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Arizona ELA Standard: 2.RL.3

Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

Comparing Characters

Comparing Characters

Your young students will compare how two characters have changed in a story.

A Character’s Challenges and Changes

A Character’s Challenges and Changes

Your 1st and 2nd graders will analyze how a character responded to a challenge.

Characters’ Faults Can Also Be Strengths

Characters’ Faults Can Also Be Strengths

Strength and weakness are often two sides of the same coin. Students will explore how a character’s flaw can be a benefit.

St. Patrick and Other Legends

St. Patrick and Other Legends

How would real people feel about the legends that have been created about them?

Comparing Characters’ Bedrooms

Comparing Characters’ Bedrooms

What item’s in a character’s bedroom would reflect their deepest desires? And what if they toured a similar character’s room?

Emoji Stories 🚚

Emoji Stories 🚚

Five emoji. One story. Where will your imagination take you?

Greekymon Studies – Round 3

Greekymon Studies – Round 3

What might a creature named “Aquacornus Rex” be like?

A Character’s Playlist

A Character’s Playlist

What playlist of songs best goes with a character’s change over time?

Stories with the Same Problems and Solutions

Stories with the Same Problems and Solutions

Have you ever noticed that some stories have awfully similar problems? What if we looked for the most unusual way of solving a repeating problem?

Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict

Introducing Universal Theme of Conflict

So what could you do with a Universal Theme of Conflict? Well, here’s an introduction that will get your students’ brains sweating.

Charge of the Light Brigade – Chess Variant

Charge of the Light Brigade – Chess Variant

What if one side played with THREE QUEENS and the other had SEVEN KNIGHTS!? What if?

Think Like A Historian

Think Like A Historian

Here’s how effects be causes and causes can be effects!

Analyze Characters Using Philosophy

Analyze Characters Using Philosophy

What is the Brick Pig’s philosophy? How would he apply it to the characters in Harry Potter?

Writing Sample: A Christmas Carol (Cold)

Writing Sample: A Christmas Carol (Cold)

A passage from White Fang to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Story Starter: A Magical School

Story Starter: A Magical School

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in at a magical school.

Story Starter: Somewhere In Space

Story Starter: Somewhere In Space

Students use 12 random phrases to create a story that takes place in space!

Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Falling)

Writing Sample: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Falling)

A passage from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

Characters Dressed as Other Characters for Halloween

Characters Dressed as Other Characters for Halloween

What if one character dressed up as another for Halloween? Would the Cat in the Hat pick Captain Jack Sparrow, because they’re both chaotic yet good-natured people? Would Elsa dress up as The Ice King since they are both lonely?

Virtue or Vice?

Virtue or Vice?

Aristotle noted that positive traits and negative traits are often the same thing, but just in different amounts. The right amount is a virtue, but too much or too little and it’s a vice.

Writing Sample: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Writing Sample: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

A passage from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” to use as a mentor text, discussion starter, or writing prompt.

The Personalities of Rocks

The Personalities of Rocks

What would an igneous rock be like? Would it get along with a sedimentary rock? Could they handle the hot personality of a metamorphic rock?

More Specific than “Smart”

More Specific than “Smart”

When students are told that they’re “smart”, what does this word actually mean to them? (Psst. It isn’t what we intended.)

Showing A Character’s Trait

Showing A Character’s Trait

We tell students to ‘show, not tell’ — but that advice is useless until they experience the difference. This lesson makes it click.

Content Imperatives: Convergence

Content Imperatives: Convergence

Add complexity by considering how multiple factors 🔄 Converge within one topic.

Elements of The Fantasy Genre

Elements of The Fantasy Genre

Every fantasy story has patterns hiding underneath the magic. Once your students see the elements, they’ll spot them everywhere — and use them in their own writing.

Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art

Introduce Symbolism with Pixel Art

Create a pixelated icon that represents the essence of a character!

Literary Technique: Juxtaposition

Literary Technique: Juxtaposition

Put a grumpy character next to a joyful one and they make each other stand out even more. Opposites are powerful!

Reduce Anxiety: Change The Channel (Tool 2)

Reduce Anxiety: Change The Channel (Tool 2)

Reduce anxiety by learning to “change the channel.”

Motivation and Moral Development

Motivation and Moral Development

Can someone do the right thing, but for the wrong reason?

Romeo and Juliet Summary

Romeo and Juliet Summary

Romeo and Juliet in just about five minutes.

“Much Ado About Nothing” Summary

“Much Ado About Nothing” Summary

Shakespeare’s Much Ado summarized in just five minutes!

Twelfth Night Summary

Twelfth Night Summary

An animated summary of Shakespeare’s utterly ridiculous “Twelfth Night.”

Hamlet Summary

Hamlet Summary

It’s Hamlet in just about five minutes!

Writing Summaries in Haiku

Writing Summaries in Haiku

Let’s write a summary. A very short summary. With VERY strict rules.

Better Stories Part 2: Types of Conflict

Better Stories Part 2: Types of Conflict

If your students’ stories are packed with endless ninja fights or arguments between frenemies, it’s time to expose them to a wider range of conflicts.

Better Stories Part 3: Literary Themes

Better Stories Part 3: Literary Themes

A typical student narrative includes plot and characters but lacks a larger idea to hold it all together. This is where a lesson on themes comes in…

Better Stories Part 4: Character Archetypes

Better Stories Part 4: Character Archetypes

Are students’ characters a bit flat? Archetypes give them a strong foundation on which to build their own characters as well as a tool to analyze existing stories.