Alberto Giacometti is a renowned sculpture, made popular by his "tall, gaunt" figures. His sculptures have been interpreted in many ways: representing isolation, Holocaust victims, or of one standing against adversity. Giacometti says...

Start by reading the poem "Everyone Sang" by Siegried Sassoon. The archive also houses an audio clip, so consider playing that instead of reading it aloud. After hearing the poem twice, middle and high schoolers will discuss a list of...

Consider and examine the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict during the turn of the century. The topics covered in this presentation are not fully explained but are a perfect accompaniment to a full lecture. Issues to examine include The...

A great resource for informational texts as well as writing topics, the New York Times website provides writing prompts about various news articles through The Learning Network. This particular worksheet provides a very short...

How much do you or your class know about various achievements made by women thorughout history? Here is a set of 10 questions with answers all related to the accomplishments of women in science, politics, civil rights, and law.

Here's an exercise that will help learners develop their vocabulary. The eight sentence completion problems are followed by an answer key that explains why one answer is correct and why the other possibilities are not. Richly detailed,...

Centered on the short story "The Tenth Man" by Polish Holocaust survivor Ida Fink, here is a solid one-day resource to support study of World War II or Nazi history, short stories, or to complement any ELA unit on The Diary of Anne Frank...

Dazai Osamu’s short story, “A Sound of Hammering” is the focus of a three-day investigation of modern Japanese literature and life in post-World War II Japan. The events in Osamu’s story mirror those in his own life, and give a...

Class members create literary mandalas for two characters from Maus, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about his father’s experiences with the Holocaust. After finding quotes that reveal three good traits and three bad traits of each...

Vladek's attitudes are difficult for many young learners to understand. Prepare your class for the events represented in Art Speigelman's graphic novel with a pre-reading activity that has them read articles about and interviews with...

As part of a reading of Elie Wiesel's Night class members engage in a directed reading/thinking activity that includes crafting predictions, verifying these predictions, and interpreting portions of the text.

To generate interest in reading Neal Shusterman's young adult science fiction novel Unwind, class members engage in a Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) that asks them to examine the front and back covers, the blurbs, and "The...

As a teacher, it's likely you're seeing bullying at your school in some capacity. Use three activities as a refresher course for junior high schoolers on what bullying is, the severity of its consequences, and how they can make a...

Now you can create your own monster movie. Learners estimate the size of a scale model monster given comparison statements and analyze these estimates to determine if the scale model accurately portrays a lizard.

Sales tax rates vary; do the math to find the right rate! Pupils use before tax amounts and after tax amounts to determine the tax rate. Rounding makes the task challenging.

Literary theories are lenses through which a text may be analyzed. The question in this lesson plan is how a particular literary lens can influence the reader's view of the text.

Take a moment in your language or social studies class to review key terms and details from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. A quick crossword puzzle allows learners to check understanding before a larger unit, test, or...

The ambiguity in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre makes the novel a perfect choice for a shared inquiry discussion. Readers respond to open-ended questions with evidence drawn directly from the text. 

Contrary to popular belief, the monster's name in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is not Frankenstein. A teacher's guide for the novel helps readers make sense of key details in the text, define vocabulary words, and discuss prominent...

Students explore plot, setting, point of view, and theme. In this literary elements lesson, students read "The Cask of Amontillado," by Poe and the War of the World script by H.G. Wells. Students identify and define the...

Students write their own radio plays. In this writing process lesson, students script their own scary radio plays based on the radio plays they read in class in previous lessons. Students also perform the plays for their classmates.

"Timid, scared, terrified." High school scholars examine words, their denotations and connotations, in a series of exercises that use lines from Shakespeare to explore figurative language and word relationships. Participants then...

What are the three types of irony? High schoolers engage in a instructional activity about the use of irony while reading O.Henry's short story "Gift of the Magi." They'll discuss rising action, climax, and resolution in the text before...