In our increasingly visual society, it is often difficult for some readers to create a mental picture of a picture created only with words. An image-rich text like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby can therefore, present a real...

Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate  the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...

Students investigate the evolution of the King Arthur stories and analyze them as a window into the culture that preserved them. They trace the legends through their earliest versions through medieval and Victorian times and into the...

Analyze magazines as a class, looking carefully for the target audience, advertisements, and topics presented. Small groups then work as a publication team and receive a magazine that they have to "sell." Each individual has a different...

From Mr. Merdle to Mr. Madoff? A viewing of the PBS adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” launches an examination of greedy characters in literature and a study of greed, unfairness, and economic hardship today. The richly...

New to using Paradise Lost in your classroom? Here's a packet that provides background information, lists of research projects, and enrichment resources. A great addition to your curriculum file.

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...

Young scholars explore what poetry is and certain aspects within it. They write their own knowledge and perceptions of poetry and the expand that knowledge and experience through listening to, reading, and writing poetry and exploring...

Students complete a variety of poems that focus on many different literary techniques and styles. As part of this experience, students share their portfolios with adults in the school and at home.

Ninth graders write a poem and participate in a poetry slam.

Middle schoolers explore poetry by completing a webquest in which they hear poets reading their own work. Later, they examine the dramatic impact of reading poetry out loud. Finally, they practice reading poetry aloud and performing.

High schoolers examine the spoken work poetry of Abiodun Oyewole. They discuss the West African Griot tradition, listen to spoken word poetry, write and perform a poem, and watch a video excerpt of a poetry workshop.

Students examine examples of poems and identify the prepositions in them. They write original poems using prepositional phrases and create illustrations to go with them.

Eleventh graders describe and analyze the effects of poetry on readers. They participate in an Internet scavenger hunt, an exercise involving interpretation of poetry through visual art, and an opportunity for students to create their...

Students read a poem to learn about homelessness. In this poetry lesson, students make a list of words about their home and then feelings about their home. Students read the poem 'When I Think Home' and then write their own version of...

Students are introduced to the elements in poetry. After listening to music, they discuss how it made them feel and what the lyrics mean to them. Individually, they are given specific elements to write their poem and share it with the...