Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi: Mixing Words and Pictures

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Collaborative Works of Rodgers and Hammerstein: Show Business

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students study the work of Rodgers and Hammerstein in an historical context of the development of American musical theatre as an art form. Students explore "roots" of the genre as it evolves in last half of the 19th and first two decades...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

???The Hell of Mirrors??? by Edogawa Rampo

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Learners read and analyze the story "The Hell of Mirrors," by Edogawa Rampo. They watch a video excerpt, answer discussion questions, construct a periscope, complete handouts, define key vocabulary terms, take a quiz, and write a book...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students read and analyze poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye. They define stereotypes, view and discuss a video interview with Nye, present an oral reading of a poem, and write a persuasive letter to an author.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lady Sings the Blues

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students explore women and music in the 20th century. In this music instructional activity, students study the relationship between literature and music through The Color Purple and music by Ethel Waters, MA Rainey, Bessie Smith, Billie...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Portraits Visual and Written: Louisa May Alcott and Samuel Clemens

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students discover the life and work of an American author, either Samuel Clemens or Louisa May Alcott. In this study of visual and written portraits lesson, students take a look at the authors through four different sources: a portrait,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry and Our National Anthem

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students express the meaning of the Star-Spangled Banner. In this American history lesson, students read through the national anthem and complete an activities from a list of choices. Some choices include: writing the anthem in your own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Crane, London, and Literary Naturalism

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed
Students identify the key characteristics that comprise American literary naturalism in Jack London's "To Build a Fire" and Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat." In this naturalism analysis lesson, students identify characteristics of the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating an Anthology

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Student compile a poetry anthology. In this literature lesson, students examine notable poetry anthologies. Students then select a theme to build their anthologies of 10 poems pertaining to their chosen theme.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Electronic Journals about Latin American Folktales

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners exchange folktales with a key-pal using dialog journal writing. They write out a folktale from their own cultural background and exchange it with students of another. They record their impressions of each other's folktales.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush: Native American Life

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students read," The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush" by Tomie dePaola and discuss the way legends are passed down orally. They then create their own legend and illustrate it on a simulated "Buffalo Skin" made from brown paper.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

On Stage Tonight . . .

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders explore the World Wide Web for information concerning the period known as "The Harlem Renaissance." They study the contributions made by African Americans in the areas of literature, art, and music during this period in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Life in Colonial Times

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders examine significant ideas, beliefs and themes in US history. They identify causes and effects of historical events in the American Revolution. Evaluate critical issues and events. Analyze the views and lives of people of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Recognizing Similes: Fast as a Whip

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed
Students review basic knowledge of similes and engage with similes on a more abstract level. In this similes instructional activity, students define similes and identify examples. Students read and analyze the similes used in poetry by...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Heart (and Arm) of Darkness

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners read and translate a 19th-century American ghost tale into a Japanese hanging scroll in this exciting lesson for middle-level Language Art classes. The lesson can be completed in four or five days.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Modernism

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students engage in a study of the literature of modernism in America. They conduct research and read different texts for clarification of the genre style. Students discuss the background influences of culture that shaped modernism.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cinderella Stories From Around the World

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders are read a variety of Cinderella stories from around the world. In groups, they complete a comparison chart for each story and how it compares to the American version. To end the lesson, they participate in a fairy tale...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Difference Does it Make How Old I Am?

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students identify subtle messages advertisers send (often unintentionally) about age in the course of trying to sell products; to analyze the consequences, both positive and negative, those messages have on the American audience; to...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Linking Lines to Landscape

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students evaluate art to enhance their core knowledge of fiction, American folk heroes, and the water cycle. In this art lesson, students complete a unit of activities to use art to study various topics of literature, history, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Hearing the Poetry of Langston Hughes Through the Sounds of Jazz

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Students have an appreciation of Langston Hughe's poetry and his use of jazz rhythms, have the ability to read poetry closely, and freewrite to gain a fresh perspective on music and literature.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Breaking of Charity

For Teachers 11th
The danger of mob mentality is on display in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Get your class thinking with some challenging quickwrite questions, then assign characters from the play to be read aloud altogether. Links to worksheets...
Lesson Plan
Brethren High School

Romanticism Through the Eyes of Art, Poetry, and Technology

For Teachers 12th Standards
Use this simple collaborative activity to introduce the definition, art, and poetry of romanticism. Educators will have to provide the poetry, images of the art, and the survey for the learners, but by using this resource, they won't...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students discuss and define folklore, locate town of Sleepy Hollow, NY, on map, calculate distance from Sleepy Hollow to their school, if applicable, review vocabulary list from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, read story aloud, and write...
Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Emulating Emily Dickinson: Poetry Writing

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
High schoolers analyze mood and voice in Emily Dickinson's poem, "There's a Certain Slant of Light." After the analysis, students write a poem of their own emulating the Dickinson poem, and then write a one-page essay describing what...