Students track the elements of mystery stories through Directed Learning-Thinking Activities, story maps, and puzzles. Then they offer clues for other readers as they plan and write original mystery stories.

Students explore picture books to identify the characteristics of four types of conflict. They then write about a conflict they have experienced and compare it to a conflict from literature.

Picture books provide the basis for an analysis of fairy tale elements before students write their own original tales.

Students should have knowledge on the topic fromn the previous grade. This lesson serves as a refresher and a formative assessment for the students at the beginning of the school year.

Dr. Seuss's "The Cat in the Hat" is used as a primer to teach students how to analyze a literary work using plot, theme, characterization, and psychoanalytical criticism.

Students will be singing the blues in this lesson in which they identify themes from "The Gift of the Magi" and write and present blues poetry based on those themes.

Like Junie B. Jones, students will be saying "Wait till you hear this" after listening to a Junie B. story and creating mystery boxes to help retell the story.

In this seminar, you will be focusing on developing a “better beginning” to a narrative writing piece. The purpose of narrative writing is to entertain, and the beginning of your piece is an important first step. You will learn how to “hook” your reader in the beginning. Some ways you can do this is by introducing developed characters, establishing an exciting or relatable setting,  and creating the mood of your piece. In this seminar, you will work on improving all of these to create a “Better Beginning” to your narrative writing.StandardsCC.1.4.4.M/ 1.4.5.MWrite narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.

It's important to "hook" readers at a story's beginning, but it's equally important to keep them interested. In this lesson, students learn to write effective conclusions to their own stories.

Students read and analyze fairy tales, identifying their common elements. They then write their own "fractured" fairy tales by changing one of the literary elements found in the original.

Students move from modeled to independent comprehension of fiction stories by using texts by Jan Brett and interactive tools that demonstrate their comprehension.

In this seminar, you will be working on developing your narrative writing. By focusing on the plot, or the series of events, in a narrative writing, you will be able to create a more engaging and interesting story. The emphasis will be on creating a story arc that includes a problem and a solution and/ or rising and falling action. You will learn about these elements by seeing examples, identifying them, and finally writing them yourself. You will also compare and classify elements of plot in multiple examples of text. This seminar is the next logical step after completing the “Better Beginnings” seminar because it focuses on the “middle and end” of narrative writing. After completing both of these seminars, you should feel ready to create a narrative writing that has a strong beginning-middle-end.StandardsCC.1.4.4.M/ 1.4.5.MWrite narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events 

Students learn that the plot structure described by Freytag's Pyramid is actually quite familiar as they diagram the plots of a familiar story, a television show, and a narrative poem.

When reading a narrative, there are some key story elements to pay close attention to. The two we are focusing on in this seminar are setting and plot. You will be able to describe in depth the setting and the plot using specific details from the text. First, you will be applying past knowledge to help you identify the parts of a plot as well as the setting. Using a graphic organizer, you will be listening to audiobooks and filling in these five elements of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. By looking closely at a story, you are learning how a story is written and how important these parts are.StandardsCC.1.3.4.C Describe in depth a character, setting or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text.

Students read a variety of picture books that contain elements of the hero's journey and use an online interactive tool to analyze the stories.

In this project, you will explore a real-world problem, and then work through a series of steps to analyze that problem, research ways the problem could be solved, then propose a possible solution to that problem. Often, there are no specific right or wrong solutions, but sometimes one particular solution may be better than others. The key is making sure you fully understand the problem, have researched some possible solutions, and have proposed the solution that you can support with information / evidence.Begin by reading the problem statement in Step 1. Take the time to review all the information provided in the statement, including exploring the websites, videos and / or articles that are linked. Then work on steps 2 through 8 to complete this problem-based learning experience.

In this project, you will explore a real-world problem, and then work through a series of steps to analyze that problem, research ways the problem could be solved, then propose a possible solution to that problem. Often, there are no specific right or wrong solutions, but sometimes one particular solution may be better than others. The key is making sure you fully understand the problem, have researched some possible solutions, and have proposed the solution that you can support with information / evidence.Begin by reading the problem statement in Step 1. Take the time to review all the information provided in the statement, including exploring the websites, videos and / or articles that are linked. Then work on steps 2 through 8 to complete this problem-based learning experience.

In this seminar, you will be learning the difference between retelling and summarizing a fictional story. You will be given questions to ask yourself to help you pick out the most important details in a fictional story. It will introduce the Somebody Wanted But So Then strategy to help you summarize stories you have read. You will be applying past knowledge to new situations. Some activities you will be doing include creating a comic strip summary of story, as well as, creating a project of your choosing to summarize a story you have read.StandardsCC.1.3.4.ADetermine a theme of a text from details in the text; summarize the text.

Students use both analytical and creative skills to adapt passages from a novel with significant internal dialogue and conflict, such as Toni Morrison's "Beloved", into a ten-minute play.

Students examine story elements through teacher read-alouds and independent reading and then use reader-response journals and graphic organizers to prepare for the creation of their own scary stories.