Students read "Young Goodman Brown" by  Nathaniel Hawthorne and write an essay about the theme. In this theme analysis lesson, students read and discuss themes. Students then write their essay about the theme in the text.

Designed for third graders but appropriate for older learners as well, this packet of materials underscores the necessity of teaching kids how to summarize, how to identify main ideas and supporting details, and how to ask questions...

A picture can speak louder than words. An interesting lesson introduces the themes of social justice and diversity to young learners by having them create artwork. Scholars create collages from a variety of sources to showcase what...

Introduce your young readers to fiction written by women authors. For each story, they explore the way these daughters discover and claim their own identities. Individually, class members use the literature to examine their role in their...

Tired of those blank stares after your class reads a particularly complex passage from a Shakespearean play? Help high schoolers untangle that prose with a literature circle activity. Ten different roles prompt class members to focus on...

After reading The Great Gatsby, groups return to the text and note passages where Fitzgerald uses symbols and color imagery in his narrative. They then develop a presentation that explains the context, the implications, and possible...

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" provides the text for an activity that asks readers to select specific passages from the story, identify the aspect of American Romanticism the passage exemplifies, and then provide an...

How can we create a more fair world? Chances are, class members have some ideas! After reading a text about fairness, individuals create skits around the ideas of fairness. Extend the learning and make their presentations a...

Close reading is key to the analysis and interpretation of literature. A close reading of the title and the epigraph of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” offers readers an opportunity to examine how even single words or names can...

If you are teaching Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, you can't afford to miss this source. An extensive list of ideas outlines numerous discussion topics, writing prompts, comprehension questions, oral presentations, and projects. Have class...

How do you assess what your pupils have learned over the course of the year? Find out how competent they are at reading and analyzing age-level literature with the ideas presented here. Included in this resource are two suggested...

Young performing artists create a song or choreograph a dance to illustrate a theme in a text they are reading. Step-by-step directions are included.

Connect Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, "I Have a Dream," to The Cay by Theodore Taylor. Taylor refers to the speech in his dedication, which creates a natural segue into talking about the speech and how it relates to the novel....

Track the progress of your fourth graders' reading and writing skills with this practice Common Core assessment. Based on a collection of six reading passages that include narrative stories, poetry, and a series of...

Alice Walker's poem "Women" provides ninth graders the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify how a writer's choice of syntax and diction contribute to the development of the theme of the work.

Get your writers ready to compose a constructed response essay in response to either an informational or fictional text. Pupils note down the big idea they wish to address as well as up to nine examples from the text that they wish to...

New to using Tuesdays with Morrie? Check out this five-page resource that provides an overview Mitch Albom's book, its features, themes, and literary devices. The packet also includes suggestions for research projects.

Explore emotions associated with moving to a new home with young learners. First they listen to the books Painted Words/Spoken Memories by Aliki and Going Home by Eve Bunting. Then they are invited to share their experiences as well as...

Check in on the development of your fifth graders' reading and writing skills with this Common Core-designed assessment. Given a series of six reading passages ranging from narrative stories to informational texts, young...

Introduce your class to the Greek tragedy with a study of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Learners examine the features of a Greek tragedy, Sophocles’ achievements and contributions, and the universal themes that make the drama an...

Designed for teachers of Sophocles' Oedipus the King, this packet provides information about themes and literary devices used in the play. Appropriate for first-time and veteran teachers of Sophocles' tragedy. 

See it through my eyes. Scholars complete mid-unit assessment part II by writing an essay describing how the narrator's point of view influences how the story is told in the text In the Middle of the Storm. Pupils also complete a...

Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...

Encourage your young readers to become true detectives in their next literary adventure! Here you'll find an attractive display that will prompt your learners to constantly be looking for clues, asking questions, making cases...