National Endowment for the Humanities
Animal Farm: Allegory and the Art of Persuasion
Introduce your class members to allegory and propaganda with a series of activities designed to accompany a study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Readers examine the text as an allegory, consider the parallels to collective farms and the...
Curated OER
Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before?
High schoolers discover the true meaning of karma and the related concept of samsara by reading the Jataka Tales. Learners work in groups to become familiar with one form of Buddhist storytelling and examine how Jataka Tales are used as...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 6
How can a screenplay create meaning and drama in ways that other forms of writing cannot? That is the question class members must answer as they compare the cantina scene of the screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope with...
Curated OER
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Christmas Bells
Learners read and analyze the anti-slavery poem, "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They discuss the content and form of the poem, write an essay, write an original poem, examine how this anti-slavery poem was converted...
Curated OER
The English Sonnet: Michael Drayton
Students discover literature by conducting a free writing experiment. In this sonnet activity, students read the sonnet "The Parting" and compare it to modern-day songs about breaking up. Students listen to pop music in class and...
Curated OER
English Vocabulary Skills: AWL Sublist 6 - Exercise 4b
In this online interactive English vocabulary skills worksheet, students answer 10 matching questions which require them to fill in the blanks in 10 sentences. Students may submit their answers to be scored.
Curated OER
Adapting a Musical
Learners transform literature into musical productions. In this integrated arts lesson, students discuss how musicals are written and produced. Learners then select literature they are familiar with to adapt into musical productions.
Curated OER
American Literature - The American Dream: Past, Present, and Future
Students are introduced to the ideas of the American Dream at the turn of the century. They present their ideas on the American Dream at the turn of the century through a person characterized in Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology.
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Early American Novel: Exploring the Emergence of a Genre
Need an extra challenge for your best readers? Check out a unit that uses Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary novel, The Coquette, published in 1797, as the anchor text. The resource is packed with project ideas; each with its own...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Tales of the Supernatural
Scary stuff! Whether approached as the first horror story or a "serious imaginative exploration of the human condition," Frankenstein continues to engage readers. Here's a packet of activities that uses Mary Shelley's gothic novel to...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Sor Juana, la poetisa: Los sonetos
Examine two of Sor Juana's sonnets in depth. Learners first listen to an audio recording or a reading of the sonnets and then analyze the structure and form, paying attention to elements of the Baroque and el gongorismo. Assess student...
Curated OER
Individuality: India Arie Music Video
Students examine individuality. In this music video lesson, students listen to music by India Arie to determine how music shapes our ideas of what normal is as well as how music is a form of poetry. Activities are related to Stargirl.
Curated OER
Using Each Trait to Improve Student Writing
Students examine examples of the qualities of good writing skills and discuss how each of the traits add to the process of good writing. A variety of excerpts from literature provide samples for the exploration.
Curated OER
Social Class, Social Change, and Poverty
Young scholars demonstrate how sociological research and literature can add to our understanding of poverty. They explore poverty and its implications on society and future organizations.
Curated OER
Activity 3: Composing Personal Narratives
What was your most (exciting, maddening, nervous, thrilling, etc.) experience in school? A part of a unit on narrative writing, in this lesson class members review the elements of the form and then choose an event when they learned a...
Curated OER
The Collaborative Works of Rodgers and Hammerstein: Show Business
Students study the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein in an historical context of the development of American musical theatre as an art form. Students explore "roots" of the genre as it evolves in last half of the 19th and first two decades...
Curated OER
Giving and Taking Directions
Students write set of written directions from their craft area in either chart or paragraph form, and give the directions orally to a third party who will listen to the directions and complete the task.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Hamlet and the Elizabethan Revenge Ethic in Text and Film
Young scholars research the social context of Elizabethan England for Shakespeare's "Hamlet". They identify cultural influences on the play focusing on the theme of revenge and then analyze and compare film interpretations of the play.
Curated OER
The Search for Identity: "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
Students read the novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God". While reading the novel, they identify and discuss the figurative language used and use a passage of interest to them and analyze it in a written paper. They also discuss events...
Curated OER
"i Have a Dream" As a Work of Literature
Students read and analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. They answer discussion questions, and write and compose a speech that addresses an injustice in society.
Curated OER
Problem/solution
Students examine presentations of problems and reaching solutions in literature. In this writing skills lesson, students read "The Three Little Pigs," and respond to several discussion questions about plot, characters, setting, conflict,...
Curated OER
Comparing and Contrasting Fiction and Nonfiction Using Graphic Organizers
Students compare and contrast fiction and non-fiction selections. In this writing skills activity, students use different forms of graphic organizers to compare "The Three Little Pigs," to Wiesel's Night.
Curated OER
Beowulf: Songs of Ancient Heroes
Introduce your class to epic heroes with these activities for Beowulf. After watching a video clip, taking notes on heroes, and tracking characteristics of heroism throughout Beowulf, class members retell an episode of Beowulf using a...
Curated OER
Modernism in Poetry, Painting, and Music
Are you teaching Modernism to your class? Connect different areas of artistic expression in the Modernist Era. Learners read T.S. Eliot, view art by Pablo Picasso, and listen to a Modernist musical composition. This final assignment is...