Curated OER
The Breaking of Charity
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...
Wake County Public Schools
Language
Have your class doing everything from reading literature, analyzing literary devices, identifying independent and dependent clauses, discussing, and writing creatively with the rich resource found here. After a mini lesson on independent...
Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense
Introduce your class to the delights of nonsense poetry and explore literary devices with the writing of Edward Lear. Learners identify rhyme and meter as well as figures of speech, alliteration, and onomatopoeia in "The Owl and the...
EngageNY
Point of View: Comparing Esperanza's and Isabel's Perspectives About Life in the Camp (Chapter 7: "Las Cebollas/Onions")
Explore point of view and more with a Common Core-designed instructional activity. Learners experience different points of view by representing one of two characters from Esperanza Rising during a partner discussion. They must use...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Play
Raise the curtain to a class play that depicts the Civil War through both factual information and literary devices. The performance showcases the Battle of Antietam (Battle of Sharpsburg) and brings attention to women's roles,...
Indiana University
Asian Literature: “The View in Spring” by Du Fu
Over the course of the lesson, your pupils read and analyze a translated eight-line poem from the Tang Dynasty written by Du Fu, a poet caught behind enemy lines during the An Lu-Shan rebellion (755-763). Literary/historical context is...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Boxing and Analysis
Model for your high schoolers how to prepare for the essay portion of the AP Literature exam. For guided practice, pairs analyze metaphor, simile, tone or syntax in Norman Mailer’s “The Death of Benny Paret,” and then work independently...
National Park Service
The Poet's Toolbox
If you need a lesson for your poetry unit, use two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("Rain in Summer" and "The Slave in the Dismal Swamp") and a resource on Elements of Poetry. The lesson plan guides you through activities...
Curated OER
Mixing Metaphors with Politics
Students discuss different literary devices and use them to write summaries of New York Times articles dealing with international news. They reflect on the effectiveness and appropriateness of sports metaphors in the political arena.
Curated OER
Seating Device Design
Students research and analyze different seating devices. Once research is completed, information is compiled into a research paper including examples, images, and descriptions of seating devices. Students use research to sketch and...
Curated OER
The Raven
After a close reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" individuals copy the rhythm and rhyme scheme and rewrite the final stanzas of the poem.
Curated OER
Use of Personification and Imagery in Poetry
A reading of Theodore Roethke’s dark "Root Cellar" and Sylvia Plath’s more abstract "Mirror" launches a discussion of imagery and personification in poetry. After finding examples of personification in the poems, class members...
Curated OER
Colorful Creative Writing Rebus
Students read rebus samples from various sources. They write poems about colorful places, including detailed descriptions of people, scenery, and objects. Students create small, relevant illustrations to communicate meaning using symbols...
Curated OER
Visual Art: Independence Days Around the World
Students research patriotic holidays from around the world. After reading about their own country's independence day, they choose another country and examine the traditions and symbols associated with it. Using cardboard, ribbon, and...
Curated OER
Figurative Language Similes
Learners illustrate a simile. In this figurative language lesson, second graders are introduced to similes. They read the story Quick as a Cricket and talk about the similes used. Everyone chooses a simile and draws a picture to go along...
Curated OER
A South African Storm
Students explore racial prejudice in South Africa through the reading of "A South African Storm" by Allison Howard. In this cultural and geography lesson, students discuss ethnicity and prejudices and cite examples from the letter....
Pearson
Lesson Plan: Introduction to Plato’s Cave
Can we perceive reality or are we chained by preconceptions that limit our vision? Plato’s allegory “The Cave” serves to introduce nascent philosophers to Plato’s dialogues and hopefully to engender a love of ideas and discourse. A...
Curated OER
Time to Read
High schoolers identify how the literary elements of theme, point of view, characterization, setting, and plot illustrate the effects of a certain disease on a community. They identify the aspects of the book that are specific to the...
Curated OER
Racing to Read Fast
Students identify and interpret how to speed up the pace of their reading. Then they read slow and monotonous to avoid making mistakes. Students also read to comprehend the text that they need to identify to vary the rates of speed at...
Curated OER
Nibble, Nibble, Little Mouse
Students complete activities to analyze points of view in different texts. In this point of view lesson, students read Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Circle and discuss the points of view. Students choose a character from the story and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Literary Humor
Young scholars examine Nathaniel Hawthorne's style of humor and compare it to other humorists. They discuss the purpose of literary humor and determine how it develops characters and plots in stories. They analyze the use of different...
Curated OER
Power Poetry
Students use poetic devices to discuss political issues. For this cultural diversity lesson, students listen to the president's State of the Union address and write poetic pieces that express their opinions about issues the president...
Curated OER
A Separate Peace: Chapter 1 Reading and Study Guide
For this reading and study guide worksheet, students define 3 vocabulary words, define 5 literary terms, and respond to 14 short answer questions pertaining to chapter 1 of John Knowles's A Separate Peace.
Curated OER
Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs)
Students explore CCDs or Charge-Coupled Devices. In this digital devices instructional activity, students examine how CCDs are constructed, collect light, and create a digital signal.