Unit Plan
Santa Ana Unified School District

Early American Poets

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
The poems of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are the focus of a unit that asks readers to consider how an artist's life and changes in society influences his or her work. After careful study of Whitman's and Dickinson's perspectives on...
Handout
California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Inc

Poetic Devices

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Have everything you need to know about the elements of poetry with a nine-page handout. Split into four categories—word sounds, meanings, arrangement, and imagery—budding poets may reference terms, read definitions, descriptions, and...
Lesson Plan
Robert Frost Farm

“Choose Something Like a Star” Discussion—Applying Style to Content

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Robert Frost's "Choose Something Like a Star" and John Keats' "Bright Star" provide the text for a two-part instructional activity in which class members analyze the effects of style on meaning in poetry. Randall Thompson's song cycle...
Unit Plan
Simon & Schuster

Classroom Activities for The Odyssey by Homer

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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...
Unit Plan
Simon & Schuster

Classroom Activities for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

For Teachers 5th - 8th
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,...
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: “Making History” by Marilyn Nelson

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "A Place in the Country" by Toi Derricotte

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
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....
Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Narrative Voice in Moby Dick

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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.
Unit Plan
Trinity University

Framing Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
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...
Study Guide
Penguin Books

The Discussion Guide to the Inaugural Poem: The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed Standards
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...
Study Guide
Penguin Books

An Educator Guide to Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed Standards
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. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Slices of American Pie: The 1960s Through Music

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders examine political, cultural, and social movements through music. In this 1960s American history lesson, 11th graders explore the music of the decade in order to better understand the complexity of the time period....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Witch of Goingsnake

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Pupils interpret proverbs as part of an analysis of the book The Witch of Goingsnake. For this literary analysis lesson, students interpret a proverb and complete a KWL chart for the proverb. Pupils then research the proverb and write an...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Persuasion and Use of Language

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students discuss connotative language, hyperbole, allusion, and rhetorical question. In small groups, they read one section of the "Speech to the Virginia Convention" and analyze these devices. Groups present their results to the class.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Where I Am From

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Students study selected poetry to gain an understanding of influences on values and personal identity. They explore language terms such as personification, imagery metaphors and allusion. After reading a poem and discussing it,...
Activity
Novelinks

The Color of Water: Concept Analysis

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Considering using James McBride's autobiography/memoir The Color of Water with your class? Check out this seven-page informational packet that includes background information on McBride, the organization pattern of the book, and...
Lesson Plan
Penguin Books

An Educator's Guide to The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Jack the Ripper terrorized London in the late 1800s. An educator's guide for the novel The Name of the Star places the historical figure in a modern context. Readers complete a pre-reading activity before answering a series of discussion...
Interactive
Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Archetypes, Motifs, and Plot in Drama (English II Reading)

For Students 10th Standards
The second interactive in a series of 10 introduces young scholars to character archetypes, archetypal plot patterns, and archetypal motifs, including the use of color. Learners read passages explaining the term and study examples from...
Lesson Plan
Prestwick House

Poe’s “The Raven” – Unity of Effect

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
How do Poe's choices of imagery, rhythm and rhyme scheme, and structure help build the desired single effect of "The Raven"? After listening to a dramatic reading of the poem, class members consider whether Poe's choices do...
Lesson Plan
ELA Common Core Lesson Plans

American Romanticism

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" provides the text for an activity that asks readers to select specific passages from the story, identify the aspect of American Romanticism the passage exemplifies, and then provide an...
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: "Heart to Heart" by Rita Dove

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Take heart! Here's a lesson that will encourage learners to notice details. After listening to Sarah Vaughan singing "My Funny Valentine" and noting how the word heart relates to Valentine's Day, scholars observe a human heart image....
Lesson Plan
Academy of American Poets

Teach This Poem: “In This Place (An American Lyric)” by Amanda Gorman

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Amanda Gorman, the United States's first National Youth Poet Laureate, is featured in a resource from the Academy of American Poets. Class members first read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech and note what King wanted...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Gift of the Magi LP3

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students read the story of "The Gift of the Magi" and identify the theme and elements in the story. They discuss allusions, situational irony, simile, metaphor, allusion, irony and plot structure. Students share about sacrifices they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Literary Elements and Grammar Review

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders review literary elements such as simile, metaphor, allusion, plot sequence, allusion, situational irony, and theme. As the class begins, 8th graders discuss childhood memories. Students write a story about their...

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