I Am Death: Views of Death and Afterlife in Three British Poems, Part One: John Donne's "Holy Sonnet 10"

Judge Learned Hand's "Spirit of Liberty" speech delivered during the July, 1944 "I Am an American Day" celebration is the subject of a close reading activity that models for learners how to approach a dense, difficult text.

Geeta Kothari presents an honest and compelling account of trying to assimilate into American culture. After your class reads her short story "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?," present your scholars with this two-page analysis...

Kurt Vonnegut's letter, addressed to Drake High School Board President Charles McCarthy, written in response to the board ordered burning of Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, is the focus of a comprehension exercise that asks...

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai is an inspirational tale of heroism through adversity. Focus on the key details of the book with a quick review crossword...

Imagery is the focus of this lesson, featuring "The Moon is distant from the Sea" by Emily Dickinson. Readers discuss the lunar cycle and its connection to the speaker's desires, and then choose an image from the poem to compare to their...

Extend your instruction on similes and metaphors with a lesson on Emily Dickinson's "Hope is the thing with feathers" and "There is no Frigate like a Book." After a discussion on the images of each poem and their meanings, kids write an...

Not dreadful, but mighty, this worksheet for “Divine Sonnet X” (aka “Death Be Not Proud”) models for individuals how to recognize John Donne’s argument for why Death should not be proud and how to recognize the sonnet structure and rhyme...

Examine Buck and the point of view of the narrator in Jack London's The Call of the Wild. Start off with small group discussion. The plan provides three passages for group members to analyze. Next, ask individuals to flip the...

“I am. I think. I will.” Seek the secrets of words. Ayn Rand’s Anthem provides the text for a series of exercises that ask readers to analyze how Rand uses antimetabole, epistrophe, parallelism, and repetition to create meaning. Using...

Show your learners that a poem's context is important when trying to understand its meaning. First, they discuss "Now I knew I lost her--" and the literal references within the poem, as well as the symbolic references. They then read...