Curated OER
Rock & Roll through Literary Terms: An Upbeat Lyrical Adventure
Students participate in a variety of activities surrounding Rock & Roll music, lyrics, drama and visual art and how they all help demonstrate examples of literary terms. They use Rock & Roll as an effective aid to stimulate their...
Curated OER
Theater: Create a Script
Figurative language is the focus in the book Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. After reading Peggy Parish's book, class members dramatize idioms from the text, using dramatic strategies such as characterization, exaggeration, and improvisation....
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 9: Climax
Conduct a close reading of chapter 9 of The Cay. Read the chapter again and ask pupils to respond to a list of included text-dependent questions. Finish the class with the provided writing assignment, which asks learners to use textual...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Imaginary Creatures
Drama and movement are wonderful ways to cover story elements such as setting, character, and descriptive writing. Little ones listen to a poem about imaginary creatures. As they listen, they shape their bodies into what they think the...
Curated OER
Southern Puritanism and Tennessee Williams
Pupils write an essay comparing Arthur Mille's The Crucible and one of Tennessee Williams' plays. In this Tennessee Williams lesson, students discuss the influence of Puritanism on modern American drama. Lesson includes a vocabulary...
Curated OER
Chocolate Chaos
Second graders demonstrate the ability to examine the elements of a story (theme, plot, setting, mood) and characters, by discussing and writing about each. They have fun with chocolate related activities and enjoy reading about some...
Oxford Cambridge
Set and Prop Design
What's the difference between set dressing and a prop? Between a costume accessory and a personal prop? As part of their study of set and prop design, class members engage in a series of activities that prepare them to design a prop for...
New York City Department of Education
What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue: How Did Jazz Influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Class members read some of Ellison's non-fiction writings about blues and jazz, listen to records, watch videos, and engage in student-centered discussions. They then produce podcasts...
Curated OER
Noh Theater
Students take a closer look at Japanese drama. In this Japanese culture instructional activity, students study the attributes of Noh theater and compare it western theater. Students conduct independent research on the art form prior to...
Curated OER
Arthur Miller and The Crucible
High schoolers investigate the dramatic elements of The Crucible. In this drama lesson, students explore the elements and themes of the Arthur Miller play as they read the play and watch performances of some of the acts. High schoolers...
Curated OER
Exploring A Streetcar Named Desire
Students investigate the dramatic elements of a Streetcar Named Desire. In this drama lesson, students explore the theme of the Tennessee Williams play as they read the play and watch performances of some of the acts. Students then write...
Curated OER
Hoe Down: An Integrated Unit on Social, Folk & Square Dancing
Fifth graders experience the movements required to perform social, folk and square dancing. They describe each dance movement. Students discuss the elements found in folk art, folk music, and fold dance.
Curated OER
Macbeth: Denouement/Falling Action
Readers of Shakespeare explore denouement in Macbeth and track the play's falling action in Act IV, Scene 1. They complete a worksheet/table noting the content and significance of each of the three apparitions granted Macbeth by the...
Curated OER
Imagining the Environment: Introduction
Students examine the importance of the environment including the setting, lights, sound, costumes, and props for a play or story. They visualize the appropriate environments and practice applying the techniques.
Curated OER
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Students, in groups, read and analyze the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor. They present their findings tot he rest of the class and then connect the various themes discussed to outside material, events...
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Should Hamlet avenge his father's death? Is the ghost telling the truth or is it trying to trick Hamlet? Is Hamlet's inconsistent behavior a ploy or is he really insane? Something really is rotten in Denmark, and with the help of the...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - Muggle-Wump Has an Idea
If a bar of chocolate was on the floor, would you try to pick it up? What if it was covered with glue? The eighth lesson in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl has scholars imagine crazy scenarios. The lesson...
Curated OER
Exploring American Tall Tales
Students explore elements of American folktales and tall tales. In this literature lesson, students read examples of American folktales and tall tales and prepare a monologue or news report to present to the class based on their readings.
Curated OER
Observing To Make Meaning
Students infer meaning while viewing a scene of Pinocchio without sound. They write a plot summary of the excerpt of Pinocchio, watch the same scene with sound, and compare their assumptions with the actual performance.
Curated OER
Legends of the Fifth
Students explore the the legends and myths of the Orient, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas in this six lessons unit. Different cultures and belief systems of the inhabitants of these areas are examined through storytelling techniques.
Curated OER
Art Nouveau
Students study the design elements of Art Nouveau, its sources and development. They create art projects in ceramics and glass that exemplify the focus of Art Nouveau as a decorative style.
Curated OER
"O Captain! My Captain!"
Who was Walt Whitman, and what link does he have to president Abraham Lincoln? After Lincoln's assassination, Whitman wrote "O Captain! My Captain!" This poem and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" are the focus of exercises...
ReadWriteThink
Beyond the Story: A Dickens of a Party
It's time to party like it's 1899! Incorporate a research-based celebration of the Victorian Era into your unit on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. After learners read the novella or view a production of the play, they craft a...
Curated OER
Mexico
Pupils complete a unit about the geography and culture of Mexico. They compare and contrast the weather of their own city and Mexico, read books about Mexico, count in Spanish, color in a flag of Mexico and the Mexican Coat of Arms,...