Instructors expect great things from a good teacher's guide, and this one delivers. The 48-page guide to Charles Dickens's Great Expectations provides information about plot developments and new characters and places introduced in each...

Many critics consider William Golding's Lord of the Flies as one of the best English language novels of the 20th century! It is also one of the 100 most challenged books taught in schools! Instructors willing to accept the challenge of...

Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" serves as the anchor text in a five-part activity 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...

Language arts learners don't need a lecture about poetry; they listen to poetry every day on the radio! Apply skills from literary analysis to famous songs and beautiful lyrics with a lesson about literary devices. As class...

If your language arts learners have a hard time determining the universal theme of a written work, use a straightforward worksheet to help them find it. After reviewing a list of common themes, kids note the title, character, plot, point...

Scholars demonstrate the ability to evaluate authors' use of literary elements such as metaphor, simile, personification, imagery, and onomatopoeia. They are provided with a checklist and must shop for poems that contain the poetry terms...

Call Us By What We Carry, a poetry collection by Nation Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, is the focus of a 10-page teacher's guide. 

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb," featured at the 2021 inauguration of President Joseph Biden, is the focus of a six-page guide. The guide includes before reading, during reading, and after reading...

The big idea in this poetry unit plan is that structure and content work together to create meaning. Class members learn how to identify and mark the metrical patterns and line lengths used in poems. They study the structure of various...

Call him a reliable narrator! Ishmael is the focus of a instructional activity that asks readers to analyze the complex character of Herman Melville's narrator as he is introduced in the first chapter of Moby Dick.

What makes an event newsworthy, worth a reference in a news magazine or textbook? Who decides? These are questions Marilyn Nelson asks readers of her poem "Making History" to consider. To begin, class members list details they notice in...

Build young scholars' confidence in analyzing art and poetry with a lesson that first asks pupils to list details they notice in Edouard Vuillard's painting "Garden at Vaucresson" and then to describe how the painting makes them feel....

A 16-page packet includes three activities for a unit study of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Before beginning the novel, class members identify the factors in their lives that helped create their frame of reference,...

Keeping readers focused during literature discussion circles can sometimes be a challenge. Check out this worksheet that ensures accountability by establishing six very specific, very different roles for group members: facilitator,...

What do The Simpsons, Survivor, Sponge Bob Square Pants, and Nine Inch Nails all have in common? They all include allusions to Lord of the Flies. Strange but true! An 18-slide presentation introduces viewers to the many layers of William...

Packed with activities, projects, and assessments, first-time instructors and seasoned veterans will find much to like in this overview of a nine-part unit based on William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies.

Crafting a sound analysis and interpretation of a poem requires paying attention to specific elements and devices used by the poet. A Poetry Explication Sheet asks readers to make notes on particular aspects of a poem and find examples...

Provide high school scholars preparing for the AP Literature exam with a list of terms they need to know about poetry. The list, which includes definitions and examples of types of poems, concepts, and vocabulary, is a handy reference.

A 15-page packet details three activities designed to engage scholars in Homer's The Odyssey. As they read, pupils use a graphic organizer to record examples of several literary terms found in The Odyssey and contemporary culture. Groups...

Two poems by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman are spotlighted in a PBS lesson plan. Young scholars conduct a close reading and watch videos of Gorman reading her inaugural poem "The Hill We Climb" and "The Miracle of Morning."...