Students use an essay by de la Peña as a model for writing their own literacy autobiography.

Author E.B. White, most well-known for his famous children's book, Charlotte's Web, received high acclaim and awards for many of his works of fiction.

After reading O'Brien's story "A True War Story" from The Things They Carried, students choose a powerful event from their own lives and map it using the Timeline Tool. They then create a fictional version of this event.

Students examine the poem "Dreams" and identify metaphors in each sentence. Groups of students then compose poems with metaphors for dreams.

As Poe's "The Raven" is read aloud, students note their reactions and discuss the changes or development of their first impressions as the poem continues.

Students work with a partner or individually to create cartoons of their favorite scenes from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

Students watch an excerpt of an interview with Tan and apply some of her principles to writing a story of their own.

After reading Nothing But the Truth, students explore a current event topic and write their own short work of fiction in a similar multigenre format.

Students use the Multigenre Mapper interactive to explore Macaulay's use of multiple genres by composing original multigenre texts.

After students read the novel The Color Purple, dialect is discussed and students write a short piece of fiction or poetry using the dialect of their peer group.

Students discuss how the form of a film script affects the story, why the author may have selected this writing style, and write a story using a similar format.

Students explore varying points of view, one of Van Allsburg's common themes, by rewriting a traditional story.

Students have fun with language by creating a special kind of pun with its origin in a literary source.