Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Narrative Writing

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Imagine a day in the life of a child who has to work 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week. After viewing images and reading stories of child laborers, class members select an image and write a richly detailed narrative about a typical...
Lesson Plan
Manchester University

Alliteration

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Kids create cool clauses selecting a single starting sound. Ah, alliteration.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Metaphor

For Teachers 9th - 11th
High schoolers identify the distinction between literal and figurative language with a focus on metaphors. They complete a metaphor analysis chart, then practice expanding metaphors by composing their own comparisons of elements of the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Narratives

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Add to the narrative writing experience. Elementary or middle school writers listen to the teacher read a descriptive passage, then reread the same passage silently. They highlight sensory details and figurative language, then orally...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Applying Character and Setting to Play Readings

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Read Ira Sleeps Over, then identify elements of plays that are also common to books. Learners analyze character and setting, consider how these elements relate to a play, then write a one-paragraph skit using the characters from Ira...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Personification

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Young readers listen to the story The Three Little Pigs, and discuss what abnormal characteristics the pigs and the wolf have. They relate these characteristics to personification, and practice writing sentences using personification.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The World Around Me

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Combining visual and language arts, here is a resource that prompts middle schoolers to write stories based on pictures of their surroundings. They use digital cameras to take pictures of favorite areas in the school. Next, they choose...
Study Guide
Penguin Books

A Teacher's Guide to the Penguin Edition of John Steinbeck's The Pearl

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The guide to John Steinbeck's The Pearl suggests ways instructors can help readers see below the surface of the novella to the parable beneath. Through a variety of activities, readers come to appreciate the complexity of the tale.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech as a Work of Literature

For Teachers 6th - 12th
To appreciate the oratory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, scholars examine the rhetorical devices and influences that make the speech so famous. They examine background information, conduct a close reading of the...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

What Gives Stories Their Power?

For Teachers 7th Standards
Read to me! Scholars get lost in a picture book read aloud of The People Could Fly. They discuss text-dependent questions and talk with partners about the meaning of the story. They then study an image in the book to determine the power...
Lesson Plan
Teach With Movies

The Great Gatsby

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Are you thinking about incorporating a film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel in a study of The Great Gatsby? Check out a guide loaded with suggestions for how to supplement a reading of the novel with scenes from three film...
Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Understanding and Analyzing “The U.S. of Us” by Richard Blanco

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Current immigration issues and the rhetoric surrounding the controversies come into focus with a lesson plan that uses Richard Blanco's anthem, "The U.S. of Us," written after the August 2019 attack in El Paso, Texas, to open a...
Organizer
Curated OER

Writing Organizers

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Eight graphic organizers to choose from? That's right! Each of these organizers relates to writing or reading. From narrowing a writing topic, to responding to literature, to planning a writing project, you'll find many purposes for...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Speak Your Truth: Techniques in Spoken Word Poetry

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
As part of a study of Spoken Word Poetry, class members watch a series of performance videos and note where poets get their ideas and the performance techniques used by the poets. Pupils then draft and share their poems.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Poetry Analysis Sheet

For Students 9th - 12th
Tasking class members to analyze a poem can strike fear into the hearts of many learners. Here's a worksheet that takes the mystery out of the process by providing questions about what to look for in the text and to the devices poets use...
Lesson Plan
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Where I'm From: Symbolism in Paint and Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
After a review of symbolism, class members use the provided worksheet to first list the objects they observe in Arnold Mesches' painting "Coney Island" and then suggest possible symbolic meanings for each of the objects. A second...
Study Guide
Penguin Books

A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
It's not the best of guides nor the worst of guides, but time spent examining the guide to Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities is certainly not wasted. The 17-page guide includes book-by-book synopses of the novel, before,...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Criminal Motivations: Irony and Characterization In "The Cask Of Amontillado"

For Teachers 9th Standards
Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado" is a bit of a puzzle. Critics have long debated Montresor's motives for killing Fortunato. Young scholars examine examples of the three types of irony (verbal, dramatic, and...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech as Visual Text

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young historians watch a video of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech and answer questions that test their knowledge of the event. After discussing the fact sheet, they reread the speech, select a phrase or...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

See What I Hear

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students investigate the link between music and visual art by applying principles of design to convey the emotions/expressions in different types of music.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Courtin' We Will Go

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students investigate dialect in poetry as an indication of a people's culture in literature. They write a poem about dating in this era.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Visual Poetry Lets Students 'See' The Words

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students read a favorite poem and create a Power Point slide show depicting a visual interpretation of the images in the poem.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Words and Pictures Connect Nature and People: The American Conservation Movement

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research some of the men and women who help to raise the environmental consciousness of the American people through their writings and drawings. They write a persuasive piece about an outdoor place which will connect their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating an Anthology

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Student compile a poetry anthology. In this literature lesson plan, pupils examine notable poetry anthologies. Students then select a theme to build their anthologies of 10 poems pertaining to their chosen theme.

Other popular searches