What drives changes to classic myths and fables? In this lesson students evaluate the changes Disney made to the myth of "Hercules" in order to achieve their audience and purpose.

A great lesson plan for an author study on Leo Lionni, the award winning author of several children's literature.

Students should have read up to the Seventh Watch. They will play a Gimkit game to review how elements of the story interact. Students will then create an alternate ending to the story. They must explain where they are stopping the original story and how some of the elements in the story interact with the new ending that they will create the alternate ending through Storyboard That.

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this unit, students will explore great works of American literature and consider how writers reflect the time period in which they write. They will write two literary analysis papers and also work in groups to research and develop anthologies of excellent American stories.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and analyze stories from several 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century American authors. After researching a time period, they select stories from that period to create an anthology. The readings enhance their understanding of the short story, increase their exposure to well-known American authors, and allow them to examine the influence of social, cultural, and political context.
Students examine elements of short stories and have an opportunity for close reading of several American short stories. During these close readings, they examine the ways that short story writers attempt to explore the greater truths of the American experience through their literature.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

If you were to write a short story about this decade, what issues might you focus on?
What defines a short story? Just length?
To what extent do these stories reflect the era or decade in which they were written?
To what extent are the themes they address universal?

CLASSROOM FILMS

History.com has short videos on the Vietnam War (“Vietnam” and “A Soldier's Story”).

In this lesson, students will define terms related to plot and will “map” the plots of familiar stories. Using “The Tell-Tale Heart” again, they will discuss how writers build and develop plot in their stories.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to Edgar Allan Poe's theory on the “single effect” of the short story. They will read a passage from Poe as well as his short story “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

For this lesson, students will learn how to write a mystery. They will be given a list of Nursery Rhymes and asked to create a mystery from the Nursery Rhyme. For example, Did Humpty Dumpty really fall off the wall or was he pushed? They will create a comic from their mystery.

For this lesson, students brainstorm several examples of plots, settings, and characters and randomly select these elements to create their own short stories.

In this lesson, students learn or review the elements of a plot by writing their own short stories. To avoid the common problem of students having difficulty ending their stories, students start at the end and work their way backwards through the plot chart to the exposition of the story.

This task is from Tools 4 NC Teachers. Students plot points and solve problems related to points on a coordinate plane. This is remixable.

Students learn about ultrasound and how it can be used to determine the shapes and contours of unseen objects. Using a one-dimensional ultrasound imaging device (either prepared by the teacher or put together by the students) that incorporates a LEGO(TM) MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT intelligent brick and ultrasonic sensor, they measure and plot the shape of an unknown object covered by a box. Looking at the plotted data, they make inferences about the shape of the object and guess what it is. Students also learn how engineers use high-frequency waves in the design of medical imaging devices, the analysis of materials and oceanographic exploration. Pre/post quizzes, a worksheet and a LEGO rbt program are provided.

This chapter introduces students to the basics of reading literature. It introduces students to subjective and objective reading, and goes over the basic ideas behind reading for plot, character, setting, and theme. Learning objectives are: Ask subjective and objective questions about what they have read; Learn the meanings of “tone,” “diction,” and “syntax.”; Identify the major elements of a plot; Identify character, setting, and theme; Differentiate between internal and external conflict.