Curated OER
Energy Crisis: Then and Now
Using political cartoons, scholars analyze the energy crisis of the 1970s and '80s, comparing and contrasting it to current tensions with oil. Display the 6 cartoons (linked) to the class, and demonstrate analysis using the worksheet...
Simon & Schuster
Les Miserables Classroom Activities
Modern readers apply classic themes to Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Miserables. After they discuss tricky vocabulary and plot elements from the novel, class members compare Hugo's written work to a stage or film adaptation of the musical.
Main Memory Network
Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and Whitman's "Song of Myself"
Although the work Americans do has changed over time, the plight of the American worker has largely remained the same. Facilitate a class discussion aboutAmerican workers using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and...
New York State Education Department
Comprehensive English Examination: August 2015
Looking at literature through a critical lens helps readers connect the text to the larger world. An essay examining the theme "There is no ill in the world without a remedy" forms the main part of a sample comprehensive English...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Jack the Ripper terrorized London in the late 1800s. An educator's guide for the novel The Name of the Star places the historical figure in a modern context. Readers complete a pre-reading activity before answering a series of discussion...
K20 LEARN
Active Shakespeare: Making Shakespeare Accessible
Two sonnets, both alike in theme and story, break from ancient language to new glory. The prologue to Act I of Romeo and Juliet provides scholars with an opportunity to examine the language Shakespeare uses to create timeless stories....
Folger Shakespeare Library
Essential Everyday Bravery
Shakespeare's plays may be old, but they still have relevant lessons for today's world! A collection of lesson plans uses examples from The Merchant of Venice and District Merchants to teach about bravery. In addition to learning...
Orlando Shakes
Two Gentlemen of Verona
What teenager can't relate to the drama of a love triangle? Scholars put their literary skills to use in a gripping role-play drama. William Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona unfolds as the classroom becomes a stage of young actors.
Council for Economic Education
Wages and the Black Death
While the Black Death wiped out a third of Europe's population during the Middle Ages, its destruction paved the way for better wages for workers and even an early form of modern capitalism. The relationship between the cataclysmic event...
Curated OER
Acting Like a Bunch of Animals: Fables and Human
The video "The Tales of Aesop" traces for viewers the history of fables and identifies their characteristics. The class then goes to the web site "The Fisherman and the Little Fish" where they examine the classic and a modern version of...
Curated OER
William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying
Students analyze William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. In this literature analysis lesson, students compare a modern novel and play. Students analyze Faulkner's interior monologues. Students write a paper about the ways As I Lay Dying is or...
Curated OER
Romeo and Juliet Mix-It-Up
Students identify themes in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet by analyzing the film or text. In this tolerance lesson, students create their own Elizabethan era terms related to interacting with different social groups. In groups,...
Curated OER
Superman: Modern Mythology
Students discuss what characteritics belong to a hero. They examine different mythological stories and identify the theme of each. They compare and contrast the origin of Superman to the mythological stories and report their findings to...
Curated OER
Common Theme in Folktale: 900 Versions of Cinderella
Seventh graders examine various stories that have a Cinderella theme. In this Language Arts lesson, 7th graders compare and contrast stories. Students write various journal assignments in regards to the stories.
Curated OER
Novel Analysis
Young scholars read the novel, Lord of the Flies, then write an essay analyzing the novel. They analyze, in small groups, characters, plot, setting, style, symbolism, theme, critical responses, and historical influences
Curated OER
Rap as a Modern Poetic Form
Students write and listen to rap songs. They discover how common themes in rap are indicative of the problems, as well as the empowerments, that can be seen in our urban cultures today. They discover how rap is actually an evolution of...
Curated OER
Tales of the Supernatural
Students explore the origins and development of a literary genre. They investigate how shared imaginative concerns link the members of a literary period and compare works of literature from different eras.
Curated OER
Getting Inside The Outsiders Through Music
Young scholars listen to popular music of the 50's and 60's to make literature connections to The Outsiders. In this popular culture lesson, students evaluate and analyze various songs and connect them with the themes in the literature...
Curated OER
Greek Mythology: Cultures and Art
Students examine literary arts. For this Greek mythology lessons, students read Greek myths and select characters from the myths to study. Students create watercolor illustrations of the characters, write short stories about the...
Curated OER
MACBETH and the Themes of Ambition,
Students describe and compare characters and situations in dramas from and about cultures and historical periods, illustrate in improvised or scripted scenes, and discuss how theater reflects a culture.
Facing History and Ourselves
A Scene from a Middle School Classroom
Citizens in the modern world can't imagine making the same social choices made by many Germans in the 1920s and 1930s, but they don't realize that they actually do it every day by ostracizing others. A case study of middle schoolers...
Curated OER
Remembering the Challenger Tragedy
Use our nation's response to the Challenger disaster in order to teach character, as well as science and literary standards.
Curated OER
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Guide your class on an adventure 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with this Hampton-Brown outline. It provides educators with a guide to increase reading comprehension, critical thinking, literary analysis, and reading strategies. This...
Beacon Learning Center
Challenging the Human Spirit
High schoolers select a theme-related essay topic from Night, by Elie Wiesel, or The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and develop an essay that relates the theme to modern-day personal experiences. The essay follows a preset rubric...