Louisiana Department of Education
The Scarlet Letter
Use Nathanial Hawthorne's immortal text on the influence of religion on the early American settlements, as well as its continued impact on American culture, with a unit that focuses on The Scarlet Letter. In addition to Hawthorne's...
Curated OER
Our “Civilized” Society
The Scarlet Letter is the anchor text in a four-week unit that examines Hawthorne's novel through the lens of the intolerances found in a supposed civilized society. In addition to their reading, class members watch clips from TV shows,...
Curated OER
Constructing Narrative from the Migrant Experience in Literature
Excerpts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and from John Fante's Ask the Dust, as well as a variety of primary source documents provide the background for an examination of the migrant experience from 1920-1945.
National Endowment for the Arts
Teacher's Guide: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A 10-lesson unit takes high schoolers through a novel study of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. To start, students learn about Fitzgerald's background and gain historical context that prepares them for a reading of the book. The...
Curated OER
Sample Lesson 1: Is This Source Credible? Useful? Why and Why Not?
Build background knowledge for The Book Thief by Markus Zusak while teaching your pupils how to determine the credibility of online sources. The plan is designed to take place over the course of two days. On the first day, model how to...
Japan Society
Akutagawa Ryunosuke and the Taisho Modernists
Japan's Taisho Period was a time when authors like Akutagawa and other Japanese modernists began to experiment with point of view and literary form, making the literature produced during this time period a natural choice for teaching...
Japan Society
Changing Times, Changing Styles: New Japanese Literary Styles of the Late Nineteenth Century
Focusing on Doppo's "Unforgettable People" and late nineteenth century Japanese literature, this resource also leads to discussions of form being dictated by content. Explore the development of new literary styles first-hand by...
Curated OER
Figures of Speech Slide Show
This slide show on figures of speech includes definitions, images, and examples from real texts for several common terms: metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration, irony, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, and imagery. The presentation is...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Understanding Theme
The ninth in a fourteen-lesson series, this plan marks a sort of midpoint in a unit devoted to the study of short stories. Pupils learn about theme and work on their short story projects by adding to their blogs, checking in with the...
Curated OER
Speech in the Virginia Convention
“. . .different men often see the same subject in different lights. . .” but the great orator Patrick Henry used all the skills at his command to craft a speech to convince listeners to see things as he did--that liberty was worth dying...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.6
It ‘s assessment check list time, and you have nothing to prove that your learners mastered the skill RL.11-12.6. Rest assured, here is a plan that is sure to appease your administrator. It offers solid examples on the difference between...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem
High schoolers analyze modernist poetry and the role of speaker in example poems. Learners study modernist poems from the Romanticism and Victorian periods as well as Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Using a...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: "Top Twenty Figures of Speech" [Pdf]
This is a two-page PDF of the "Top Twenty Figures of Speech" which provides 20 literary techniques with their definitions from GrammarAbout.com.
Other
Mostly Fiction: Latin American Writers and Magic
The writer of this site tells about her experience with reading literature written in the "magical realism" style. It is a personal response to literature, rather than a scholarly analysis, but it is well-written and knowledgable. Many...
University of Toronto (Canada)
University of Toronto Libraries: Glossary of Literary Theory
A glossary of definitions for terms related to literary theory. Click each word in the glossary list and a definition with examples appears.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Ap Literature & Composition: Satire and Humor
This unit focuses on satire and humor; it defines satire as a literary device used to expose follies, vices, and hypocrites to bring about change. It includes links to Gullivers Travels and Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, "The Rape of...
Yale University
Yale University: Open Yale Courses: Introduction to Theory of Literature
Access any one of twenty-five lectures, in audio, video, or text format, from a university-level course in literary analysis and critical literary theories. Considers postmodernism, New Criticism, feminism, deconstructionism, and an...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Satire
This video lesson focuses on satire including its definition, its purpose, how it works, media examples, and literary examples. Real Player is required.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: American Lit: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Satire
This lesson focuses on satire and parody. Students read the text of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and its parody "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch" by Weird Al Yankovic and compare/contrast the two. The audio of Weird Al's...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway:diction and Tone (English I Reading)
In this learning module, the user will learn and apply the concepts of tone and diction. Tone is the author's attitude toward the writing. Tone is largely determined by diction or the words that an author chooses.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Dramatic Irony (English I Reading)
This lesson focuses on dramatic irony including what it is, it's purpose, examples in various genre, and a practice exercise. RL.11-12.6 Irony/Satire/etc
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Irony, Sarcasm, and Paradox (English Ii Reading)
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will learn to evaluate the role of irony, paradox, and sarcasm in literary nonfiction such as speeches and essays. It includes the definitions and...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Irony, Sarcasm, Paradox (English I Reading)
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, students will learn to identify and explain the purposes of irony and paradox in poetry. Both of these poetic devices are ways of saying one thing and meaning...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Irony (English Iii Reading)
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learning to read and appreciate irony is the ultimate test of your skill at reading between the lines and can take considerable practice. This lesson will help you acquire...