Through a close reading of "Amelia Bedelia", students reread the material to discuss text-dependent questions, promoting deep thinking about the text and its characters.

Students listen to fiction and nonfiction read-alouds and explore selected Websites to identify factual information about animals. This lesson focuses on ants, but can be adapted to any animal.

Just as the birds in this story held a council meeting to decide how to deal with Buzzard, Ute people, to this day, have council meetings to discuss problems and solutions for their people. At these meetings, everyone has the right to express his or her opinion and be heard and listened to. Although some Native American Indian stories can only be told during the winter time, this story can be told any time of the year. This Ute (Uintah/Ouray) booklet is part of the Native American Indian Literacy Project storybook series for the six main Utah Tribal Nations. The project was led by Shirlee A. Silversmith, American Indian education specialist for the Utah State Office of Education. There are five stories per Tribe, with a total of 30 booklets, plus an ABC book. The set of Indian Tribal stories may be utilized by elementary classroom teachers to (1) develop an understanding and appreciation of Native American culture and societal contributions (2) provide a genre of text for the application of reading strategies, and (3) facilitate the mastery of various Utah Core Content Curriculum objectives. The Native American Indian Literacy Project was made possible by funds from the Utah State Office of Education (USOE). It is a joint effort of the USOE and San Juan School District Media Center.
The original set has 30 booklets, measuring 5.5” x 8.5” each, and illustrated by tribal members. The booklets were formatted to be printed and assembled. This version of the book has been updated to accommodate using a projector or smart board with pages appearing in order.

In this author study, students listen to and discuss four books by Leo Lionni. They identify similarities and differences in the stories and then compare two stories of their choice.

Shadows, shadows, everywhere! In this lesson, students read fiction, informational text, and poetry about shadows to extend their knowledge of the concept before casting their own shadow poetry.

Students identify, explore and apply the elements of circle plot structures to their own stories by using graphic organizers, reading and writing stories, and using checklists to assess their work.

This series of activities is designed to teach research strategies. Students use KWL charts to guide their inquiry and publish their results in a collaborative question and answer book.

In this lesson, students will be asked to read a grade level appropriate story and make a digital storyboard that includes the basic elements of the story. These elements are: characters, setting, beginning, middle and end.  They will illustrate the key elements of the story and use Apple Keynote to create and present a digital slideshow retelling of the story. 

Dragons Love TacosNarrative/Story Grammar Lesson Plan Could be added to any Narrative Retell Unit

Teachers will show the Scholastic video "Knuffle Bunny; A Cautionary Tale" by Mo WIllems on eMedia or read the story to their students. Students will then cut and paste characters, setting, and plot points from the story into the correct category on a worksheet.

Students take a walk on the wild side when they develop an understanding of nonfiction texts with hands-on experiences and intense analysis.

Stories and poems that have a familiar structure can create a supportive context for learning about the writing process, building students' background knowledge, and scaffolding their creation of original stories. In this lesson for students in second or late first grade, teachers help students explore the concepts of beginning, middle, and ending by reading a variety of stories and charting the events on storyboards. As they retell the stories, students are encouraged to make use of sequencing words (first, so, then, next, after that, finally). A read-aloud of Once Upon a Golden Apple by Jean Little and Maggie De Vries introduces a discussion of the choices made by an author in constructing a plot. Starting with prewriting questions and a storyboard, students construct original stories, progressing from shared writing to guided writing; independent writing is also encouraged.