Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Curriculum Hub: Ela Guidebooks: A Lesson Before Dying: Character, Tone and Theme
Ninth graders will read chapters 28- 31 of A Lesson Before Dying. They participate in a whole-class discussion about the changes that occur in the main characters and how these changes relate to lessons being learned. Students will...
British Library
British Library: 20th Century Teaching Resources: Angela Carter's Wise Children
In these activities, students will focus on a wealth of drafting material and writer's notebooks to reveal how Angela Carter created her final comic novel, "Wise Children". They will closely examine fascinating source documents and...
Other
Signet Classics: Scarlet Pimpernel Teachers' Guide [Pdf]
A teachers' guide to the Signet Classic edition of Baroness Emma Orczy's tale of post-revolutionary France. The guide suggests several ways to build student knowledge prior to reading the novel, and discusses the major themes. It also...
Other
The Literary Link: Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White
This is a teacher's guide to the novel Belle Prather's Boy which includes teaching ideas and related themes. In this vivid coming-of-age story, two cousins develop a real friendship while discovering the truths about their families and...
Read Works
Read Works: Bridge to Terabithia 5th Grade Unit
A Grade 5 literature study unit for the novel "Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson. The concepts covered include cause and effect, character, genre, plot, predicting, and theme.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Enchanting Readers With Revisionist Fairy Tales
Contains plans for four lessons that ask students to read, compare, and contrast different versions of fairy tales in order to explore age-appropriateness and formats of texts. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional...
PBS
Pbs: Culture Shock: Huck Finn in Context
This site features information on themes from Huck Finn. You will find activities and discussion questions to accompany the different sections.
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 6: The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Sixth graders will learn about the influence of family expectations and religious values on the development of one's personal identity. Students will also learn how reading informational texts in coordination with literary texts can...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 4: The Whipping Boy
This unit explores the history of the Middle Ages through the fictional tale of two unlikely friends, Price Brat and his whipping boy. The Middle Ages was defined by a strict class system in government and economy. The novel explores the...
British Library
British Library: Dickens's Great Expectations: Social Mobility
This instructional activity will explore this theme of social mobility through a reading of extracts from Samuel Smiles's Self-Help (1859), the handbook that many young men in 19th-century Britain turned to in seeking advice as to how to...
Discovery Education
Discovery Education: Great Expectations
Discovery Channel School offers a lesson plan regarding the study of Charles Dickens novel, "Great Expectations." Students are asked to note that a writer considers theme, plot, characters, setting, and point of view when writing a...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Using Snowflake Bentley as a Framing Text for Multigenre Writing
Using Snowflake Bentley as a model, students create a working definition of multigenre text and then use that definition to create their own multigenre piece about winter or another theme.
Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors: Web English Teacher: William Golding
Web English Teacher site provides a variety of resources to assist in the teaching of William Golding's works.
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 6: Out of the Dust
Focused on the Dust Bowl and how families fought for a meaningful existence and survival, this unit will offer students different perspectives on how people respond to adversity, the lessons that can be learned from hardship and failure,...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Character Mapping
Fifth graders will read a high interest novel and analyze how a character responds to a challenge. Students will reflect on the theme conveyed in the novel, too.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Using a Web Quest to Create a Persuasive Brochure
After reading Lois Lowry's The Giver, students use a WebQuest to research ideas and themes from the novel. Students use their research and persuasive writing skills to create a brochure designed to sell a way of thinking or way of life...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Sharing Summer Reading Through Literature Circles
This instructional activity allows students to discuss the assigned summer reading in literature circles with respect to plot, character, and theme. Students work in groups of three to four to produce a slideshow presentation of one of...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Ain't That America
Students think that classic literature and historic events have little in common with life today, right? Think again! In this lesson, students get a chance to compare themes from classic novels or from American history to those found in...