Peace, love, tolerance, faith. Marc Chagall's Peace Window in the United Nations World Headquarters serves as a model for young artists as they create their own peace-themed transparent paintings. A great activity for both SPED and...

Public art, especially monuments and memorials, are designed to celebrate and honor those who have made significant contributions to a community or even an entire nation. Here's a lesson that asks scholars to consider who is represented...

Archetypes help readers connect literature to the world around them. A lesson plan uses elements of pop culture to teach about archetypal traits of common characters  and discuss issues of perception and other literary devices. At...

Art is a great way to convey or express an idea. Learners choose an idiom, draw it, and use transfer paper to create photograms. They discuss how why they chose the phrase they did, and how they expressed that idea through their...

Upper elementary and middle schoolers recognize symbols that influence the choices that we make consciously or unconsciously in everyday life. They look at the symbols and choices that others make. They identify and apply knowledge of...

Students examine the significance of rock art. They discuss and view examples of historical rock art, and create a design on a rock that tells a story using African and American symbols.

Young scholars engage in a lesson about symbolism while reviewing the work of Edgar Allen Poe. They review the definition of symbolism and use it to list the symbols in his work. They write a journal about how the author uses many...

Third graders discover the meaning behind dream catchers. In this themes and symbols in art lesson plan, 3rd graders discuss the meaning of Native American dream catchers. Students use paper plates, beads, and feathers to make the dream...

Students analyze the symbolism in the portrait The Artist in His Museum. In this symbolism lesson plan, students analyze the portrait and then create their own portrait containing symbolism.

Young historians take a close look at the most famous patriotic symbols of the United States and determine what they actually stand for. Symbols such as Uncle Sam, The Statue of Liberty, The Bald Eagle, and The Liberty Bell are studied....

The themes of The Great Gatsby are embodied in the images F. Scott Fitzgerald creates. To encourage reader interaction with the text, individuals create a symbolic representation of themselves, place themselves in the story,...

A lot went on in Medieval Castles, and they were an obvious symbol of feudal power. Have learners use clay to make a Medieval-style castle to show what they know about Europe during the Dark Ages. This resource provides basic background...

Class members compare the final 30 minutes of Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope with Act V of Doescher's play, William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope and consider how the choice of media influences viewers' impression...

Young scholars research historical events of the past century to recognize that society impacts the themes within art and literature. They then interview an individual to develop a biographical narrative, a collage and finally an oral...

Students observe art from different Aboriginal cultures.  In this art evaluation lesson plan, students discover the different traditions of cultures from the Pacific North West.  Students judge the art from these cultures with...

Using the resource, scholars work in small groups to rehearse a selected scene from Shakespeare's Macbeth. Finally, they present their interpretive dramatic readings to a group of peers or the whole class and complete a self-assessment...

Students examine how allegory is defined and used in the visual arts. They create a list of the arts, and list the objects, symbols, and figures that suggest each art category, analyze various paintings, and identify the allegorical...

Students investigate how the king of Benin used brass plaques to project an image of power to the people of Benin. They locate Benin on a map, explore various websites, and create a paper wall plaque that conveys symbols of power.

Identify and analyze the use of figurative language used in select pieces of writing. These pieces of literature will represent at least two pieces by one writer and at least two pieces by different writers. This lesson plan would be a...

Included in this resource are a variety of activities to do while reading Willa Cather's My Antonia. The activities, which range from mapping out Nebraska to writing activities about pioneer living, are all designed with one...

After several short 15-minute mini-lessons, your learners will gain an understanding of the characteristics of a non-fiction text. Using the book Map It by Elspeth Leacock, your class will become acquainted with non-fiction terms...

How affected is Thinks Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe's personal biography? Using a four corners strategy, and evidence from their readings, class members debate the degree of biographical influence in Achebe's novel.

Twelfth graders use computers and the Internet to research a specified area, word processors to prepare an essay, a digital camera, a video camera gather visuals, and a scanner to add visuals to a PowerPoint presentation as they discover...

“The Gambler” and “The Journey” offer readers an opportunity to experience two very different views of Jewish life in Poland between WWI and WWII. Whether used as a part of a study of the Holocaust, or as a compare/contrast exercise, the...