Curated OER
Screening Coleridge’s Fantasies: Using Popular Music as a Bridge to Literacy
Twelfth graders use music to aid them in interpreting poetry. In this poetry lesson, 12th graders analyze the lyrics, figurative language, and literary devices of selected music. Students compare the music to the poetry of Samuel...
Curated OER
A Midsummer Night's Dream Acts 1-2
Blank verse, stichomythia, soliloquy, allusion, oxymoron, malaprop? Readers of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will need to know these terms to successfully complete a study guide designed for the first two acts of Shakespeare’s comedy. The...
Curated OER
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock quiz
Delve into the mysterious lines of T.S. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Focusing on simple recall of the poem, this quiz can then spark discussion about the odd comparisons and allusions within the lines. A simple quiz that...
Curated OER
Poetic Analysis
Students write a poetic analysis on a poem by Carl Sandburg. They take their previous knowledge of poetic devices and apply them to a piece of writing that displays their knowledge on a specific poem. They explain what they know about a...
Curated OER
Ancient Peoples of the Middle East
This is an excellent multidisciplinary lesson designed by Scientific American. It provides three creative activities--designing a garden, studying hieroglyphics, and writing poetry--relevant to the ancient peoples of the Middle East....
College Board
Choices and Consequences
Paul Fisher, the main character in Tangerine, comes to see that it's the choices in life that lead to the consequences that make all the difference. A unit study of Bloor's young adult novel leads readers down this same path.
Curated OER
Where I Am From
Learners study selected poetry to gain an understanding of influences on values and personal identity. They explore language terms such as personification, imagery metaphors and allusion. After reading a poem and discussing it,...
Curated OER
Octavio Paz
Tenth graders read and analyze the poem, "The Street," by Hispanic author, Octavio Paz. They research the life of Octavio Paz and identify his literary contributions. They complete an online scavenger hunt and create an author map of...
Curated OER
To Walt Whitman
Students examine the poem To Walt Whitman by Angela de Hoyos. They divide into groups. Each group creates a poem written from one of two perspectives: to Walt Whitman or to de Hoyos from Whitman.
Curated OER
In A Station Of The Metro And A Pact
Students are exposed to two different works of poetry in order to complete a task of comparing and contrasting them. They analyze the poem and identify the juxtaposition. The analysis is compiled by them to make a class report of it.
Curated OER
Ode to a Nightingale
High schoolers read poems about Tuberculosis by John Keats. Using the poems, they identify similies, metaphors, personification and imagery. In groups, they make connections about the author's outlook on life and how his disease...
Curated OER
Les Mis'rables
Students read, understand, and enjoy Les Miserables. They improve their skills in literary analysis, writing, and listening. Through the study of biblical and historical allusions, symbols, metaphors, and other figurative language, they...
Curated OER
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Eleventh graders discover the thematic connections between classical literary and popular song lyrics. In this English lesson, 11th graders research a specific topic to be presented to the class. Students analyze song lyrics in their...
Curated OER
Pablo Neruda
Eighth graders explore the life and works of Pablo Neruda. They complete an author map concerning his personal and professional life. Students identify the key components of an ode. They write an ode to a common object around their...
Central Oregon Community College
Things Fall Apart Study Guide
“There is no story that is not true.” And Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, uses proverbs (“. . .the palm-oil with which words are eaten”), a compelling tragic hero, and historic events, to engage readers in the truth of his story of...
Curriculum Corner
8th Grade ELA Common Core Checklists
How close are your eighth graders to mastering the ELA Common Core standards? Keep an eye on progress with these charts, which include every eighth grade identifier and full standard text. As you move through the year and teach, reteach,...
Curated OER
Inspire the Imagination with a Poet Study of Shel Silverstein
Captivating prose opens wondrous doors to critical thinking and language development.
Curated OER
Rhetorical Devices in a Primary Source
Analyze Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous and powerful "I Have a Dream" speech as a primary source document. After reading up on rhetorical devices and working in small groups to define terms, class members identify and explain the use of...
Curated OER
Demian - Essay Questions
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 analysis....
La Jolla High School
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: In Search of Figurative Language
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...
Curriculum Corner
8th Grade ELA "I Can" Statement Posters
Eighth grades can master the ELA Common Core standards! Show your learners the connection between classroom activities and assignments and the standards with this set of "I Can" statement posters. Each standard has been rewritten as an...
Curated OER
A P Literary Terms
Is a list of literary terms found frequently on AP English exams of value to test takers? Now there's a rhetorical question. Here's a list that provides definitions for everything from allegory to vernacular. To say the list is of value...
Curated OER
Mythology - What Is It?
Students explore Greek mythology. In this mythology instructional activity, students discuss and define mythology. Students view pictures and associate them with the correct Greek myth. Students answer trivia questions about their...
Curated OER
Carson McCullers: Loneliness and Frustrated Love
Learners examine the themes of loneliness and frustrated love in the work of Carson McCullers. In this theme analysis lesson, students complete a comparison of patterns in the novels of McCullers as a part of a theme analysis.