Students work together in small groups to read, discuss, and analyze fairy tales. After compiling a list of common elements, students collaborate on their own original fairy tales—based on events from their own lives or the lives of someone they know. Each student decides what kind of experience to write about, composes and revises a fairy tale, and then presents their story to the rest of the class.

In this lesson, students analyze and discuss familiar superheroes and super-villains to expand their understanding of character types and conventions. Then students consider social issues that confront their everyday reality and respond by incorporating those issues into the creation of their own superheroes or super-villains as well as the settings the superheroes or super-villains operate in.

In this lesson, students write a letter to an author to discuss their points of interest in a novel.

The students will be lead through the writing process of writing a memoir based on real events in their own life.

In this lesson, students prepare for their performance task, their own hero's journey narrative, by revisiting the informational text, The Hero's Journey and using it to deconstruct the hero's journey of the main character in The Lightning Thief.

In this lesson students analyze a model narrative and begin planning their own narratives.

In this lesson, students use the informational text “The Hero’s Journey” to justify their plan for their own narrative as fitting the archetypal pattern of a hero’s journey.

In this lesson students learn how to use dialogue, sensory words, and action verbs to improve their narratives.

In this lesson students analyze the conclusion of a narrative in order to draft a conclusion for their narratives.

In this lesson students complete a final draft of their narratives for the end of unit assessment.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the task of writing a narrative: a concrete poem or a monologue.

In this lesson, students closely examine the “experience” or “event” in the narrative models. Students use the Narrative of Adversity Plan Part II graphic organizer to scaffold their thinking and the writing process.

This resource contains a selection of different graphic organizers for students to use.

In this lesson, students use Chris Val Allsburg's "Polar Express" as a writing prompt to create a holiday story while working in cooperative learning groups.

This article explains how to model a range of prewriting techniques and introduces several mnemonics to help students organize their writing.

In this lesson students analyze a model narrative and begin planning their own narratives.

In this lesson, students write descriptive paragraphs describing the landscape around their houses.

A TED video that provides suggestions and tips for how to use language to make your fiction really come alive.

In this lesson, students study poetic devices included in conversation poems and explore their eloquent messages.