Browse lesson plans

Walk Two Moons: An integrated unit

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech is a bittersweet story of a teenager who desperately wants to be reunited with her mother. This unit is an integrated study combining setting, theme, point of view, character, and plot with geography and geometry.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts)

By Janet Fore.

A circular journey to imaginative narrative writing

This lesson will help the teacher show students how to bring their imaginative narratives to a logical ending. Students often have difficulty while writing imaginative narratives. They tend to get off to a good beginning and then cannot maintain focus well enough to bring their story to an end. Two well-known stories will be used as effective models. The first story will be analyzed by the whole class and the second will be used in an individual hands-on practice activity. Finally, students will summarize what they have learned and how they can use this information when they write an imaginative narrative.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)

By Sharon MacKenzie.

Feel in the blanks

The following lesson is designed to function as a review of beginning, middle, and end and an introduction to individualized imagination, creativity, and perspective as it relates to the development of dialogue (i.e. improvisation).

Format: lesson plan (grade 6 English Language Arts)

By Lei Knight.

Learning literary elements through African and African American folktales

In this eighth grade lesson, students will apply their knowledge of literary elements (plot structure and archetypal characters) to the analysis and creation of African and African American folktales. Students will work in groups to read several picture book versions of African and African American folktales. Each group then creates a plot map for a story and highlights other literary elements identified within the text. Students then compare the folktales with fairy tales from other cultures and explain what they learned about African and African American culture from reading the folktales. Finally, students work independently to write their own modern-day folktale.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–9 English Language Arts)

By Hardin Engelhardt.

N.C.- The Rip Van Winkle State

This lesson introduces students to Washington Irving's short story "Rip Van Winkle" and correlates it with the history of North Carolina. In the 1800s North Carolina was nicknamed "The Rip Van Winkle State."

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Kay D. Lopossay.

A picture is worth...

In this activity, students use a photograph from historic North Carolina as the basis to write a creative short story. This lesson was created through a partnership with the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

Format: lesson plan

By Laina Stapleton.

Saving the environment through picture books

This lesson looks at environmental issues and man's relationship to the environment over time using main ideas and supporting details. The content comes from two picture books: Brother Eagle, Sister Sky and A River Ran Wild.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Science)

By Libba Sager.

Walking in the woods with Owl Moon

This is an integrated project using the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen. Students will use the story to write a personal narrative, understand the elements of a story, and practice answering open-ended questions.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 English Language Arts)

By Birty Lightner.

Where do I begin?

Picking a good beginning helps you to focus your story on just one main event. In this lesson students will learn how to pick a good beginning for their personal narratives.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

By DPI Writing Strategies.

Resources on the web

Alter egos and more with Avi's "Who Was That Masked Man, Anyway?"

In this lesson, students read Who Was That Masked Man, Anyway? and study the history of radio shows. After students have read the story, they work together to chart the plot of the story. Then students compare it to other... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Comics in the classroom as an introduction to narrative structure

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students will examine the plot and narrative structure of a story through the use of comic strip frames. They will then write their own original narratives after creating comic strip storyboards as a prewriting exercise. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Graphing plot and character in a novel

Students graphically illustrate events in the plot of the story, The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis in this lesson that analyzes sequences of events. The teacher introduces this lesson with... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Happily ever after? Exploring character, conflict, and plot in dramatic tragedy

In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students pick a turning point of a tragedy and show how the action of the play would have been significantly altered had a different decision been made or a different action taken. Teachers can test students' content... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Once upon a time rethought: Writing fractured fairy tales

Students listen to fairy tales, identify common characteristics, and select a fairy tale to be re-written in this lesson. After a discussion of familiar fairy tales and the elements that are required for a story to be a part of this genre, students group... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Plot structure: A literary elements mini-lesson

In this lesson that introduces plot structure, the teacher activates prior knowledge about plot by discussing events in a story students have read recently. In small collaborative groups, students use Freytag's Pyramid, a graphic organizer for plot structure,... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing fact and fiction

In this EDSITEment lesson, the first of a two-part curriculum unit on Rudyard Kipling, students identify key events in Kipling's life and describe their effect on his story “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” (part of The Jungle Book). Students... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: EDSITEment

Teaching plot structure through short stories

In this lesson that introduces plot structure, students read short stories as a whole class, in small groups, and, finally, individually, analyzing the plot of three different short stories using an online graphic organizer to diagram the structures. After... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Using picture books to teach plot development and conflict resolution

In this lesson, students examine story books as an introduction to plot and conflict. After students have a working definition of conflict in literature, they identify the conflict in several children’s books. Then, as a class, students present the conflict... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

Writing alternative plots for Robert C. O'Brien's “Z for Zachariah”

In this lesson that concludes a class reading of Robert C. O'Brien's Z for Zachariah, students pick a part of the story where Ann makes a critical decision, and they rewrite the remaining portion of the plot. After reading... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink