Focus on Genre

Explore genre, subgenre, and author's purpose in this helpful worksheet. Middle schoolers read several summaries of books and short stories, and identify the genre and subgenre. They also determine if the author's purpose is to...

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 challenge...

Yes. Make up your mind to use this reading comprehension resource with your readers. You need not be nervous, not even a little nervous. An answer sheet is provided.

Discover the genre of short stories with sixth graders. They discuss the characteristics of short stories from the book America Street. Then, they compare and contrast movies and television shows and chart story characteristics. Various...

Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...

In pairs learners perform a silent skit portraying relationships between two known characters from a popular book or a play for their classmates. Next, the class will read and discuss a NYTimes article about a film school in the Bronx...

Collective story writing is a great way to reinforce the concept of story elements and collaborative learning. Young writers discuss story elements such as, setting, character, action, climax, conclusion, foreshadowing, dialogue, and...

Pupils are introduced to the types of characters found in short stories. They read a short story in class and produce sketches of the protagonist and antagonist. Finally, they create their own characters and write about them in their own...

Readers practice character analysis by reviewing Gary Soto's short story "La Bamba" with the whole class (anything you've read together will work). They design t-shirts that feature traits and story elements to reveal the nature of a...

Using a three-column chart labeled "Character," "Action," and "Trait," pupils analyze the traits of several characters from a short story. The lesson is designed for a SMART board, but a teacher could easily do the lesson without the...