It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text as...

By digitally organizing research, your class leaves a legacy for future students on the life and times of Mark Twain. Before reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, scholars conduct group research projects on one of six (listed) topics....

Mark Twain's life, politics, writing, and role as a mirror of pre- and post-Civil War American culture are the focus 11th and 12th graders in this section from an expansive author study. A critical writing assignment comparing Twain to...

Scholars investigate the use of satire in Mark Twain's writing. Literary lovers research the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, political cartoons, and videos to see how Twain uses satire to make the stories more memorable....

“What is the role or function of controversial art? And, should children, our children, be required—forced—to study certain works they may find painful or humiliating or offensive?” Robert Zalisk’s question, found in his article, “Uproar...

A reading of Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County not only offers pupils an opportunity to practice their listening skills but also provides them with examples of dialectic speech. This is the gol’derndest lesson...

Offer your class methods for understanding and creating setting in a written work. Much of the focus here is on fluency, so class members spend a good amount of time simply writing about places that are significant to them, and...

Nathaniel Hawthorne as a humorist? Really? The three lessons in this series focus on the the storytelling style, conventions, and literary techniques employed by Hawthorne, George Washington Harris, and Mark Twain. 

This worksheet provides a creative review of the book Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Learners answer 8 questions in which they match pictures to important objects in the story, review conversations in the story, and play a game involving the...

Does Mark Twain’s satire become sarcasm and does he cross the line of propriety in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? As an introduction of satire, class members view an excerpt from The Daily Show and discuss Stewart's use of this...

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is famous, in part, because it established a uniquely American form of humor. In this famous story, Mark Twain combines the tall-tale, the dialect story, and satire. Here is a resource...

Using Mark Twain's The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, invite your learners to consider the concept of virtue in a democratic society devoted to gain and self-interest. This stellar resource guides your class members through a close...

Learners decipher the use of standard and non-standard English in Mark Twain literature. As a class or in small groups, they discuss dialect and slang. They map the concept of standard English, dialect, slang, vernacular, accent, drawl,...

Use these study questions to test your class on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. These mostly higher-level questions have the potential to be test questions, discussion questions, homework questions, or essay questions. The...

How do events, characters, setting, and tone work together to create an engaging short story? Would the impact or theme of a story be different if one of these elements were changed? After reading Mark Twain's slightly screwy "A Ghost...

Introduce readers to Mark Twain with a mini biography that details Twain's life and works.

Compare real events from Mark Twain's life to events in the story. Middle school readers identify point-of-view, its purpose, and its reliability by citing two examples. They describe the tone of the story using four examples and...

Students read in class the novel The Adventures of Tom Sayer by Mark Twain. They can choose to find song lyrics from any artist that they feel define one of the characters in the book, illustrate a scene from the book or create their own...

Ninth graders use Mark Twain texts to analyze the author and research the patents he backed during his life. In this Mark Twain lesson, 9th graders view a PowerPoint about King Arthur and discuss questions. Students investigate everyday...

Middle schoolers explore the theme of "The Californian's Tale" by Mark Twain. After reading Twain's short story, they identify and study its literary theme. Additionally, they analyze information and relationships in the piece, and write...

Students analyze American essayists Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass in an introduction to American literary non-fiction writing. In this essay history lesson, students identify methods for writing essays. Students read and analyze...

Students examine the life of Samuel Clemens, who is more popularly known as Mark Twain. In groups, they examine and read, if possible, his different books. They discuss how the same book can have different meanings for different...

Test basic plot understanding with this quiz for the first five chapters of Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Quiz-takers answer a series of multiple choice, short answer, and analogy questions to complete this assessment....

If a blue jay could talk, what would it say? Find out by reading Mark Twain's "Jim Baker's Blue-jay Yarn" with your class. Make sure to discuss dialect beforehand and adopt the accent while you read. Compare and contrast American English...