Examine the contributions of African-Americans in the worlds of art and literature. Over the course of a few days, young scholars will read and analyze a poem, a short story, and a piece of art. They complete a range of...

Travel back in American history to the era of slavery and abolition. After reading about the Underground Railroad, young historians examine a painting depicting the event, and write a narrative from the point of view of a person in the...

You could spend a full day discussing The Phantom of the Opera and not scratch the surface, but a set of lessons about the literary elements and themes of the musical production is a great start. Young thespians build upon the...

The final lesson in the "What Makes Democracy Work?" series examines the connections between imagination, literature, and democracy. Class members listen to a podcast, read an excerpt from Azar Nafisi's, The Republic of Imagination, and...

Music brings back a memory. One prompt from the 2017 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions asks scholars to read a poem and write essays analyzing the relationship between music and the author's memories. Two...

Scholars use the 2007 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions to write essays examining how a character's tie to the past affects the story. The resource also requires pupils to write essays comparing two related...

Class members identify bullying in contemporary texts and role play how they might change those scenes to examples of anti-bullying. They then re-define their initial definitions of bullying and discuss what they...

Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...

Satires may be designed to expose a bias to ridicule but if misunderstood can they reinforce that bias? Langston Hughes poem, “Minstrel Man” opens a discussion of racist stereotypes, the minstrel tradition, and the musical, “The...

It is a cruel world. Scholars create essays about a piece of work that describes what cruelty reveals about a character. A prompt from the 2015 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions also contains two other essay...

Expression, current events, and art can go hand-in-hand. After analyzing a multi-media piece entitled, Trade Canoe for Don Quixote, the class explores their own expressive process. They create collages that show a current event or issue...

Here's a resource that deserves a place in your curriculum library, whether or not your school has adopted the Common Core. Designed for middle and high school language arts classes, the packet is packed with teaching tips, materials,...

If you are considering adding or expanding a unit on utopian and dystopian literature you simply must check out this fabulous resource. Packed with plans, activities, project-based and 21st century learning opportunities, the unit...

How does one's experience reading a poem's text differ from listening to its audio version? Delve into the insightful question with the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, as pupils compare and contrast their experience using a note-taking...

This chapter-by-chapter guide to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, designed to be used in either a classroom or homeschool setting, contains vocabulary lists, discussion questions, and writing prompts.

Explore African literature and artwork in a multicultural literacy and art lesson plan. Begin with a read aloud of Tiger and the Big Wind: A Tale from Africa, and afterward, have kids retell the main events in the story. They...

Celebrate and honor Native American culture with this set of graphic organizers that showcases literature like The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses and A Boy Called Slow as well as three other Native American literature books....

Looking to set up literature circles in your class? Use these materials to support pupils when they meet in groups. Pupils take on various roles over the course of reading and meet with their groups to share the work they have done on...

Your shoes get a lot of mileage in familiar places. Represent the places you have traveled the most with an art project based on a print of Indian People Wear Shoes and Socks by Juane Quick-to-See Smith. Kids trace their shoes and...

Teach learners how to interact with both fiction and non-fiction text with a packet of activities and worksheets. After looking over text structure and the difference in text features between different types of writing,...

Santa is not the only one in the chimney! Scholars compare two poems written about using children as chimney sweepers. They also create essays about literary devices in a passage and about a character's struggle with inward and outward...

I am dancing to the music in my head. Scholars learn to listen for music in their heads as they read literature and poems. After they identify and analyze poetic devices that relate to music, they create their own musical poems.

Does more power make you more important? Test takers ponder the question as the 2005 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions Form B asks scholars to take a close look at power by writing thoughtful essays. Writers...

Home is where the heart is. The 2010 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions Form B require scholars to think about what home really is. They look at how a character leaves home, yet home remains within the...