An All American Success Story

Good questions can help focus readers' attention on the elements writers use to add depth to their stories. The questions on this worksheet do just that and encourage readers to think critically about a story and author's purpose.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" provides the text for an activity that asks readers to select specific passages from the story, identify the aspect of American Romanticism the passage exemplifies, and then provide an...

Prompted by a viewing of Emiko and Chizu Omori’s Rabbit in the Moon, a documentary about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, high schoolers examine a series of documents, including the Bill of Rights and the UN’s...

How should pupils read short stories? Set them up for this unit with an introductory activity that goes over the main characteristics of a short story and starts learners off reading their first short story of the unit. In order to get a...

Introduce your class to the writing of the indigenous Americans and, even more well known, their story telling. An engaging presentation describes what kinds of texts would be included in the oral stories performed and some common themes...

Personal narratives are powerful things. Whether told from the first-person or third-person point of view, whether in the form of an essay, a short story, novel, or video, whether fiction or fact, they capture readers and give them...

If you really want to know, this is a terrific lesson all about narratives, which is just a fancy way of saying telling stories. And you get to do it without being phony or anything. My favorite part is that you get to read a passage...

For many farmers displaced by the Great Depression and the droughts of the 1930s, California represented the American Dream: a place to find work, to establish a new life, and to provide for their families. The reality they found, as...

What's so great about Gatsby? A teaching guide asks readers to consider whether Gatsby's quest represents the embodiment of the American Dream or a reflection of the American nightmare, a green light, or a valley of ashes.

Testimonials for The Catcher in the Rye demonstrate the power of J.D. Salinger's story of a young man who wants to protect innocent children from the phonies in the adult world. Part of the Great American Read series, speakers urge...