the main idea and supporting evidence in a short fictional text. It can be a stand-alone lesson or used as support for the lesson Reading Closely.