Stephen Crane Lesson Plans

Students explore the genre of American literary naturalism by reading,"The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane. They examine the relationship of man and nature through analysis of the characters, narration and descriptive vocabulary.

Students critically examine the relationship of man and nature in Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat." students examine the third person point of view and conduct in-depth character analysis.

Learners analyze the work of Stephen Crane as a instructional activity on surrealism and an antihero. In this surrealism instructional activity, students complete discuss activities for the topic. Learners then analyze Crane's poetry, his use of surrealism, and the antihero's in his work by completing the worksheets.

Young scholars analyze Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat." For this short story analysis lesson, students examine the relationship of man and nature portrayed in the text. Young scholars complete in-depth character analysis activities and explore the emotion evoked by Crane using the given link activities. Students write an essay explaining how third-person omniscient enabled Crane to tell the tragedy.

Tenth graders analyze the idea of war from the perspectives of classmates, the poet Stephen Crane, and various literary characters from All Quiet on the Western Front. They write an editorial for the school newspaper about war.

Students complete activities for Civil War heroes. In this Civil War lesson, students write a definition of a hero and read excerpts from The Red Badge of Courage. Students discuss Henry's fantasy and complete Civil War Internet research. Students create a poster celebrating the hero they research.

Students examine the subtle shift from romanticism to realism in American literature in the post-Civil War period. After an introduction to the period, they work in groups to research various authors, such as Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Mark Twain. Included in their presentations are timelines and book covers for their author biographies.

Sudents compare specific excerpts from The Red Badge of Courage to first-hand accounts of Civil War battles, in text and images and list elements of Crane's style in The Red Badge of Courage that contribute to its realism.

Working in groups, young historians review a war poem written by Stephen Crane. After reviewing the poem, they present an oral interpretation of the poem and hold a panel discussion about their analysis. The panel is made up of five or six experts who present on literature, the author, and a moderator.

Eighth graders read and respond to the novel "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt. The cooperative novel study is done in conjunction with a study of the Civil War. They use reader's journals and e-mail to create a presentation for the class.