Utah Education Network (UEN)
Hamlet Soliloquy Artwork
Though this assignment may be thought madness, there is an actual method. Scholars perform a close reading of the original text of the soliloquies in Hamlet and modern translations to ensure they understand the speeches. They then select...
C3 Teachers
Black Women Writers: What Gets Black Women Heard?
Zora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou are featured in a guided inquiry unit. High schoolers research the lives and works of these and other Black women writers and craft an argument, using evidence from their research, to...
K20 LEARN
OPTIC - A Reading Strategy Recipe: Visual Literacy
A visual literary lesson provides learners with OPTIC (Observations, Predictions, Themes, Inferences, Conclusions), a reading strategy to help them understand and interpret visual and written texts. Scholars practice the strategy with a...
K20 LEARN
Wherefore Art Thou So Difficult, Shakespeare? Understanding Shakespeare
'Tis not easy to understand the language of the Bard! But, hark! Fret not! With the assistance of this joyous activity, young players learn how to translate Shakespeare's English into modern language. Groups examine passages from Julius...
Film Foundation
To Kill a Mockingbird: Historical and Cultural Context
As part of their study of the film adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, class members analyze how Robert Mulligan uses the film lens to depict the historical period and social issues presented in Harper Lee's novel. A superior resource...
Trinity University
The Shakespearean Sonnet
Looking for a great lesson to teach your class everything they need to know about Shakespearean sonnets? Here's such a lesson. "Sonnet #18" launches a study of the Shakespearean sonnet. Scholars watch two Prezi presentations that provide...
ReadWriteThink
Sonic Patterns: Exploring Poetic Techniques Through Close Reading
Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" serves as the anchor text in a five-part lesson that takes the mystery out of poetry analysis by modeling explicit strategies for pupils to employ to conduct a close reading of a poem. After...
Academy of American Poets
Noticing Poetry
Introduce scholars to the "I Notice" method, a different approach to studying poetry. Instructors first model the noticing method by identifying words and images that appeal on the sonic level, the ideational level, the sensory level,...
Royal Shakespeare Company
King Lear Teacher Pack 2013
The King Lear Teacher Pack 2013 is designed to prepare pupils for watching the Royal Shakespeare Company's film version of King Lear. The eight activities in the pack help learners unpack the themes, events, and language of Shakespeare's...
PBS
Frankenstein: The Consequence of Creation
Famous as a horror story, as the first science fiction novel, Frankenstein is also a tale of ambition, a warning about unbridled science, and responsibility for actions. Readers consider what the tale says of the consequences of creation...
PBS
Character vs. Society in The Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is difficult to read and difficult to teach. The novel is so highly regarded that it is one of most often listed as an option for the AP Literature and Composition exam. The materials in this packet from PBS...
Echoes & Reflections
The "Final Solution"
Nazi policies shifted from deportation and imprisonment to extermination of the Jewish people in death camps in the "Final Solution." Learners examine photos of artifacts, read poetry written by survivors, analyze testimony from...
Echoes & Reflections
Survivors and Liberators
The end was just the beginning. The period immediately after the end of World War II and the Holocaust is often called "The Return to Life" as survivors looked to reunite and recreate broken families and shattered lives. A two-lesson...
Echoes & Reflections
The Ghettos
Young historians examine primary sources, including diaries, poems, and photographs, to consider the conditions in the ghettos and how they fit into the escalation of the Third Reich's plot against the Jewish people.
Literacy Design Collaborative
American Dream: Reality, Promise or Illusion?
Dream or nightmare? Class members craft a synthesis essay with textual to determine to what extent the United States has fulfilled the ideas embodied in the America Dream.
Robert Frost Farm
Socratic Seminar Format Overview
Whether new to the Socratic seminar format or an experienced veteran of the popular discussion technique, you'll find much to like in a five-page, richly detailed packet that not only details the prep necessary, the process, and the...
Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The Fellowship of the Ring
Here's a must-have resource for educators who use J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and/or The Lord of the Rings. Packed with materials for both tales, the packet includes both a reader's guide and an educator's guide, lesson plans, vocabulary...
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers
In the Skin of a Monster
Kathryn Barker's In the Skin of A Monster explores how a school massacre impacts a community. Unfortunately, the events depicted are all too familiar to many. This teacher's guide for Barker's novel offers activities that enable readers...
ReadWriteThink
A High-Interest Novel Helps Struggling Readers Confront Bullying in Schools
Paul Langan's novel The Bully is the core text in a six-session unit plan that engages high schoolers in an in-depth examination of bullying and its effects on bullies, victims, and bystanders. The richly textured and carefully...
Louisiana Department of Education
The Metamorphosis
How can something be true even if it didn't happen? Invite your classes to investigate the truths found in the world of magical realism as they analyze short stories, poems, informational texts, video, and art from this genre.
Poetry Foundation
Dream in Color - High School
Whether focusing on African American poets, Black History Month, or the poetic experience, an amazing toolkit that encourages learners to develop unique poetic voices deserves a place in your curriculum.
Santa Ana Unified School District
Lord of the Flies Unit
How does a society influence and shape individuals? Class members ponder this essential question as they read Lord of the Flies, as well as primary source materials about the historical background of the novel. As a final assessment,...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
I Need a Superhero
Once the class learns about the hero's journey, they'll find it in every story and movie they see! Take characters from their humble beginnings to their atonement and apotheosis with a set of lessons about the hero's journey focusing...