Kurt Vonnegut Lesson Plans

Students consider how events, accomplishments, and beliefs shaped Kurt Vonnegut's body of work by creating one-pagers. They examine a quotation by Kurt Vonnegut and consider how they might alter it to reflect their own views. Students create one-pagers that represent their own lives.

Students read The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck and then Kurt Vonnegut's short story, Harrison Bergeron. Through various activities, they compare and contrast the differences of theme in the stories.

Young scholars navigate the Internet to research a topic related to the time period from 1930-1949.  In this webpage lesson, students research and write a webpage about a topic related to the 1930's or 1940's.  Young scholars read Slaughterhouse Five at the beginning of this lesson.

Tenth graders prepare a report on the social, cultural, and political elements of the 40's and 60's. They interview their parents and grandparents and conduct additional research. They prepare PowerPoint presentations comparing/contrasting the two eras.

Learners are introduced to the characteristics of the short story. Individually, they use their own personal experiences to write a poem about their families to get them used to writing. Next, they practice reading various short stories outloud and answering comprehension questions. To end the lesson, they write their rough draft of a short story about their families and how it relates to their identity.

Young scholars explore the connections between non-fiction and fiction best-seller lists and current events that are shaping readers' lives and choices.

Ninth graders are introduced to Orwell's Animal Farm. They summarize and reflect on reading and connect the novel to life in a meaningful way. They create a political cartoon, rap song, poem, or role-play to contrast the leadership of Snowball and Napoleon.

Twelfth graders identify satire in various fictional texts.  In this language arts lesson plan, 12th graders will learn to define satire, parody, and caricature. Students will identify different forms of satire in historical and modern-day texts, analyze the meaning of various satires, and complete a worksheet on the use of satire to convey meaning.

Students read a stories and discuss the key moral values indicated in the stories. In groups, students debate character issues. Vocabulary words are reviewed. Students complete Fact, Question and Response worksheets. They write theories on how others can function successfully.

Tenth graders compare and contrast text and video forms of the same short story. Utilizing graphic organizers, discussion questions and cooperative learning, 10th graders address both the content and form of the literary work.