Tara McCarthy

Tara McCarthy is an educator and author of classroom resources focused on teaching reading and writing skills, particularly literary elements for upper elementary and middle school students. She has written Spotlight On… Literary Elements, an anthology published by Scholastic that uses engaging stories, poems, and plays alongside mini-lessons, graphic organizers, reproducible student pages, and activity ideas to help teachers introduce and reinforce elements such as character, figurative language, foreshadowing, flashback, plot, point of view, setting, theme, tone, and mood.

In addition to Spotlight On… Literary Elements, McCarthy has authored more than ten books for Scholastic Teaching Resources, including titles such as Teaching Literary Elements with Short Stories and other strategy-focused guides for grades 4–8 that provide ready-to-use texts, lesson plans, and activities to help students understand literary techniques and apply them effectively in their own writing.