National Endowment for the Humanities
“House by the Railroad”: A Painting and a Poem for the Common Core
Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading of the two...
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Edward Hopper's House by the Railroad: From Painting to Poem
Pupils analyze Edward Hopper's painting and Hirsch's poem to explore the types of emotion generated by each work. In this literary and art analysis lesson, students discuss how Hopper establishes tone and analyze Hirsch's use of diction...
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Literature and the Language Arts
Reading involves more than simply picking up a text and saying the words aloud. A practice guide introduces readers to key skills such as making inferences, finding the main idea or theme, and using context clues. Each skill contains a...
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Dream Streets
Sixth graders conduct research on the internet to discover the principles of drawing using one and two point perspectives. After examining street scenes by Edward Hopper and postcards of Main Street USA in Disney, they write about and...
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Write a Short Story
Students compare two paintings, depicting urban life in America in the 1940's, answering a series of questions, then create a short story about the paintings' characters. They compare 'Nighthawks' and 'Nightlife.'
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Thinking Syntactically: Using non-print text to faciliate generation of syntax and analysis of tone
Students write with a command of the stylistic aspects of composition. They respond to non-print text. Students demonstrate working knowledge of syntactical choices. They construct sentences using descriptive language. Students analyze...
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Langston Hughes: Voice Among Voices
Pupils study Langston Hughes's poetry, short stories, and his first autobiography. They read and appreciate the candid, honest and powerful creative masterpieces of this black genius and discuss the numerous universal themes and their...
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Home of the Brave
Students use various types of people and the special places they each call home. They discover houses, like the world, are always changing. Students start out by brainstorming what was the one thing that made a house a home. They were...