A Report From the 21st Century - Mark Twain

It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text as...

“Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?”  Are you holding out for a hero? A Ulysses, a lightsaber-wielding Luke Skywalker, or a street-wise Hercules like Huck Finn? Learners explore the heroic archetype, heroes in...

A reading of Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County not only offers pupils an opportunity to practice their listening skills but also provides them with examples of dialectic speech. This is the gol’derndest lesson...

Learners decipher the use of standard and non-standard English in Mark Twain literature. As a class or in small groups, they discuss dialect and slang. They map the concept of standard English, dialect, slang, vernacular, accent, drawl,...

What will I be? What do I want to be? What will I have to do to achieve this goal? These are the essential questions that launches a research project that asks like-minded individuals to identify their goals, the costs of the practical...

Fake news. Alternative facts. Internet trolls. In an age of Newspeak, it's increasingly important to equip 21st century learners with the skills needed to determine the legitimacy of claims put forth on social media, in print, and in...

By digitally organizing research, your class leaves a legacy for future students on the life and times of Mark Twain. Before reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, scholars conduct group research projects on one of six (listed) topics....

Using Mark Twain's The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, invite your learners to consider the concept of virtue in a democratic society devoted to gain and self-interest. This stellar resource guides your class members through a close...

Nathaniel Hawthorne as a humorist? Really? The three lessons in this series focus on the the storytelling style, conventions, and literary techniques employed by Hawthorne, George Washington Harris, and Mark Twain. 

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is famous, in part, because it established a uniquely American form of humor. In this famous story, Mark Twain combines the tall-tale, the dialect story, and satire. Here is a resource...