Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...

Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...

While this resource was originally made to be used in conjunction with John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, it could be used for any literary text. A reference sheet for readers, the resource includes terminology related to figurative...

Explore ocean habitats with a lesson that showcases the home of manatees and loggerhead turtles in Belize. Here, pupils compare and contrast the homes of ocean animals to those of humans, listen to an original short story about...

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...

Good questions can help focus readers' attention on the elements writers use to add depth to their stories. The questions on this worksheet do just that and encourage readers to think critically about a story and author's purpose.

If you're tired of defining allusion, onomatopoeia, and satire for your language arts students, hand out a complete list of literary devices to keep the terms straight. Each term includes a definition that is easy to understand and...

Considering using Robert Cormier's young adult novel, Tunes for Bears to Dance to for book circles or as a whole-class anchor text? Check out this overview of the key concepts and issues raised by the novel.

Wikipedia offers several paragraphs of information on Naturalism in literature inspired by the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin.

Part of an American literature timeline that describes the naturalism movement, including information about its founders and notable authors during that time.

This is an encyclopedia article which defines the period of Romanticism from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. It describes the characteristics of Romanticism in general and in literature, visual arts, and music.

There are about 35,000 known species of spiders in the world and this research resource site surveys these animals in text and images.

This site includes a definition of the term naturalism, important characteristics and themes of the literature movement, quotes pertaining to it, links to important figures in naturalism, and further bibliographical information.

This site from Washington State University provides a good definition of American realism and explains the literary time period it encompasses. There is also a section that lists the characteristics of realism, practitioners, and context...

Describes the changing nature of historical writing during the later Colonial period in America.

Unfortunately, "literary" writing was not as simple and direct as political writing. When trying to write poetry, most educated authors stumbled into the pitfall of elegant neoclassicism. The epic, in particular, exercised a fatal...

Calling itself "unique," Bob's is easy to use, with cross-links throughout, phonetic pronunciation guides when necessary, and many examples and quotations. Click on the letter and scroll for the word.