How are short stories from South Africa connected to issues of civil rights in the United States? A unit plan uses South African short stories to discuss issues such as apartheid, colonization, and civil rights. Questions and activities...

Students determine how animals and people adapt to the desert environment. In this desert lesson plan, students review vocabulary about the desert and how humans have to make changes to accommodate their environments. They listen to and...

Twelfth graders explore figurative language as it appears in Washington Irving's original text, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, answer questions based on story, and write sequels to it by using the different types of figurative language...

This site presents the full text of the "Simonds History of American Literature." This detailed reference book explores the literature in early colonial times, the eighteenth century, the beginning of the nineteenth century, the New...

This online book presents an overview of American literature chronologically. Eras and movements are explained and biographies of significant authors are provided. This is a good way to understand the background and influences of...

This website provides an outline of American literature beginning in 1776.

This lesson is an introduction to a unit on Colonial Literature including Native American oral literature and New England Puritan narratives, journals, and sermons. It features an interactive list of terms for the period, a link to the...

Timeline of the social, political, and literary history of Colonial America and the United States, from 1750 to 1799. Contains information about writers of the period, along with portraits and links to related websites.

Describes the beginnings of American poetry, beginning with a publication in 1610. Click through the 18 sections to get the full picture. Extracted from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.

A survey of the Quaker writers from the Colonial period extracted from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.

Background information about the literary traditions of the pre-Colonial and Colonial period. Includes information about Native American oral traditions and Native American cultures. Follow the links to the Early American era and to...

The hard-fought American Revolution against Britain (1775-1783) was the first modern war of liberation against a colonial power. The triumph of American independence seemed to many at the time a divine sign that America and her people...

This lesson focuses on the assignments for the unit on Colonial Literature. It features a list of reading assignments, thought questions, a mini-research project assignment, and links to websites on Native American Culture and Native...

This unit explores the documented perceptions of Native Americans, religious faiths, physical challenges of new lands and how the combination of immigrants and Native Americans shaped the New World. Click on "Activities" for related...

The role of the free press in Colonial American literary and political history. Includes links to Alexander Hamilton and charters involving free press.

Timeline of the social, political, and literary history of America from pre-1650 through 1929. Contains information on writers of the periods, along with links to related websites. Click on the time period to see the information for that...

This Bibliomania site surveys the literary history of the English in colonial Virginia. Includes analysis of the work of Captain John Smith, William Strachey, and George Sandys. Links to other notes about early American literature.

Business woman and author, Sarah Kemble Knight, was a humorist writer who documented her travels and the times of seventeenth century New England. Click on "Sarah Kemble Knight" for related resources.

Background information about the social, literary, and intellectual history of the Colonial period. Includes biographical links to Benjamin Franklin and Cotton Mather.

This lesson focuses on Native American myths including the creation myth "The Earth on Turtle's Back." It includes links to the above myth, a self-assessment quiz, and an assignment for a mini-report over a Native American tribe.

This lesson focuses on William Bradford and his Of Plymouth Plantation, a history of the Plymouth Colony. It features a short biography of William Bradford including his trip to America on the Mayflower and being elected long-term...

This on-line encyclopedia article gives information about Phillis Wheatley, the Boston slave who surprised colonial America with her poetry. She was the first African-American woman to have her work published.

A short essay about William Byrd from the colonial period of American history who detailed life in the Southern colonies.

Although the colonial period produced several women writers of note, the revolutionary era did not further the work of women and minorities, despite the many schools, magazines, newspapers, and literary clubs that were springing up....