American Literature Teacher Resources

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the best-known pieces of American literature. An eBook from the Library of Congress provides access to an early edition of the text. Original layout and illustrations are preserved within.

How do writers use words to protest injustice, challenge the status quo, and shape their own identities? Individuals watch and discuss a video, read author biographies, write poetry and journals, develop a slideshow, and complete a...

What characterizes modern literature? The first few slides of this 31-slide PowerPoint discuss what sparked the change to Modernism and discuss some of the key figures of the time (like Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud). The 20s and 30s are...

Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...

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...

While reading Arthur Miller's The Crucible, start or end each day with a journal activity. The project includes a list of prompts for each act of the play. Pupils choose a prompt every time they write and connect their own experiences to...

Ninth graders analyze American literature from the antebellum era of Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. In this American literature lesson, 9th graders work in groups to read documents for the lesson....

Middle schoolers prepare for and respond to literature selections. This package includes fourteen lessons from the American Literature, The Civil War and Its Aftermath: 1845-1880 series, each covering a different reading selection....

Students prepare for and respond to literature selections. This package includes nineteen lessons from the American Literature, A New Nation: 1750-1850 series, each covering a different reading selection. Pre-reading and response...

Learners prepare for and respond to literature selections. This package includes eleven lessons from the American Literature, The Earliest Days: Prehistory to 1750 each covering a different reading selection. Pre-reading and response...

Students prepare for and respond to literature selections. This package includes twelve lessons from the American Literature, Regionalism and Realism: 1865-1910 series, each covering a different reading selection. Pre-reading and...

Eleventh graders explore works of the Lost Generation writers of the 1920's. In this American literature lesson, 11th graders analyze provided selections from Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald and then respond to a writing prompt...

Students read a collection of stories and watch videos to learn about the Jewish assimilation in American literature. In this American literature lesson, students watch videos about Judaism, read stories from a contemporary Jewish...

Use this presentation about Thomas Paine's The American Crisis series to guide any number of assignments. The slides provide instructions for a literary terms assignment, an open response journal entry, two research writing projects, and...

The Great Gatsby has become one of the most iconic novels in American literature. An eBook allows readers to access the full text of the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. With the original words and paragraph breaks intact, new generations...

The words of Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience seem particularly relevant today, as are his writings and those of other transcendental thinkers who ask what it mean to live deliberately and what are the responsibilities of...

Students explore American literature authors. In this literature lesson plan, students review American literature authors and their main works.  Students then complete a worksheet matching the authors to their works.

I love Faulkner, his experimental style and stream of consciousness are so exciting. Your learners can analyze William Faulkner and his novel, The Sound and the Fury by defining his place in American literary history and exploring his...

How do transcendentalists believe you must learn about the world? Use this PowerPoint to define transcendentalism and explain reason and intuition. Social, political, and philosophical influences of this time are introduced, and a few...

This first in a series of four resources is designed for instructors to use Octavia E. Butler's Kindred in their classes. The packet includes an overview of the unit, a day-to-day calendar, links to background articles, and reading...

Bring multi-cultural experiences and literature into your language arts class with this lesson. Here, young readers explore the points of view of first and second-generation Asian immigrants with a list of various fiction and nonfiction...

Tenth graders read examples of writings by women authors showing their dissent. After completion of their reading, they brainstorm on why they believe female authors have criticized society. In groups, they use the Internet to research...

Students are introduced to the ideas of the American Dream at the turn of the century. They present their ideas on the American Dream at the turn of the century through a person characterized in Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology.

Students form groups to help each other read, analyze, and conduct research on important background information about Jews and their assimilation into modern American society. They write their own stories of assimilation.