National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat"
In this lesson, students will examine the relationship of man and nature as portrayed in "The Open Boat," based on Crane's suffering from a shipwreck on The Commodore in which he spent thirty hours on a small boat at sea before being...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Personal or Social Tragedy? Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome
This lesson plan will challenge students to weigh the textual evidence for and against the claim that Ethan's woes lay in staying in Starkfield-and not in the details of his personal relationships. In the process, students will close...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Faulkner's as I Lay Dying: Form of a Funeral
William Faulkner's self-proclaimed masterpiece, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, is a fascinating exploration of the many voices found in a Southern family and community. Students will explore the use of multiple voices in...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Browning's "My Last Duchess" and Dramatic Monologue
Reading Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess," students will explore the use of dramatic monologue as a poetic form, where the speaker often reveals far more than intended. The students will later write their own dramatic monologue...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Evaluating Eyewitness Reports
In this lesson, students practice working with primary documents by comparing accounts of the Chicago Fire and testing the credibility of a Civil War diary.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Introducing Metaphors Through Poetry
This lesson is designed to help students begin to engage with metaphors on a deeper and more abstract level. The lesson will begin with a poem containing metaphors accessible at all levels, and with each poem, the lesson will progress in...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Women Aviators in World War Ii: "Fly Girls"
This lesson plan explores the contributions of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II, and their aviation legacy. They will examine portrayals of women in World War II posters (and newsreels) and compare and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement:charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall Paper" Writing Women
A close reading of "The Yellow Wall-paper" employing the analysis of such literary concepts as setting, narrative style, symbol, and characterization. Students will write an essay discussing what the story suggests about middle-class...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Introducing the Essay: Twain, Douglass and American Non Fiction
This lesson plan serves as an introduction to American literary non-fiction writing and focuses primarily on teaching some basic approaches to recognizing rhetorical strategies adopted for persuasive effect in essays and non-fiction. The...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Emily Dickinson & Poetic Imagination: "Leap, Plashless"
This lesson introduces students to Emily Dickinson's poetry which often reveals a child-like fascination with the natural world. Students examine how she writes perceptively of butterflies, birds, and bats and uses lucid metaphors to...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Animal Farm: Allegory and the Art of Persuasion
This lesson plan will introduce learners to the concept of allegory by using George Orwell's widely read novella, Animal Farm. Through this novel, students will learn what an allegory is, the rhetorical components of an allegory, and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: What Makes a Hero?
In this unit, students will discuss what qualities make a hero: kid heroes, adult heroes, local heroes, and historical figure heroes. They will extend this to what qualities make historical figures heroes for them; they will research a...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Esperanza Rising: Learning Not to Be Afraid to Start Over
In this lesson students will explore some of the contrasts that Esperanza experiences when she suddenly is forced to leave the life of a wealthy landowner's daughter surrounded by servants to become a servant herself among an extended...