Red Riding Hood sits down and takes you behind the scenes of the learning concepts in this modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. This video is designed for parents to watch without their children to learn valuable co-viewing tips and tricks such as discussion questions, pausing points, and questions to ask children during and after the fairy tale video.
Designed to meet Grade 3 English Language Arts Standards: Reading Literature: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
You can access the story at the following location: Little Red Riding Hood Storybook Text
Students talk about what makes a good story, look at the oral tradition of storytelling, and compare and contrast stories from two different cultural traditions. In this lesson, students talk about what makes a good story, look at the oral tradition of storytelling, and watch two stories from Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native oral traditions.
Understanding and creating narratives is a fundamental literacy skill—it is also a universal human activity. When students work with written texts, recite or listen to stories, or present narratives through non-verbal means, such as art or dance, they are learning to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate their world. Teachers can build rewarding experiences for students that activate their natural love for and interest in stories. They can do this in a way that expands children's fluency and confidence with the language, as well as their respect for the rich diversity of narrative approaches and language use across cultures. As students experience narratives from different cultures, they gain perspectives on people and stories in worlds that may be unfamiliar. This will be valuable to students in many ways, for example by helping them bring a sense of perspective to their own culture and stories.
A storyteller uses the elements of a story: who, what, and where, to create a rap. After watching the video, students use story elements to write and perform their own raps. Identifying story elements, such as the setting, characters, and motivation, helps readers interpret and respond to a text. Focusing on key details of story elements supports the understanding of the author's message and purpose.
A storyteller uses the elements of a story: who, what, and where, to create a rap. After watching the video, students use story elements to write and perform their own raps.
Identifying story elements, such as the setting, characters, and motivation, helps readers interpret and respond to a text. Focusing on key details of story elements supports the understanding of the author's message and purpose.
2018 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, Randi House, discusses how authors reveal personality and physical traits to help us learn more about the characters in stories. Ms. House shares an example of how she might be described if she were the character in a story and encourages students to think about words that might be used to describe themselves. The worksheet that accompanies this video provides a space for students to describe a character’s thoughts, speech, attitude, and actions, as well as a place for students to illustrate the character’s physical appearance. This worksheet can be used in conjunction with any novel or short story.
In this interactive lesson, students learn the basics of how stories are structured, gain vocabulary about storytelling elements, and explore how the arts, specifically drawing, can be a valuable way for students to tell stories. By the end of the lesson, each student will have written a story with a clear setting, conflict, and resolution. They will have reflected on the process of storytelling, and are given the (optional) opportunity to create a comic.
This resource guides students as they create an original narrative.
In this interactive lesson supporting literacy skills, students watch video dramatizations of Percy Julian's struggles with racism and how he refused to let it limit his possibilities in life. Students develop their literacy skills as they explore English language arts and focus on understanding character. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities.
This resource guides students as they analyze the character of Percy Julian and provides students with the opportunity to identify key details and learn new vocabulary.
Learn how to identify theme in a literary work in this short animated video from WNET.
Save the king! In this interactive game, students have to determine the theme (or lesson) in the short story. If the students are correct, they get to place one of the Kid Heroes on the battlefield. Using teamwork will lead to success. This classroom resource also includes a quiz, worksheet, and teaching video to help with understanding.
This quick animation video provides a fun and engaging introduction to compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, events, drawing on specific details of a story.
This quick animation video provides a fun and engaging introduction to compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, events, drawing on specific details of the story.
In this video lesson, students will learn to determine the theme of the story by analyzing the change the character goes through in the story.
In this lesson, students will write a narrative short story in response to a given prompt: "Tell the story of Dr. Dolittle's change to becoming an animal doctor from Polynesia's point of view.". Students will learn how to bring characters to life in their narrative by using details such as thoughts, feelings, actions, and dialogue.
In this video lesson, students will learn how an author develops a setting by using words and phrases to create a “mental picture” of where the text takes place and what the place is like.
In this video lesson, students will learn how to determine a character’s traits by examining his/her actions across a text.
Students explore picture books to identify the characteristics of four types of conflict: character vs. character, character vs. self, character vs. nature, and character vs. society. Next, students write about conflict in their own lives and then look for similarities among all the conflicts shared by the class, ultimately classifying each conflict into one of the four types. Finally, after investigating the compare and contrast format, students conclude with a compare and contrast essay that focuses on two conflicts—one from their own experience and one from a picture book or story that they have read.
Collaborative groups will read a variety of American tall tales, then report elements of their story to the whole class. Students add story information to a collaborative, whole-class character study matrix that summarizes all the stories. In a writing activity, students compare two characters of their choice. Support for English Language Learners (ELLs) is embedded in the guided collaborative process, while the content of the stories adds to all students' knowledge of American culture and history. The stories used in the lesson include well-known and lesser-known diverse characters. The lesson process is applicable to any set of related texts.
In this free resource from ReadWriteThink, students work together to craft a list of common fairy tale elements in order to determine what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale. They then explore and analyze a variety of tales, recording their information using a story map. The story map becomes a launching point for students' own fairy tales. Students use the characteristics of a known tale and change one of the literary elements to create a new tale, which includes a different set of characters, has a new setting, or includes a changed conflict or resolution. Finally, students publish and illustrate their new “fractured fairy tales” for others to enjoy.
Knowing the elements of a story aids students in their understanding of what is taking place in the book or novel. When students comprehend the story elements of characters, setting, problems, events, and solutions, they become more involved in the story and take a greater interest in details. In this lesson, students use a six-paneled comic strip to create a story map, summarizing a book or story that they've read either read as a class or independently. The story strips that result provide a great way to evaluate students' understanding of important events and elements in a novel. The students enjoy the artistic aspect as well! This lesson plan uses Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are as an example to model the process of creating the story map comic strips; however, any book you and your students have explored recently that demonstrates the elements of character, setting, problem, events, and solutions will work.
In this activity, students will read The Flag Maker by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, a story about the creation of the first American flag. Students will be able to answer questions based on key details from the story. Students will explore the main character's emotions throughout the story and try to guess what she is feeling.
In this learning activity, students learn about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. A link to National Geographic's Xpeditions Atlas Maps is included. This activity is recommended to be used with Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport.