Can authors speak to each other across works, genres, and centuries? Study the conversation between Christopher Marlowe in his poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and the responses by Sir Walter Raleigh and William Carlos Williams...

Life in the Florida swamps after the Civil War comes alive in the 1946 film adaptation of Majorie Kinnan Rawlings’s The Yearling. The film of this powerful coming-of-age story, filled with love and loss, can be used with or without a...

The Oscar for the Best Adapted Screenplay acknowledges a writer's excellence in adapting material found in another source. What do your class members know about adapted resources? Find out with an assessment that asks readers to...

As an assessment of their skill in crafting a compare and contrast essay, class members read and compare the portrayals of nature in excerpts from naturalist John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and from poet Emily Dickinson's...

Avoid the horror of readers straining to recall details of Joseph Conrad's complex Heart of Darkness. Instead provide scholars with a frame for their note taking. As they read, class members record evidence to support their responses to...

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...

What is a Leap Year and why do we have it? Find out with this Leap Day/Leap Year response to reading worksheet in which scholars read a short passage and use their new-found knowledge to answer five questions with short...

The second module in a series for high school seniors focuses on tracking the central idea of a text across genres and from multiple author and character perspectives. Twelfth graders read a speech by Benazir Bhutto entitled "Ideas Live...

A speaker's attitude toward his or her subject matter determines the tone of a piece of literature. Interpret the tone of four different poems, as well as their meanings, with supporting textual details.

Help readers go deeper and gain an understanding of purpose and justification while analyzing a letter written by Martin Luther King, Jr. Literature lovers discuss the letter in a variety of settings, including in pairs, groups, and...

This word or that, this picture or that. Individuals dive into the lives of The Little Rock Nine and the connotation used in the book A Mighty Long Way as they begin the performance task. The task scenario establishes literature lovers...

Fathers and daughters often create a bond of great strength. Is Meg's bond strong enough to save her father? A Wrinkle In Time follows Meg and her friends as they find themselves in a supernatural world; Meg just hopes she finds her...

No lesson on Oscar Wilde is complete without The Importance of Being Earnest! Review key details from the plot of Wilde's famous work with a helpful crossword puzzle.

Manifest, Kansas is a town where anything is possible. Scholars explore the fictional setting using an engaging novel study on Clare Vanderpool's Moon Over Manifest. After answering questions about the text and complete a vocabulary...

What do wizards smell like? A novel study for Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy walks readers through chapter one to help them answer the question. Scholars also practice vocabulary from the chapter and invent original similes.

A million things to do, a ton of homework ... hyperbole sure does help get the point across! With the novel study for Jerry Spinelli's Third Grade Angels, scholars practice writing their own exaggerated sentences. Additionally, they...

Have you every known someone that marches to the beat of a different drum? That is exactly what Pippi from Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking does! Scholars complete a worksheet packet as they read about Pippi's outrageous...

Most people think of war when they think of casualities. However, Ada used war to regain her life. A ten-year-old girl in The War That Saved My Life is a prisoner in her own home. However. when her brother goes to war, she takes the...

A three-part assessment promotes reading comprehension skills. Class members read literary texts and take notes to discuss their findings, answer comprehension questions, write summaries, and complete charts. 

It is not about where you are going, but the journey to get there. Scholars choose a play or novel in which a character takes a journey. They then create essays describing what the journey meant to the overall piece of work. Learners...

Does a love for reading begin early in life? Scholars write essays using a passage from Seamus Deane in which he wrote about his childhood experiences with reading and books. They also create essays that focus on betrayal and elements in...

Ever wondered what your dog is thinking? Scholars take a close look at two poems written through the eyes of animals and then create essays analyzing each author's technique. Pupils also read a passage to write about the literary...

It's all in the technique. Authors use many techniques to express themselves using writing. Two of the three essay questions require scholars to analyze the literary devices used by the authors and write essays about how these...

Have you ever felt like you are pulled into two directions? Some authors depict this feeling in their characters. Scholars choose a play or novel in which a character is pulled or influenced by two different directions and write essays...