It's hard to find inspiration; have your learners bring in a slew of magazines and search for inspiring pictures! They look for characters, setting, and possibly even conflict clues. They analyze the pictures they select, turn their...

Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers. 

Out with the old and in with the new? Not so in this lesson plan, which explores the idea of writing older characters in fiction. Students learn the value of varying their characters, exploring different perspectives, and avoiding...

A classic Japanese print is attached to this lesson plan and its up to your class to write a story about it. Pretending the image is an illustration, they use what they know about Japanese mythology to compose a short story describing...

Who was the Radcliffe family? Young learners find out about the life and times of a family from long ago. They analyze the family portrait, write a story about the family, and then use their story to create thought or word bubbles which...

Imagine you are a bug living on a leaf in the painting, Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase by Maria van Oosterwyck. This is what you'll tell your class as they analyze the lovely image. They list details in the painting, find two insects...

A new way to connect visual art and creative writing is on the horizon. Kids first identify the characters in the painting Rabbit Hunt, then write narrative from the perspective of one of the characters in the painting. They combine...

Fourth graders write a short story using 100 words or less.

Learners create a story based upon their interpretation of a work of art. The story displays students' knowledge of writing conventions, elements of a short story, literary conflict and use of descriptive text.

Students navigate through an online interactive virtual zoo to create imaginary animals by combining different parts of real animals. They write a short story about their combination creature.

Third graders make predictions about the story "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" based on background knowledge. They read the story, stopping to verify or reject predictions. They write their own opinionated fairytales.

Focus on building suspense as well as evaluating web sites through creative writing. After introducing the idea of suspense and holding a discussion, class members complete a WebQuest, during which they find inspiration for their own...

Eighth graders discuss invention of bicycle and early obstacles to riding, listen to and discuss short story "Taming the Bicycle" by Mark Twain, define vocabulary words from story, and create and present humorous "how to" project to...

Students criticially read an unfinished creative writing piece, answer factual questions concerning the piece, and then finish the story or create their own story about their own neigborhood and possible environmental issues.

Students in a Spanish class are introduced to the techniques of creative writing. In groups, they focus on the pre-writing section of creative writing and keep a folder of their works throughout the activity. They end the lessons by...

Students practice recognizing the elements needed to produce a piece of creative writing and become aware of those elements in their own original pieces of writings. In groups, they creatively write a new story utilizing all the major...

Young scholars discuss the information listed about how to make an outline for a short story or book. They then begin writing their short story and edit it and revise before turning it in to be graded.

The class gets creative after listening to a short story containing a definitive structure. They are required to think about character, relationship, and setting, while attempting to show rather than tell, in their writing. Dialogue,...

Discover how writers express identity in their writing. Learners explore how issues of identity surface in the literature of minority writers. Scholars watch a video, read and discuss biographies, conduct research, engage in creative...

Students compose a creative writing piece based on a painting of a mythological scene. In this creative writing lesson plan,  students write about the scene in the painting and tie in  their original stories into tales from the...

Looking for materials to accompany your study of Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes? Look no further! Included here is everything you need to go alongside your unit: worksheets, graphic organizers, writing assignments, an assessment,...

Drama is ever-present in our daily lives and eloquently depicted on stage. Middle schoolers practice writing scenes based on different prompts and frameworks, and then perform those creative scenes for their classmates. The...

Students explore Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories. In this Edgar Allan Poe lesson, students complete a 25 page packet of activities where they recognize the features of genres and literary devices Poe uses. Students read "The...

Students analyze graphical forms of Eudora Welty and interpret the shorts stories in the representations. In this graphical representations lesson, students analyze the short story genre in comic strips. Students then create their own...