The best way to analyze a piece of literature is to ask questions about the characters, plot, and theme. Encourage your learners to stump the teacher with the most difficult questions they can create using Bloom's Taxonomy and various...

Can you find the themes from Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in other books? What about picture books? Compare the novel to a picture book with a lesson about making predictions and finding textual evidence.

Massive storms, shipwrecks, survivors stranded on an island ruled by an aging magician, and strange creatures—Shakespeare's The Tempest appeals to today's middle schoolers. For this unit, seventh graders read selections from an...

How would you describe a great leader? Explore the theme of leadership with a unit that focuses on emotional intelligence, and how great leaders have a strong sense of emotional intelligence.

The text structure is vitally important when crafting a rise in tension. Explore Sophocles' choice to order his events in a particular sequence with a lesson about Oedipus the King. As the light of realization dawns on the characters,...

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...

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...

For scholars who need a challenge in the classroom, here is a unit for you. Learners explore topics such as animals, sports, helpers at home, the past, and funny things that have happened in their lives. Youngsters also engage...

The slow curse of realization begins to sink in during the tenth lesson in a literary analysis unit on Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Ninth graders carefully read the selected lines for evidence of Oedipus' feelings during a turning point...

Guide high schoolers through the most successful and efficient ways to address a text with a literary analysis instructional activity. As learners find examples of alliteration in Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepard to His...

What makes heroes and villains? A six-part unit plan asks young scholars to explore the concept of heroism and the characteristics they consider heroic and unheroic. Groups create character maps that focus on how characters are shaped by...

Six lessons comprise a unit about Roald Dahl's George's Marvelous Medicine. Over time, scholars explore themes such as the power of words, exciting writing, and mixed feelings. They examine the writing's literary devices, persuasive...

Spoiler Alert! An 18-slide presentation includes information about author William Golding, his experiences reflected in Lord of the Flies, a summary of the story, the political and religious allegorical levels of the novel, and the themes.

Chapter-by-chapter worksheets ask readers to find specific examples of characterization, symbolism, setting, conflict, themes, and main ideas in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Also included in the packet is an assignment sheet that...

Joseph Conrad's novellas The Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer are the focus of five lessons in this Curriculum Guide. Lessons are designed to advance analytical reading skills, examine Conrad's use of "The Double" theme, the...

What's the difference between the main idea of a text and the topic? Take kids through the process of literary analysis with a presentation about finding the main idea and supporting details. Additionally, it guides learners through...

“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” Ah, the central question of Lord of the Flies. As part of their study of William Golding's riveting novel, readers complete an anticipation guide and respond to a series of survey...

Writing about and in response to what you read can help you process the text and lead to stronger analysis. Included here are four larger topics that students can write about, sentence starters to help pupils get started with their...

An interactive resource teaches readers how to annotate all kinds of texts. After reading an introduction that stresses the benefits of text annotations, users examine several models and then demonstrate what they have learned by...

Encourage readers to compare and contrast the information that they find in informational text with a variety of reading passages and worksheets. Learners read all about subjects in science, social studies, and literature...

Is it possible to regain trust? Scholars put much thought into the subject of trust after reading Shakespeare's Macbeth. Readers work together to analyze how the character relationships develop the a message about trust. They then...

How do the narrative and play versions of the myth "Pyramus and Thisbe" affect meaning? Scholars reread Act 5, Scene 1 from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and compare its structure to "Pyramus and Thisbe." Next, they use a...

Complete a puzzle one piece at a time. Scholars gather in triads to complete jigsaw activities over a monologue from Good Masters! Sweet Ladies. They read as a group and independently and use sticky notes to identify the gist of...

Scholars complete their study of the collective fear in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" by conducting a mock trial to determine how many witches are in the class. Groups then analyze sections of the play for the literary devices used and...