A strong plot is a basic requirement of any narrative. Students are sometimes confused, however, by the difference between a series of events that happen in a story and the plot elements, or the events that are significant to the story. In this lesson, students select a topic for a personal narrative and then do the prewriting in comic-strip format to reinforce the plot structure. Finally, they write their own original narratives based on the comic strip prewriting activity, keeping the elements of narrative writing in mind. This lesson uses a version of "The Three Little Pigs" fairy tale to demonstrate the literary element; however, any picture book with a strong plot would work for this lesson.

Students will learn the characteristics of tall tales, reflect on a historical moment, and discover why David Crockett and others like him became important figures in American frontier history.

The teacher reads aloud Thank You, Mr. Falker. There is a follow-up whole-group instruction that provides a basis for improved higher-level reading comprehension. The teacher works with the whole class to model making predictions and personal connections, envisioning character change, and understanding the themes of the book. Response journals can also be used to further student connections to the characters and themes in the book.

This lesson will allow students to demonstrate comprehension of a text by using a wide variety of strategies and by making personal connections to stories. Students will learn how to develop deeper understanding of character and theme, as well.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

Students become familiar with fables and trickster tales from different cultural traditions and see how stories change when orally transferred between generations and cultures. They learn how both fables and trickster tales use various animals in different ways to portray human strengths and weaknesses in order to pass down wisdom from one generation to the next.

In this component students are exposed to a quality piece of literature with themes and bigger ideas focusing on childhood poverty. They will continue to develop a deeper understanding of the bigger issues while building compassion for others living this way. As students read The Most Beautiful Place in the World by Ann Cameron, they will practice summarizing each chapter and describing Juan using a Character Map. Two key strategies are utilized to guide conversation and understanding of the bigger ideas and text themes. First an anticipation guide is used to introduce the big ideas and character perspectives found within the book ("Anticipation Guide" 2016). The second strategy used is a Triad conversation protocol, where students work in teams of three and follow a system that leads them through academic conversation. (Dewees & Nelson "WIDA National Conference"). This lesson was developed by Karie Gregory as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

Students will collaborate with a group of students and select a Culture Project to complete together in school.  The group will choose, design and plan and implement what the groups roles will be and what materials are needed to complete the project.  The teacher should allow the students to work on projects in school so that equal participation is taking place and can be observed. The students may select the countries in the folktale unit to research or one of their own as long as the project goals are met and agreed upon by all members in the group.This lesson was developed by Lisa Bruet as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

The teacher will read and lead a discussion of A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. As part of the discussion of the book, teacher and students will identify character traits of Nya and Salva that helped them rise above their difficult circumstances. For Nya, those traits were necessary for survival; for Salva, in addition to helping him survive years as A Lost Boy, his character traits helped him become an inspiration and hero to thousands of his fellow countrymen when he returned to build wells in his homeland. This lesson was developed by Amber Honeycutt as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

 In this lesson, students will work interactively throughout the reading of Gary the Dreamer from their Wonders Literature Anthology. The lesson will begin with discussion about what a community is and how we do/can contribute to our community. Students will record their responses on a Jamboard for whole group discussion. As you read the “Gary the Dreamer”, students will pause and answer questions on a PearDeck for discussion. After reading the text, students will sequence events of Gary’s life by completing an electronic flow map (different links for scaffolding reasons below). For their formative assessment, students will then put their evidence in their flow map in paragraph form.

In this lesson, The Jolly Postman is used as an authentic example to discuss letter writing as a genre. Students explore letters to the storybook characters delivered by The Jolly Postman. They then learn how to categorize their own examples of mail. The Jolly Postman uses well-known storybook characters, from fairy tales and nursery rhymes, as recipients of letters. This children's storybook is therefore ideal for using as a review of these genres of literature and as a means of helping children begin to explore rhyme and a variety of writing styles. Several pieces of literature appropriate for use with this lesson are suggested.

In this module, students consider the guiding question: How do writers capture a reader's imagination? as they take a deep study of the classic tale Peter Pan.

In this exercise, students will compare two books of the same genre and similar topics using questions that require students to demonstrate understanding of a text by referring explicitly to the text as the basis for answers.

This lesson helps students move to nonfiction. Students will begin to think about how they can collect information from different types of texts.

In this lesson, students identify the main message of lesson of a story using key details from the text and follow class norms when participating in a conversation.

In this lesson, students identify the main message or lesson of a story using key details from the text and effectively participate in a conversation with peers and adults.

In this lesson, student identify the main message or lesson of a story using key details from the text.

In this lesson, students identify the message or lesson of a story using key details from the text and document what they learn about a topic by sorting evidence into categories.

In this lesson, student identify the message or lesson of a story using key details from the text.