literary essay lesson plans 5th grade

Bell Ringers

Teaching effective literary analysis essays.

Just a few days ago I was blogging about how I literally Googled, “How do you teach effective literary analysis essays?”

And although middle school ELA teachers across the nation are expected to teach 12, 13, and 14 year olds how to analyze a piece of literature in the form of an essay, there was basically nothing out there for middle school literary analysis.

If you remember, I told you how I broke down each area of a literary analysis essay into lessons, chunks, chart papers, and examples just so I could get my own brain wrapped around things, but not surprisingly it was exactly what my students needed too.

I literally learned how to write an essay in front of them by typing my rough drafts in real time.

My mini-lessons were based on challenges I was having and again, not surprisingly the same challenges they were having.

You might also remember that I said I was going to tell you what happened.

So here it is.

My students’ ELA proficiency scores increased almost 40% in just that one year. 

By year two, there was an almost 65% increase in my seventh and eighth graders’ ELA proficiency scores.

This upper elementary teacher, turned accidental middle school ELA teacher, who was previously Googling how to teach English teacher things, and who would have sworn up and down that teaching writing was her weakness, had basically completely turned around her middle school ELA classroom.

If you had a chance to look at the  Free Literary Analysis Reference Booklet ,  you’ll see that I really looked at literary analysis and broke it down into manageable chunks for middle school ELA teachers and students.

When I was first fumbling through teaching this essay, I basically just used that college-level essay I found from Googling and broke it down as best I could for middle school.

My teaching methods were obviously pretty effective, but I always felt a bit scattered organization-wise for the unit.

I was truly kind of creating my lesson plans on sticky notes or notepads each day and this cycle continued each year.

Administration and other teachers started asking, “But HOW did you do it?”

I saw that I really needed to break it down in a way that I could use my lesson plans year after year, as well as show other teachers how I was teaching literary analysis effectively.

Six years later, I FINALLY finished my  Middle School Literary Analysis Writing Unit .

The Free Literary Analysis Reference Booklet I keep talking about is a result of that unit.

I spent months creating the most comprehensive, thorough, and thoughtfully broken-down unit I have ever created:

The  Literary Analysis Unit  has each and every element your students need to know for writing literary analysis responses and essays.

Just >>  CLICK HERE  << to check out the full Literary Analysis Writing Unit, and I’ll be back with part three of the literary analysis blog series to give you some helpful tips for teaching literary analysis in your middle school ELA classroom.

• Read more about: Middle School Reading , Middle School Writing

You might also like...

4 Tips to Keep Student Reading Notebooks Organized

Independent Reading Activities for Middle School ELA

Reading Conferences: The Golden Gate Bridge Method

Get your free middle school ela pacing guides with completed scopes and sequences for the school year..

My ELA scope and sequence guides break down every single middle school ELA standard and concept for reading, writing, and language in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. Use the guides and resources exactly as is or as inspiration for you own!

Meet Martina

I’m a Middle School ELA teacher committed to helping you improve your teaching & implement systems that help you get everything done during the school day!

Let's Connect

Member login.

PRIVACY POLICY 

 TERMS OF USE

WEBSITE DISCLAIMERS

MEMBERSHIP AGREEEMENT

© The Hungry Teacher • Website by KristenDoyle.co • Contact Martina

Five-Paragraph Essay Lesson Plan: Producing Writing

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Five-Paragraph Essay Lesson Plan .

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic, Five-Paragraph Essay , and supports the standard of developing an organized piece of writing with a clear thesis, relevant details, and a concluding statement. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

As a class, or individually, have students read Tim’s model essay, The Case For a Longer School Year. Ask:

• What argument is Tim making in his essay?
• What are his reasons or evidence for his argument?
• Is Tim’s argument persuasive? Why or why not?
• What is the purpose of the first paragraph? middle paragraphs? Last paragraph?

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read aloud the description on the Five-Paragraph Essay topic page . 
• Play the Movie , pausing to check for understanding.

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Assign the Five-Paragraph Essay Quiz , prompting students to apply essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about writing five-paragraph essays while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie : Produce a movie where you present a persuasive argument that follows the format of a five-paragraph essay. 
• Make-a-Map : Create a concept map that shows the features of each paragraph in a five-paragraph essay. 
• Creative Coding : Code a meme that shows the benefits of using the five-paragraph essay format.

More to Explore

Related BrainPOP Topics : Deepen understanding of the writing process with these topics: Types of Writing , Writing in Sequence , Research , and Outlines . 

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview : Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students to stop, think, and express ideas.  
• Learning Activities Modifications : Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support : Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

• BrainPOP Jr. (K-3)
• BrainPOP ELL
• BrainPOP Science
• BrainPOP Español
• BrainPOP Français
• Set Up Accounts
• Single Sign-on
• Manage Subscription
• Quick Tours
• About BrainPOP

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Trademarks & Copyrights

ELA Common Core Lesson Plans

• Create Characters Lesson Plan
• Creative Writing Lesson Plan: Using Details
• How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay
• How to Write a Conclusion for an Essay Lesson Plan
• How to Write a Persuasive Essay
• How to Write a Reflective Essay
• How to Write an Article Critique and Review
• How to Write an Introduction to an Essay
• How to Write a Problem Solution Essay
• Lesson Plan: Effective Sentence Structure
• Lesson Plan: Improve Writing Style with Improved Sentence Structure
• Logical Fallacies Lesson Plan with Summary & Examples
• Teaching Active and Passive Voice
• Teaching How to Revise a Rough Draft
• Teaching Instructional Articles: How to Write Instructions
• Teaching Word Choice: Using Strong Verbs
• Using Imagery Lesson Plan
• Writing for Audience and Purpose
• Writing Transitions Lesson
• Analyzing Humor in Literature Lesson Plan
• Analyzing Shakespeare Strategies
• Fun Reading Lesson Plan

How to Write a Literary Analysis.

• How to Annotate and Analyze a Poem
• Lesson Plan for Teaching Annotation
• Literary Terms Lesson Plan
• Literature Exemplars – Grades-9-10
• Teaching Short Story Elements
• Using Short Stories to Teach Elements of Literature
• Bill of Rights Lesson Plan
• Fun Ideas for Teaching Language
• Comma Rules: How to Use Commas
• Difference between Denotation and Connotation
• Effective Word Choice Lesson Plan
• Fun Grammar Review Game or Vocabulary & Language Arts
• Lesson Plans for Substitute Teachers and Busy English Teachers
• Lesson Plan: Creating the Perfect Title
• 4.08 – Lesson Plan: Using Semicolons Correctly
• Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement Lesson Plan
• Sentence Combining Made Easy Lesson Plan
• Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary
• Using Tone Effectively Lesson Plan
• 4.12 – Word Choice Lesson Plan: Eliminate and Replace “To Be” Verbs
• Using Voice in Writing Effectively Lesson Plan
• Speaking & Listening
• Teacher Guide Central

Lesson Plan: How to Write a Literary Analysis

Remember when you assigned a literary analysis or an interpretive essay and all you got was 237 summaries of a short story you'd already read 15 times, so you slammed your hand in the filing cabinet drawer until you drew blood and broke every finger?

The better option, of course, would have been to teach students how to write an interpretive essay or to teach students how to write a literary analysis.

Would you like a rubric? Of course, you would: Literary Analysis Generic Rubric .

The Basics of Writing a Literary Analysis

Use the following guidelines for teaching how to write an interpretive essay or how to write a literary analysis:

• The introduction must introduce the literary work, capture the reader's attention , and include a clearly written thesis statement that contains the literary interpretation.
• The body of the essay must support the thesis statement through evidence--facts, examples, summaries--and commentary--opinions, analysis, interpretation, insight.
• The conclusion summarizes the interpretation and allows the writer to draw attention to the most important aspects of the analysis.

An 'A' essay does the following:

• Identifies the author, title, and gives a brief summary of the literary work.
• Provides a clear interpretation of the author's message and purpose.
• Provides details, quotations

Writing and Drafting

• Reread the literary work several times. This seems logical to teachers. It's not logical for students. Read through the first time to get a feel for the work. Reread and look for passages and ideas that stand out or have special meaning.
• Before drafting, brainstorm possible interpretations. A good strategy is to write annotations as you read.
• Discuss the interpretation with others who have read the work. As a teacher, it's important to have class discussions on works being analyzed.
• Make sure you have a clear answer to the following questions as you write or revise:
• What is the main point of the essay? This main point should be clearly identified in the thesis statement.
• What evidence best supports the interpretation ?
• Are there any points that should be added to clarify the interpretation?
• Is there any superfluous evidence that could be deleted?

Common Pitfalls

Writing a Summary : No matter how many times you emphasize that you do not want a summary, you'll still get them. The only way to eliminate this error is to model analysis and give really low grades to students who summarize rather than analyze.

Listing Facts : A close relative of the summary is listing facts. It's also called the, "I'll list as many facts as I can about this literary work and hope the teacher doesn't grade it very closely" syndrome. Explain that listing facts without explaining how the fact supports the thesis statement or why that fact is important is useless.

Having No Evidence : At the other end of the bad analysis spectrum is the no evidence analysis. It consists of nothing but conjecture.

Mini Lesson

Teach how to write a literary analysis or how to write an interpretive essay and avoid the common pitfalls before you assign the essay. Try this exercise.

• Write down a specific quotation or example from a literary work.
• Underneath the quote write the phrase this shows________ .
• Complete the sentence two times for each quotation.
• Discuss answers and point out the difference between analysis and summary.
• Once students have the basic idea down, assign the essay.
• Another option is to have them answer discussion questions in the following format: 1 detail from the story, with 2 pieces of analysis.

Common Core Standards

Teaching how to write a literary analysis satisfies the following ELA Common Core Standards.

• RL.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• L.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
• RL.9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
• W.9-10.1 Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
• W.9-10.1a Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
• W.9-10.1b Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience's knowledge level and concerns.
• W.9-10.2b   Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience's knowledge of the topic. W.9-10.2a  Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings); graphics (e.g., figures, tables); and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
• W.9-10.1c   Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.
• W.9-10.2f   Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).
• W.9-10.3c   Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to create a coherent whole.
• W.9-10.4   Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• L.9-10.1  Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Types of Essays

Step-by-step instructions for writing different types of essays can be accessed by the following links.

• Problem-Solution Essay
• Persuasive Essay
• Narrative Essay
• Instructional Article
• Literary Analysis
• How to Write a Tall-Tale
• How to Write an Article Critique
• Cause and Effect Essay

Last Updated on December 6, 2016 by Trenton Lorcher

Get 5 Short Story Lesson Plans Now!

We specialize in teacher-ready lesson plans.

I will never give away, trade or sell your email address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Return to top of page

Copyright © 2024 | By: WebsiteRedesign.nz

• Our Mission

Teaching Literary Analysis

Guide students through the five steps of understanding and writing literary analysis: choosing and focusing a topic, gathering, presenting and analyzing textual evidence, and concluding.

Literary analysis is a vital stage in the development of students' critical thinking skills. Bloom's Taxonomy illustrates that analysis should come at the fourth level, right after comprehension and application. What this means is that students must be able to understand and describe the text before they are able to analyze its elements.

Teaching literary analysis is often a daunting and overwhelming task. After all, it is essentially guiding students slowly through the process of critical thinking and understanding literature. That’s not a simple undertaking. Most importantly, with so many ways to go about doing it, where to begin?

To guide students toward discovering literature all on their own, the steps of this process need to be introduced in a simplified form. It's very important for the student to understand that literary analysis is indeed a process where there is no right or wrong answer. This empowers students to be passionate about their topics and, most importantly, encourages them to look beyond the words on the page.

1. Choose a Topic

Some students need guidance when choosing a topic, but others have ideas that they would like to explore. Topics can be divided into the main literary elements:

• Literary devices

2. Focus the Topic

Here is where many students will need to do a lot of brainstorming, outlining, and specific thinking about the element on which they would like to focus.

• The brainstorming process involves mapping out the different aspects of the chosen element.
• Make a choice by narrowing down the selection and focusing the ideas.
• Come up with a question to answer (thesis statement): What do you want to explore about the topic? Why does it stand out to you?
• Answer the "why" question. Instead of letting students simply describe the text, "why" pushes them to analyze and even synthesize. This aspect is vital to student understanding, as most of the time a teacher is able to identify a relevant thesis related to modern-day issues and concepts. Here is where real-world application, analysis, and synthesis can begin to form in this piece of writing.

3. Gather Textual Evidence

Collecting material to answer or support your question is often a time-consuming stage, because most of the close reading will occur here. It's important for students to know that they're allowed to research the topic or text before starting to write. Many students feel that they should not be using Google or Wikipedia to research their texts. Here is where the teacher can have an honest discussion about digital citizenship, and how to tell credible academic sources from non-credible ones.

Show students that close reading and gathering evidence doesn't have to be a mundane, one-dimensional task.

• Identify common themes, repetitions, and patterns.
• Categorize elements, tone, and narrative style.
• Highlight characterization, setting, and foreshadowing.
• Label character types, symbols, and metaphors.

4. Introduce, Evidence, Analyze

Learning through writing and literary analysis happens through stages (see Bloom's Taxonomy ). At this stage of writing, students have already accomplished remembering, understanding, and applying. Next comes analysis.

Students should introduce their point in one or two clear topic sentences. Next, it's important to provide evidence that supports the main topic in order to convince the reader of the stated point of view. There are a few ways students can add their evidence.

• Quotation: When providing evidence word for word from a primary or secondary source, students should be reminded to use quotation marks only if the words have not been altered.
• Summary: Students summarize a piece of evidence by restating it in a shorter form using their own words.
• Paraphrase: Students explain a piece of evidence using their own words.

At this stage, it's important to use the lesson as a reminder to cite and give credit for words and ideas that belong to others. A conversation with the class about academic honesty is very important to help them understand intellectual property. This conversation will also prepare them for honesty and ethics in the real or academic world.

This critical stage is often a learning curve for many students. It's important that the teacher helps them distinguish between descriptive writing and analytical writing. Descriptive writing answers the "who," "what," "where," and "how" questions. It often tends to summarize the text. Analytical writing , however, answers to the "why" question. When students consider the question, "Why is this point important?", it pushes them beyond mere description into ideas that are convincing, argumentative, and defend a position.

5. Conclusion

A strong conclusion outlines the main ideas of the essay, but it also works to provide a solution to a real-life problem. Students can focus on concluding with what they hope to get out of their analysis, or provide closure to the topic. Most importantly, students should seize the conclusion as an opportunity to provide their own opinion and reflection about their process of analyzing the text. The self-reflection here would be a vital key for teachers to assess the writing process and a great opportunity to provide essential feedback to the student.

Please share your own experiences in teaching students about literary analysis.

7 Great Narrative Lesson Plans Students and Teachers Love

How to Master Narrative Writing in a Single Week

Mastering narrative writing in one week is a big ask. A very BIG ask! But you can teach the core elements of how to craft a well-told tale in this tight timeframe. Mastery will come through diligent practice on the part of the student and thoughtful feedback on the teacher’s part.

How do you teach students narratives?

In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can take your students from zero to hero, in narrative writing terms, in just one lesson per day during the school week and a little extra effort over the weekend.

 Come the following Monday morning, and your desk should be positively heaving under the weight of your students’ freshly composed masterpieces.

 Though we’re in the game of narrative fiction here, let’s try to bring our aspirations into the realm of the possible. We won’t get a novel out of our students in a mere seven days, not without working their fingers and to the bone. However, the short story format will perfectly serve our ambitions.

 So, let’s get started by exploring these five narrative lesson plans – By Zeus’s breath! We’ve still set ourselves a task of Herculean proportions!

THE STORY TELLERS BUNDLE OF TEACHING RESOURCES

A MASSIVE COLLECTION of resources for narratives and story writing in the classroom covering all elements of crafting amazing stories. MONTHS WORTH OF WRITING LESSONS AND RESOURCES, including:

Lesson 1: Generate One Good Story Idea

 There’s a lot of ground to cover, so you’ll need to get your students off to an energetic start if they’re to reach the finish line of a completed story by the end of the week.

 They’ll need to come up with an idea for a story so engaging that they’ll be chomping at the bit to get their pens galloping over the page.

 Try one of these two activities to kickstart your students’ creativity:

• Spin Story Gold from Your Spam

Open up your email and go into your Spam folder. This is a repository of some of the highest-flying fiction in the modern age. It’s peopled with fanciful characters from far-flung lands such as generous princes, dying businessmen searching for heirs, devious diplomats, not to mention desperate widows.

Cut and paste a few of these that are student-suitable, print them, and distribute the results to your class.

If your students can’t make a story from this raw material, you may already have a lost cause on your hands!

• What Ever Happened to So-and-So?

We’ve all had friends and acquaintances we’ve lost touch with over the years. This is true of our students too – young as they are!

Ask your students to think of someone they used to know. Maybe a classmate from kindergarten who went on to a different school, or a neighbor who moved to another city. Anyone they used to know, but since they have since lost contact with will do.

Now, ask them to imagine what happened to this person. What twists and turns have their life taken since you last saw them? Have they fallen into a life of crime or been abducted by aliens? Maybe they moved to a distant, exotic country and have started life anew. Encourage your students to let their imaginations run wild!

And, needless to say, have your students change their names to protect the innocent!

Once the students have come up with their rough story idea , it’s time to nail down some things in more detail and decide on a few crucial elements of their story.

Students must decide who the characters in their story are and what point of view they will tell the story. Will it be told from the first person POV, from the main character’s perspective, or from the omniscient third-person viewpoint? Can students sketch quick character bios to help them later in writing?

How about the setting? Where does the action take place? Will the story be static, or will locations change throughout the story?

Decisions, decisions!

The more questions students generate and answer, the easier tomorrow will be.

Failing all of that, if you need some creative juice, be sure to check out our writing prompts here .

STORY ELEMENTS FOR KIDS TUTORIAL VIDEO

Lesson 2: Outline

Day 2, and it’s time for students to outline their story. You can help this process significantly by giving your students a clear structure to follow. Graphic organizers offer an efficient way to lay things out easily to follow manner, helping students get their story written in an organized fashion.

But, whether they use graphic organizers or sketch their outline by hand, their story outline should contain the following elements (or similar variations):

●      Exposition – include characters & setting details from yesterday.

●      Conflict – this will usually emerge from the initial story idea.

●      Rising Action – a related series of events that escalates the story’s drama

●      Climax – the dramatic highpoint where the conflict comes to a head

●      Falling Action – the dramatic tension of the story decreases, and things move toward the conclusion.

●      Resolution – loose ends are tied up, and the story draws to a close.

Sometimes it can be beneficial to allow students to form small discussion groups to offer each other feedback and constructive criticism on their ideas.

Remind students that the more detail they go into in their outlines, the easier writing their stories will be.

Lesson: 3: Write the First Act

By now, your students have laid all the necessary groundwork, and the writing begins in earnest.

From our early school days, everyone knows that every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is the basic three-act story structure, a structure that is ideal for your students to follow when writing their short stories .

The purpose of today’s lesson will be for your students to complete the first act of their story. A well-written first act will provide great momentum to help the students through the remaining two acts.

In the first act, students should aim to:

●      Introduce the important characters

●      Establish the setting and tone of their story

●      Reveal the story’s central conflict

●      Begin the process of ramping up the drama through the rising action.

If the purpose of the first act is to grab the reader’s attention so that they simply have to read to the end, then your students will need to employ a hook right from the first scene of their tale.

The purpose of this hook is to intrigue the reader and entice them to continue reading. But, not only does the hook need to gain the reader’s interest, it needs to serve the needs of the plot too.

A well-used hook should:

●      Introduce the main character

●      Give an insight into that character’s daily life

●      Show them dealing with some problem or conflict to reveal their character

Showing the main character in action dealing with a problem or conflict begins the story’s movement forward – even if the problem is minor.

Moving on from the hook, your students must work to keep the reader engaged throughout the story. There are two main ways to do this, either make the characters interesting or make the events compelling.

And, of course, there is a third option  – do both!

The Inciting Incident

The inciting incident is the event that sets the ball rolling in terms of the story’s action. Often, this is when something happens to flip the main character’s world upside-down or begin a process that causes the pattern of their daily life to be altered significantly, often forever.

Here are two common options to help students create an inciting incident:

●      The Deliberate Choice – Here, the main character makes a decision or a choice that sets all in motion the rest of the events of the story.

●      The Coincidence – The merging of time, place, and characters. Think ‘right person in the right place at the right time.’ You could, of course, substitute ‘wrong’ for ‘right’ here!

From here on out, a sequence of events unfolds, leading us into and through Act 2…

Lesson 4: Write Right to the End

By finishing the first act of their story, your students have pushed the ball to the top of the hill. All that remains is to tip it over the other side and let it roll all the way to the end.

Act 2 will see the dramatic tension build over a series of cause-and-effect events. This is very important for students to grasp. While writing about fictional characters in a fictional world, their stories must still contain a sense of logical consistency or they will frustrate their readers.

The seeds of these events should have been planted in Act 1, whether in the central external conflict or within the characters themselves.

The tension of the plot should build toward the story’s climactic scene in the third act.

Usually, the climax will see the two opposing sides of the conflict come together in some final way. This is where the main character succeeds in their goal or fails. It is where we witness them pushed to their limits.

This is the point all previous events have been working towards. In the aftermath of the climactic scene, the story draws to a close. Loose ends are tied up as the story reaches the resolution stage.

In the resolution, your students should address (usually briefly) the consequences of the events of the story. In a short story such as you will have your students write, the resolution will usually take place over a single scene.

In character-focused stories, the resolution can usually be summed up in a single question: How has the main character changed?  

A short story doesn’t usually have much of a build-up. It will usually start at the last possible moment of the action that will still allow the reader to make sense of what happens.

Likewise, the ending of the story should be tight and lean. The writer shouldn’t hang about, but should still leave the reader with a sense of continuation. That is, the reader should be left with the feeling that life will go in in this fictional world long after they have put the book (or pages!) down.

L esson 5: Edit

You might be beautiful. But, if you don’t brush your teeth occasionally, give your hair the odd brush, and put on some fresh clothes a few times a week, you’ll always be a bit haggard.

Stories are the same. They need tidying up. A little TLC before they make a guest appearance on The Homework Show .

Editing is where this TLC takes place.

Often, it’s difficult for students to gain enough perspective on their story to edit it effectively. It can be good practice to assign students an editing partner, where each student can provide feedback and suggestions to the other.

In this first edit, the main thing students should look out for is the story’s structure. Is it all of a whole? That is, does the story move through the story arc as outlined on the first and second days?

Some other things to watch out for include:

●      Is there a plausibility to the story? This is necessary even in the most fantastical of tales. Even if the events described are impossible, they must ‘ring’ true.

●      Are all the major narrative elements there? Are the characters drawn convincingly? Is there a hook, an inciting incident, a climax, a resolution, etc?

If these larger structural elements are all there, then students check the writing for clarity and revise where necessary.

Editing should be a merciless process; that’s why writers so often talk about ‘killing their babies’ when they discuss editing.

The golden rule of editing narrative writing is, if it doesn’t serve the story, then out it goes!

They can also check for the dreaded incidences of telling instead of showing. For example, characters should reveal themselves through their words and actions, rather than long, boring paragraph upon paragraph of exposition.

Students should make extensive notes for one another if they’re working with partners.

If they are doing their own editing, they can help to gain perspective on their work by reading it out loud.

Now, with notes gripped firmly in ink-stained hands it’s almost time for that final draft.

But first, a Day 6 interlude.

Lesson 6: Let That Potboiler Simmer!

Good writing is a slow-cooked stew of creativity and technical ability. It needs a full day for all the ingredients to steep in their own juices. And that’s what Day 6 is for – a much-needed respite from feverous scribbling.

Allowing the writing to rest for a day does two important things.

Firstly, it allows the student to replenish their energies in readiness for writing the final draft.

It also, more importantly, gives the students a little time to gain some perspective on their stories.

The mind works in unfathomable ways. Sometimes problems that arise in the writing of stories, and other creative text types , get solved by the subconscious while we sleep.

Creativity doesn’t answer to the blare of the factory horn. Students should give their imaginations some time to frolic and cavort.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING NARRATIVE WRITING

Teach your students to become skilled story writers with this HUGE   NARRATIVE & CREATIVE STORY WRITING UNIT . Offering a  COMPLETE SOLUTION  to teaching students how to craft  CREATIVE CHARACTERS, SUPERB SETTINGS, and PERFECT PLOTS .

Over 192 PAGES of materials, including:

Lesson 7: The Final Draft

Day 7! Where does the time go?

It’s time for your students to uncurl Day 5’s hurriedly scribbled notes and get working on that final draft.

Students should work through the suggestions, accepting and rejecting as they see fit. While this is predominantly a functional process, there is room for creativity in this problem-solving work.

This is the final run-through. So anything that doesn’t work should be put up against the wall and…well, you get the picture.

Once the story is in fine fettle structurally speaking, it’s time for a final proofread. Punctuation and spelling must be checked and corrected. All t ’s crossed and every I dotted.

With a final read-through, preferably aloud, each student should ceremoniously fold their masterpiece in quarters with great care and prepare to submit their work to the judgement of the Mighty Oracle of All That Is Educational at daybreak the following morn.

Failing that, they could just give it to their teacher in the morning!

There we have it, a rapid race through the twists and turns of mastering the narrative writing form. Just make sure you have set aside plenty of time to read a couple of dozen short stories come Monday night!

5th Grade ELA Lesson Plans

Discover our 5th grade ELA lesson plans, meticulously aligned with the Common Core Standards! Find interactive lessons that cover reading, writing, reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, and more. Each plan is crafted with precise learning objectives, engaging activities, insightful teaching tips, ... Read more and practice exercises, all designed to empower teachers with effective ELA instruction tools. Get ready to embark on a journey to elevate your classroom teaching experience! Start now for free!

CONTENT TYPE

• Lesson Plans
• Number Sense (2)
• Place Value (2)
• Multiplication (8)
• Times Tables (2)
• Division (1)
• Fractions (14)
• Fractions Operations (14)
• Decimals (8)
• Algebra (4)
• Word Problems (7)
• Reading (20)
• Reading Skills (20)
• Writing (1)
• Grammar (21)
• Adverbs and Adjectives (3)
• Nouns and Pronouns (3)
• Prepositions and Conjunctions (3)
• Punctuation (3)
• Sentences (3)
• Verbs and Tenses (5)
• Vocabulary (2)

Reading Lesson Plans

Visual Vocabulary Voyage Illustration Lesson Plan

Explore the role of illustrations in setting tone and meaning in texts.

Porcupette's Night Adventure Vocabulary Lesson Plan

Explore vocabulary with Porcupette's night adventure.

Unmasking Cause & Effect: An Interactive Learning Voyage Lesson Plan

Interactive lesson plan exploring cause and effect through role-play.

Character Traits Uncovered Lesson Plan

Explore character traits through an engaging story and interactive activities.

Writing Lesson Plans

Mastering Titles: An Interactive Capitalization Lesson Plan

Learn to craft and capitalize titles in an engaging way!

Grammar Lesson Plans

Is It All Related? Prepositions & Conjunctions Lesson Plan

Learn prepositions and conjunctions through engaging activities.

Fantastic Foods Face-off: Adjectives Lesson Plan

Explore comparative and superlative adjectives with Lookie and Rob!

Punctuation Pioneers Colon & Semicolon Lesson Plan

Dive into the world of punctuation with our interactive colon and semicolon lesson.

Pronouns & Antecedents Unveiled Lesson Plan

Unravel the world of pronouns and antecedents in this engaging grammar lesson.

Vocabulary Lesson Plans

Question Tags Conquest Lesson Plan

An interactive lesson plan focusing on mastering question tags.

Confusing Words Clarified Lesson Plan

An engaging journey to clarify confusing words in English.

All ELA Lesson Plans

Grammar Gladiators Conjunctions, Prepositions & Interjections Lesson Plan

Explore the world of conjunctions, prepositions and interjections in this interactive lesson.

Space Explorers Adverbs Lesson Plan

Explore the Solar System while learning about comparative and superlative adverbs!

Adjectives & Adverbs Adventure Lesson Plan

An engaging lesson plan focusing on mastering adjectives and adverbs through interactive activities.

Perspective Pioneers: Hodja's Interactive Lesson Plan

Explore perspectives in this interactive lesson on point of view.

Global Games Galore Cultural Lesson Plan

Explore children's games from various countries in this engaging lesson.

Plural & Possessive Prowess Grammar Lesson Plan

An engaging lesson plan focused on mastering plural and possessive nouns.

Behind the Scenes Magic: An Interactive Problem-Solving Lesson Plan

Explore problem-solving in theater and movies with this engaging lesson.

Unraveling Pronouns with Buc-Buc and Young Loko Lesson Plan

Explore the world of pronouns with Buc-Buc and Young Loko!

Cause & Effect Chronicles through Visuals and Dialogue Lesson Plan

Uncover the power of cause and effect in informational texts!

Genre Giants: A Comparative Storytelling Lesson Plan

Explore comparison and contrast in storytelling with 'Genre Giants'.

Correlative Conjunctions Chronicles Lesson Plan

Explore the exciting world of correlative conjunctions in this interactive lesson.

Mastering Summarization: A Detailed Learning Adventure Lesson Plan

Learn to summarize texts effectively with this engaging lesson plan.

Prepositional Phrases Unraveled Lesson Plan

Uncover the mystery of prepositional phrases in this engaging lesson.

Decoding Texts Point, Reason, Evidence Lesson Plan

An engaging lesson plan focused on mastering text analysis.

Similes & Metaphors Unveiled: Siddhartha's Journey Lesson Plan

Explore similes and metaphors through an engaging story about Siddhartha's journey.

Comma Commanders: An Interactive Punctuation Lesson Plan

Interactive lesson plan focusing on mastering the use of commas.

Inference Investigators Lesson Plan

Unleash your inner detective with our engaging inference lesson plan.

Punctuation Pioneers Lesson Plan

Explore the fascinating world of punctuation with this interactive grammar lesson.

Decoding Inferences Lesson Plan

Learn to make inferences using key details from texts and images.

Sentences Unleashed: An Interactive Grammar Expedition Lesson Plan

Uncover the magic of sentences with our interactive grammar lesson.

Timekeepers: An Interactive Procedure Understanding Lesson Plan

Engaging lesson plan focusing on understanding procedures through an interactive story.

Fragment Fixers Sentence Lesson Plan

An interactive lesson plan focusing on mastering sentence fragments.

Chronological Chronicles: An Interactive Sequential Order Lesson Plan

Unravel the concept of sequential order in a fun, interactive way.

Clause Conquerors Lesson Plan

An engaging journey into the world of clauses and phrases.

Reptile Reporters: An Interactive Information Integration Lesson Plan

An engaging lesson on integrating information about reptiles.

Time Travel with Tenses: A Verbs Voyage Lesson Plan

An engaging lesson plan focused on mastering verb tenses.

Fact or Fiction? Fact & Opinion Lesson Plan

Explore the world of facts and opinions in this pizza-themed interactive lesson.

Perfect Verb Tenses Unleashed Lesson Plan

An engaging lesson plan on mastering perfect verb tenses.

Decoding Main Ideas & Details Lesson Plan

Discover the art of identifying main ideas and supporting details in a text.

Tenspectors' Time Travel Tense Mastery Lesson Plan

Become a 'Tenspector' and master verb tenses in this interactive lesson.

Info Hunt: An Interactive Resource Identification Lesson Plan

An engaging lesson on identifying the best resources for information.

Professor Loko's Grammar Quest: An Interactive Subject-Verb Agreement Lesson Plan

An engaging journey into the world of subject-verb agreement with Professor Loko.

Modal Verbs Mastery Lesson Plan

An engaging lesson plan focused on mastering the use of modal verbs.

Browse Our Fun Collection of 5th Grade ELA Lesson Plans!

We are happy to introduce our extensive collection of 5th grade English Language Arts lesson plans that align perfectly with the Common Core Standards. These plans provide a perfect balance of enjoyable and educational content developed by our curriculum experts.

We focus on delivering effective lessons with clear and measurable learning objectives, engaging activities, and abundant practice opportunities for fifth graders. These in-depth and structured plans help teachers deliver impactful and enjoyable ELA lessons. Our 5th grade lesson plans under ELA are thoughtfully organized into relevant topics, including reading comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, and more.

• Key Concepts: In grade 5 ELA, kids learn reading skills (comprehension, key details, inference, main idea, compare and contrast, author's reasoning and evidence), grammar concepts (plurals vs. possessive nouns, subject and object pronouns, pronoun and antecedent agreement, adjectives vs. adverbs, modal verbs, verb tenses, subject and verb agreement, comparative and superlative adjectives/adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, sentence fragments, rules of commas, cause and effect, commonly confusing words, punctuations, questions), and how to integrate text information effectively.

If you're searching for online ELA lesson plans for teaching ELA in 5th grade, your search ends here! Our lessons provide all the essential components for well-organized and effective ELA instruction. Your teaching guide in delivering the best ELA lessons!

Key Features of Our 5th Grade ELA Lesson Plans

• Aligned with Curriculum Standards: Our 5th grade Common Core ELA lesson plans are carefully designed to match curriculum standards, serving as a valuable resource for teachers.
• Free Access for Teachers: Our lesson plans are free for teachers and schools. Teachers can register to access free 5th grade ELA lesson plans.
• Grade-Specific Learning Objectives: These lesson plans offer clear and specific goals for activity and task, ensuring teachers and fifth graders know the lesson's intended outcomes.
• Engaging Hands-On Activities: Our 5th grade ELA lesson plans include interactive activities that connect ELA concepts to real-world situations, making learning more enjoyable and relevant for fifth graders.
• Effective Teaching Strategies and Clear Guidance: Our plans offer proven teaching methods, simple instructions, and a well-organized instructional pathway, guaranteeing engaging and efficient ELA lessons.

Benefits of Using 5th Grade ELA Lesson Plans for Teachers

• Simplified ELA Lesson Prep: Our 5th grade English lesson plans are expertly designed to simplify and optimize lesson preparation for teachers.
• Structured ELA Instruction: Our 5th grade ELA lesson plans offer organized and effective instruction, helping teachers cover key ELA concepts such as reading comprehension, grammar, and language skills.
• Efficient Time Management: Each lesson activity comes with an estimated time for completion, ensuring smooth classroom time management while teaching important ELA topics.
• Engages Active Participation: These well-crafted ELA lessons encourage fifth graders to actively participate in activities that enhance their understanding of crucial ELA concepts like reading comprehension, grammar rules, and language skills.
• Effective for ELA Assessment: Our ELA lesson plans for 5th grade teachers are a valuable resource for practice and assessment, supporting teachers in evaluating students' grasp of essential ELA concepts.

What Are the Best 5 Online ELA Lesson Plans for 5th Graders?

Here are 5 carefully selected grade 5 ELA lesson plans for teachers:

• Detective Skills Uncovered Main Idea & Summarizing
• Decoding Inferences
• Modal Verbs Mastery
• Mastering Subject-Verb Agreement: An Engaging Journey
• Sea Travels: An Interactive Verb Tenses Voyage

Your one stop solution for all grade learning needs.

Can You Convince Me? Developing Persuasive Writing

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Persuasive writing is an important skill that can seem intimidating to elementary students. This lesson encourages students to use skills and knowledge they may not realize they already have. A classroom game introduces students to the basic concepts of lobbying for something that is important to them (or that they want) and making persuasive arguments. Students then choose their own persuasive piece to analyze and learn some of the definitions associated with persuasive writing. Once students become aware of the techniques used in oral arguments, they then apply them to independent persuasive writing activities and analyze the work of others to see if it contains effective persuasive techniques.

Featured Resources

From theory to practice.

• Students can discover for themselves how much they already know about constructing persuasive arguments by participating in an exercise that is not intimidating.  
• Progressing from spoken to written arguments will help students become better readers of persuasive texts.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

Materials and Technology

• Computers with Internet access  
• PowerPoint  
• LCD projector (optional)  
• Chart paper or chalkboard  
• Sticky notes  
• Persuasive Strategy Presentation
• Persuasion Is All Around You  
• Persuasive Strategy Definitions  
• Check the Strategies  
• Check the Strategy  
• Observations and Notes  
• Persuasive Writing Assessment

Preparation

Student objectives.

Students will

• Work in cooperative groups to brainstorm ideas and organize them into a cohesive argument to be presented to the class  
• Gain knowledge of the different strategies that are used in effective persuasive writing  
• Use a graphic organizer to help them begin organizing their ideas into written form  
• Apply what they have learned to write a persuasive piece that expresses their stance and reasoning in a clear, logical sequence  
• Develop oral presentation skills by presenting their persuasive writing pieces to the class  
• Analyze the work of others to see if it contains effective persuasive techniques

Session 1: The Game of Persuasion

Home/School Connection: Distribute Persuasion Is All Around You . Students are to find an example of a persuasive piece from the newspaper, television, radio, magazine, or billboards around town and be ready to report back to class during Session 2. Provide a selection of magazines or newspapers with advertisements for students who may not have materials at home. For English-language learners (ELLs), it may be helpful to show examples of advertisements and articles in newspapers and magazines.

Session 2: Analysis of an Argument

Home/School Connection: Ask students to revisit their persuasive piece from Persuasion Is All Around You . This time they will use Check the Strategies to look for the persuasive strategies that the creator of the piece incorporated. Check for understanding with your ELLs and any special needs students. It may be helpful for them to talk through their persuasive piece with you or a peer before taking it home for homework. Arrange a time for any student who may not have the opportunity to complete assignments outside of school to work with you, a volunteer, or another adult at school on the assignment.

Session 3: Persuasive Writing

Session 4: presenting the persuasive writing.

• Endangered Species: Persuasive Writing offers a way to integrate science with persuasive writing. Have students pretend that they are reporters and have to convince people to think the way they do. Have them pick issues related to endangered species, use the Persuasion Map as a prewriting exercise, and write essays trying to convince others of their points of view. In addition, the lesson “Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues” can be adapted for your students as part of this exercise.  
• Have students write persuasive arguments for a special class event, such as an educational field trip or an in-class educational movie. Reward the class by arranging for the class event suggested in one of the essays.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Compare your Observations and Notes from Session 4 and Session 1 to see if students understand the persuasive strategies, use any new persuasive strategies, seem to be overusing a strategy, or need more practice refining the use of a strategy. Offer them guidance and practice as needed.  
• Collect both homework assignments and the Check the Strategy sheets and assess how well students understand the different elements of persuasive writing and how they are applied.  
• Collect students’ Persuasion Maps and use them and your discussions during conferences to see how well students understand how to use the persuasive strategies and are able to plan their essays. You want to look also at how well they are able to make changes from the map to their finished essays.  
• Use the Persuasive Writing Assessment to evaluate the essays students wrote during Session 3.
• Calendar Activities
• Strategy Guides
• Lesson Plans
• Student Interactives

The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate.

This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.

• Print this resource

Explore Resources by Grade

• Kindergarten K

• Try for free

5th Grade Reading and Literature Lesson Plans

• Most Popular
• Most Recent

revise and edit lesson plan for a literary essay 5th grade

Resource Types

All resource types.

• Rating Count
• Price (Ascending)
• Price (Descending)
• Most Recent

Revise and edit lesson plan for a literary essay 5th grade

5th Grade Writing Topics and Unit Plans

DIGITAL WRITING PORTFOLIO STAAR PRACTICE REVISING EDITING ARGUMENTATIVE RUBRICS

• Google Apps™
• We're hiring
• Help & FAQ
• Privacy policy
• Student privacy
• Terms of service
• Tell us what you think

EL Education Curriculum

You are here.

• ELA G4:M1:U2:L9

Writing a Literary Essay: Analyzing a Model

In this lesson, daily learning targets, ongoing assessment.

• Technology and Multimedia

Supporting English Language Learners

Universal design for learning, closing & assessments, you are here:.

• ELA Grade 4
• ELA G4:M1:U2

Like what you see?

Order printed materials, teacher guides and more.

How to order

Help us improve!

Tell us how the curriculum is working in your classroom and send us corrections or suggestions for improving it.

Leave feedback

These are the CCS Standards addressed in this lesson:

• RL.4.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
• RI.4.10: By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
• W.4.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
• W.4.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• W.4.5: With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
• I can use the Painted Essay structure to analyze a model. ( W.4.2, W.4.4, W.4.5 )
• Painted Essay(r) template
• Prepare the materials required for the Painted Essay (see Materials).
• Preview the Painting an Essay lesson plan to familiarize yourself with what will be required of students (see supporting materials).
• Post: Learning target and Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart.

Tech and Multimedia

• Work Time A: Rather than using colored pencils on the displayed model literary essay, consider highlighting or using colored text on a word-processing document.

Supports guided in part by CA ELD Standards and 4.I.B.6 and 4.II.A.1

Important points in the lesson itself

• The basic design of this lesson supports ELLs with opportunities to unpack an example of the work they are expected to complete during the remainder of the unit. They are also empowered to use a color-coding system that will help them understand essay structure using visual prompts.
• ELLs may find it challenging to absorb an abundance of information and terminology about essay structure. Remind students that this structure is an expanded version of the paragraph structure they completed in prior lessons. Think aloud each part while analyzing the model essay in order to clarify the purpose of each component of the structure. Reassure students that even if they do not understand everything today, they will have plenty of opportunities to work with the concepts throughout the unit and the year.
• In Work Time A, ELLs are invited to participate in an optional Language Dive. This conversation guides them through expanding the meaning of the focus statement in the model literary essay. It also provides students with further practice using the language structure from the model literary essay focus statement. Students may draw on this sentence when writing their informative essays later in the unit. A consistent Language Dive routine is critical in helping all students learn how to decipher compelling sentences and write their own. In addition, Language Dive conversations hasten overall English language development for ELLs. Preview the Language Dive Guide and consider how to invite conversation among students to address the questions and goals suggested under each sentence strip chunk (see supporting materials). Select from the questions and goals provided to best meet your students' needs. Consider providing students with a Language Dive log inside a folder to track Language Dive sentences and structures and collate Language Dive note-catchers.

Levels of support

For lighter support:

• During the Language Dive, challenge students to generate questions about the sentence before asking the prepared questions. Example: "What questions can we ask about this sentence? Let's see if we can answer them together." (What does it mean to find inspiration?)

For heavier support:

• Create a puzzle of the model literary essay using index cards. Paste each paragraph on a different index card. Use colored index cards according to the established Painted Essay colors. Challenge students to put the paragraph together in the correct order without looking at their papers.
• Multiple Means of Representation (MMR): In Work Time A, students analyze a model essay in preparation to write their own essay. Help students engage with the model essay in multiple ways. Color-code the model on display with the same colors that the students use during the Painted Essay exercise.
• Multiple Means of Action and Expression (MMAE): In the basic structure of this lesson, students get multiple representation cues with the color-coding provided by the Painted EssayO template. However, some students may find covering the entire essay in one lesson overwhelming. Consider chunking the explicit instruction for each part of the essay into multiple lessons to provide time for students to comprehend new information.
• Multiple Means of Engagement (MME): This lesson continues work that students will use to write an informational essay on their expert group's poet. Build engagement for the informational essay by telling students that they get to become experts about a specific poet. Then they will be able to teach others all about the poet and demonstrate their knowledge.

Key:  Lesson-Specific Vocabulary (L); Text-Specific Vocabulary (T); Vocabulary Used in Writing (W)

• The Painted Essay, structure, analyze (L)
• Model literary essay (one per student and one to display)
• Informative Essay Prompt: What Inspires Poets? (from Lesson 6, one per student and one to display)
• Vocabulary logs (from Unit 1, Lesson 3; one per student)
• Annotated model literary essay (for teacher reference)
• Painted Essay(r) template (one per student)
• Paintbrushes (one per student)
• Read, yellow, blue, and green watercolor paint (one set per pair)
• Cups of water (one per pair)
• Painting an Essay lesson plan (for teacher reference)
• Red, yellow, blue, and green colored pencils (one set; for teacher modeling)
• Paper (blank; one per student)
• Informative Writing Checklist (one per student and one to display)
• Language Dive Guide: Model Literary Essay (optional; for ELLs; for teacher reference)
• Language Dive Note-catcher: Model Literary Essay (optional; for ELLs; one per student and one to display)
• Language Dive Sentence strip chunks: Model Literary Essay (one to display)
• Working to Become Ethical People anchor chart (begun in Unit 1, Lesson 2)
• Independent Reading: Sample Plan ( see the Tools page ; for teacher reference)

Materials from Previous Lessons

New materials.

Each unit in the 3-5 Language Arts Curriculum has two standards-based assessments built in, one mid-unit assessment and one end of unit assessment. The module concludes with a performance task at the end of Unit 3 to synthesize their understanding of what they accomplished through supported, standards-based writing.

Copyright © 2013-2024 by EL Education, New York, NY.

Get updates about our new K-5 curriculum as new materials and tools debut.

Help us improve our curriculum..

Tell us what’s going well, share your concerns and feedback.

Terms of use . To learn more about EL Education, visit  eleducation.org