Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 6
How can a screenplay create meaning and drama in ways that other forms of writing cannot? That is the question class members must answer as they compare the cantina scene of the screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Curated OER
The Shape of Things
Fourth graders develop their writing skills. For this paragraph structure lesson, 4th graders research natural disasters, compile their findings, create mobiles and write stories based on the mobiles.
Curated OER
Monster: Guided Imagery
How would you feel if you were on trial for murder—and you were only 16 years old? Put yourself in Steve Harmon's shoes before reading Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Kids listen to music that fits the theme of the book before...
English Enhanced Scope and Sequence
Media Literacy with Focus of Strategies for Collaboration
Introduce your class to literary analysis with a series of activities that has them examine book and movie reviews. Groups then draft their own review of a text, select a digital medium, and craft a presentation.
Curated OER
Book Chats
In this book chat worksheet, students read a book and participate in a book chat for the novel. Students use the example questions to discuss the book. Students take turns asking each other questions as they participate in the speaker...
Curated OER
How Different Authors Treat Similar Themes - Elephants of Africa
Students watch videos about similar themes presented by two different authors about elephants and their relationship with humans. In this theme analysis lesson, students watch video segments, visit the given websites, and complete...
Curated OER
Literature Study Guide - The Hobbit
With several online resources for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, as well as many reading and literary analysis activities, this novel study guide is a great way to keep your young readers organized during a book report. The guide...
Curated OER
The Villanelle
Students analyze the structure of the villanelle and write about its tone and theme. For this villanelle lesson, students complete a villanelle worksheet and read an introduction to the villanelle. Students read 'The Waking' by Theodore...
Curated OER
Literary Devices Paper
Fourth graders write a character analysis of someone they know describing them through similes, metaphors, and hyperboles. They may include themselves and how their person relates to him or her.
Curated OER
Thoreau's Ideas on Imprisonement and Individuality
Learners criticize Thoreau's philosophy about imprisonment and individuality. In this Thoreau analysis lesson, students read about Thoreau's philosophy and write an answer to the given questions. Learners use a digital instant message...
Curated OER
Metaphors in Literature
Eighth graders analyze literature and the use of metaphors. In this metaphors activity, 8th graders view and discuss the examples of metaphors. Students complete the phrases by writing in a metaphor.
Curated OER
Performing Sonnets
Students use Shakespearean sonnets as part of a poetry analysis instructional activity. In this sonnet instructional activity, students perform a sonnet by Shakespeare but treat it as a script to be acted out. Students work in pairs to...
Curated OER
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Chapters 5, 6, 7
Students read chapters from Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and complete literary response activities. In this chapter analysis lesson, students read chapters 5, 6, and 7 and discuss the highlights. Students practice...
Nazareth College
Creative Writing
Students discuss creative writing—what makes something creative writing? Each learner starts writing a story and after 15 minutes, they pass their story to another who adds to it. After another 15 minutes of writing, the story is passed...
Curated OER
Identifying Genre and Subgenre #2
In this identifying genre and subgenre #2 worksheet, 9th graders read 17 short summaries, then select the genre and subgenre from the choices given and explain their choice in writing.
Curated OER
The Writings of Robert Boyle
Students read the introductory text describing the various sources for the history of Boyle's life. They produce a poster illustrating the sources of Boyle's life and writings.
J. Paul Getty Trust
Exhibiting Common Threads
Artists working in different media often explore the same themes—to model how these same themes weave their way through different forms of artistic expression, scholars analyze images by Dorothea Lange, identifying key themes in her...
Louisiana Department of Education
Out of the Dust
The Grapes of Wrath may be the most famous novel set during the Dust Bowl, but what other stories cover the same time? The unit focuses on the Karen Hesse novel Out of the Dust. Learners keep a timeline of the Dust Bowl, maintain a...
Prestwick House
Fahrenheit 451—Activity Pack
The burning questions is at what point do readers of Fahrenheit 451 recognize the many literary devices Ray Bradbury employs in his dystopian classic that warns of a society that uses media to indoctrinate the public and denigrates...
California Education Partners
The Road Not Taken
An effective lesson plan truly can make all the difference. Seventh graders read, analyze, and annotate Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" before writing an essay about what they believe to be the theme of the iconic poem.
EngageNY
Analyzing Point of View: Inferring about the Natural Disaster in Eight Days
Who is telling the story? Readers take a look at the text Eight Days to determine if the story is told in first or third person. They then discuss in groups and complete a shared writing activity to describe how the narrator's point of...
Louisiana Department of Education
Hatchet
Accompany a novel study of Hatchet by Gary Paulson with a unit consisting of 16 lessons focused on physical and emotional survival. Reading the story along with a variety of informational texts, scholars compare and contrast reading...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 11: Setting
Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...