Curated OER
Conflict
Though the lesson plan format is simplistic, it's got some good ideas for addressing internal and external conflict in your literary analysis unit. Using "Little Red Riding Hood" and other fairy tales, young readers identify the...
Curated OER
The Metamorphosis: Concept/Vocabulary Analysis
Historically, Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis has been difficult for many readers to grasp. From the difficult translation issues to the complex plot and themes, the novel's message and story can be lost when learners...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Themes in Lord of the Flies
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is the anchor text for a lesson that teaches readers how to distinguish between a literary topic and a literary theme. Using the provided worksheets, groups first chart some themes and propose a...
K20 LEARN
Exploring Conflict And Theme: Engaging With "The Necklace"
Teach young scholars how to determine the theme of a story, an insight the author wants to share with readers, with a activity that uses Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" as an anchor text. Learners examine the internal and external...
Curated OER
A Separate Peace - T Analysis
Reading A Separate Peace? Readers analyze important quotes that appear in John Knowle's classic novel using the provided graphic organizer. Learners record a passage and provide an accompanying analysis for each entry. Consider...
K20 LEARN
"The Lady, Or The Tiger?" Which Do You Choose?: Internal and External Conflict
"How come there's no ending?" After a close reading of Frank R. Stockton's tale "The Lady, or the Tiger?" in which scholars examine each of the main characters' conflicts and motivations, writers craft their own ending using textual...
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 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...
Curated OER
Understanding Protagonists and Antagonists
How can you tell if a character is a villain? What about a hero? Work on literary analysis with an engaging language arts instructional activity. After completing an activity about the four types of conflict, learners fill out a...
Curated OER
Daughters Come of Age in Women's Fiction
Introduce your young readers to fiction written by women authors. For each story, they explore the way these daughters discover and claim their own identities. Individually, class members use the literature to examine their role in their...
Curated OER
The Martian Chronicles: Anticipation Guide
Begin your unit on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with an anticipation guide about literary themes. Class members read six statements about time, rules, and mortality, and note they believe each statement is...
Curated OER
Shakespearean Comedy on Film
This lesson will focus on the aspects of Shakespeare's comedy that become more evident in performance. By viewing clips of the same Shakespeare scene in different film versions, high schoolers have the opportunity to engage in a close...
Curated OER
Details, Details: How Choices Reveal Character, Setting, Tone, and Theme. (Analyzing and Interpreting, Making Inferences)
Students respond to works of art. In this art interpretation instructional activity, students examine images of art while using concepts they learned as they read literary pieces. They detail the setting, characters, and the mood and...
Curated OER
Creating Plays from Children's Stories
Students explain how individual elements (e.g., plot, theme, character, conflict, etc.) comprise the structure of a play. They write an original one-act play with developed characters, specific setting, conflict, and resolution.
K20 LEARN
I Need A (Super)Hero: Literary Elements And Narrative Writing
Need a hero? Super! Groups create their modern-day marvel and craft a narrative with all the elements required in such a tale.
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...
Curated OER
How Do Values Shape Conflicts?
High schoolers work through conflict. In this conflict resolution lesson, students participate in a simulation that requires them to consider both sides of the whaling issue.
Curated OER
My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun – Theme of Gender
In this poetry analysis activity, students read a reflection on the conflict between male and female identities in Dickinson's "My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –." Students then respond to questions about male and female dominance...
Curated OER
Current Events Rubric
Here is a rubric that can be used for your next current event assignment. It details what should be included in each paragraph of the event description and analysis, as well as other requirements for work habits and presentation.
Adult Fiction by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Ghost Boys: Educator Guide
The spirit of the Civil Rights Movement lives on in a more literal than figurative way in Ghost Boys. A focused lesson plan features Jewell Parker Rhodes' novel about ghosts of slain black teenagers, including the main character, Jerome,...
Curated OER
Nibble, Nibble, Little Mouse
Students complete activities to analyze points of view in different texts. In this point of view lesson, students read Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Circle and discuss the points of view. Students choose a character from the story and...
Curated OER
The Tell-Tale Heart
Bring Edgar Allan Poe's spooky story to life! After reading the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," middle and high schoolers identify the theme, character traits, irony, and other story concepts. During pre-reading, they take notes,...
Curated OER
Conflict and Debate
Students take a medical issue and explore it, debate it, and convince others of their point of view. They improve research skills and writing skills. Students are able to define a problem, debate it, and identify which is the best...
Learning to Give
Teaching Playwriting in Schools
The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.
Film Education
Nineteen Eighty-Four: Orwell
Warning or prediction? Nineteen Eighty Four is the anchor text for a series of tasks that ask readers to compare the novel to the film as well as current events to those pictured in George Orwell's dystopian classic.