High schoolers examine a selection of traditional African artwork that portray women and explore postcolonial African literature created by women in order to gain insight into the lives of some black women in Sub-Sahara Africa.

In this online interactive literature worksheet, students respond to 10 short answer and essay questions about Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie. Students may check some of their answers online.

Tenth graders examine poems by Shel Silverstein and identify literary elements in them. The exercise is part of an examination review about poetic elements. The review concludes with students writing nature poems displaying the devices...

Eleventh graders analyze the lyrics of protest music. For this Vietnam War lesson, 11th graders examine conflict as they consider the controversial nature of the war as evidenced in song lyrics. Students also consider the Iraq War and...

How do transcendentalists believe you must learn about the world? Use this PowerPoint to define transcendentalism and explain reason and intuition. Social, political, and philosophical influences of this time are introduced, and a few...

Middle schoolers are asked to identify the alliteration used in John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, Emily Dickinson's "May-Flower," and a passage from Robert Lewis Stevenson's Kidnapped.

For this exercise, learners examine the difference between a theme, topic, and moral. After a class discussion on the definition of literary themes, the instructor reads The Cello of Mr. O by Jane Cutler. Next, individuals analyze the...

With a chapter book in hand, readers practice visualizing the events and characters of the story. The lesson plan gives suggestions of novels that are rich in detail to help facilitate the process. Drawings from what they read act as the...

Students read Dancing With the Indians by Angela Shelf Medearis. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the study of Native American festivals and traditions. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing,...

Students research the effects of living in a hurricane zone. In this hurricane zone instructional activity, students research the impact of natural disasters on humans and the environment, and write a press release describing the...

Over the course of a week, the class will study how monsters are portrayed throughout literature. But why? Monsters in science fiction or horror often depict the darker side of human nature; they are described for their horrific physical...

If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing...

This online quiz is really only useful if your class has read several short stories by Hemingway, as it doesn't focus just on one. There are 12 multiple choice questions here, and they almost all relate to a different story. 

Here is an online interactive reading comprehension instructional activity where pupils respond to 11 short-answer and essay questions based on War and Peace. They  may also access an online quiz on the selection using the link at...

CliffsNotes provides a list of study questions to help your high schoolers grapple with The Worldly Philosophers. Some of them are simple and straight forward, while others offer an opportunity to dig in deeper! Consider printing this...

If your class is reading Demian by Hermann Hesse, consider printing this list of essay questions to help them explore the text. There are 13 questions provided; some are basic recall questions, but others encourage a deeper...

Learners gain an introduction to our planet's solid waste problem and our personal responsibility in curbing and solving said problem through the use of Dr. Seuss' book, The Lorax. After hearing the book, class discussion follows.

Capture the engagement of young readers with this collection of activities based on Jane Yolen's book, Owl Moon. Following a shared reading of this children's story, the class explores the geography of the American Northeast,...

Students read the story "Sharing in Africa". As a class, they brainstorm a list of holidays and celebrations in various cultures and identify the Congo on a world map. To end the lesson, they focus on one paragraph of the story,...

Students examine historical fiction as historical sources. In this historical fiction lesson, students analyze excerpts from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as well as Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the...

Young scholars determine the best habitat for spiders. For this spider lesson, students listen to a reading of Eric Carle's, The Very Busy Spider. They discuss the spider's habitat before visiting the schoolyard to look for spiders in...

Students write a journal in response to literature. The story that is read is about prairies. The subject of prairies becomes an object for research. The culminating activity is the making of a map where prairies exist in the United States.

This first in a series of four resources is designed for instructors to use Octavia E. Butler's Kindred in their classes. The packet includes an overview of the unit, a day-to-day calendar, links to background articles, and reading...