Prestwick House
Analyzing Multiple Interpretations of Literature
There is a reason why an Oscar is given each year for the Best Adaptation Screenplay. Adaptations are the focus of an exercise that asks class members to compare a work of literature with a least one adaptation of the work into a...
Curated OER
Fear, and Conquering Fear
The Lord of the Flies and The Kite Runner are the core texts in a unit that asks learners to examine various texts that show how fear can be a destructive force or it can be an agent of change. Individuals they design a project that...
OCR
A Streetcar Named Desire Delivery Guide
Instructors who want to use A Streetcar Named Desire as a core text need not rely of the kindness of other teachers to find engaging activities to support a study of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize winning drama.
Art Institute of Chicago
Lesson Plan: A Writer’s Odyssey
Looking for a fresh approach to an end-of-unit project for The Odyssey? Check out a resource that has class members write their own hero's journey short story and then craft an illustration that depicts their tale. Apollonio di...
University of Virginia
Analyzing Social Commentary in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn continues to be one of the most frequently banned books. The satire and social commentary present challenges when using the book as a core text. Direct readers' attention to how Twain uses plot,...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Days 13 and 14
How important are sound effects in films? In stage plays? In radio programs? To gain an understanding of the impact of these special effects, class members watch a short video spoof of the sound in a scene from Star Wars: A New...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 12
Class members compare the final 30 minutes of Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope with Act V of Doescher's play, William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope and consider how the choice of media influences viewers' impression of the...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Days 8 and 9
How does an author's choice of artistic medium influence an audience? What about how an author chooses to transform original source material? These are the questions class members grapple with as they compare scenes from episode IV...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 6
How can a screenplay create meaning and drama in ways that other forms of writing cannot? That is the question class members must answer as they compare the cantina scene of the screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope with...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - The Ruin
Cross-comparison, the technique of focusing on two different texts with the same themes, motifs, events, etc., is employed in an exercise that asks groups to examine two different translations of “The Ruin,” a poem, written in Old...
Curated OER
Moral Development in Camus' The Stranger
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Readers of The Stranger rate Mersault’s moral development (or lack thereof) using Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development scale. Using specific...
Curated OER
Measure for Measure: Anticipation Guide
Be bold and never fearful! Tempt your scholars with an Anticipation Guide for Measure for Measure. Before reading Shakespeare’s problem play, class members label a series of statements as either true or false in their opinion. (It’s okay...
Curated OER
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
How do artists affect and how are artists affected by the time periods in which they live? Learners examine the life and work of controversial and influential cultural artist Patti Smith as they seek answers to this essential question....
Curated OER
Screen Play
High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a sample...
Curated OER
Oliver Twist Goes to Hollywood
How does Oliver Twist, the novel written by Charles Dickens, compare with its screenplay adaptation? Although the activity doesn't require learners to have read the novel, the similarities and differences of the highlighted passages...
Curated OER
Making the Old New Again
How does a new version of a Shakespearean play change in the adaptation process? Use this New York Times' Learning Network lesson to consider texts that have been produced in different media. Middle schoolers examine the latest version...
Curated OER
That's Moor Like It!
How do modern adaptations of Shakespearean plays relate to their original source material? Middle and high schoolers focus on Shakespeare's play Othello and its screen adaptation "O" to explore how modern film adaptations of Shakespeare...
Curated OER
The Red Badge of Courage: A New Kind of Realism
Is it possible to tell a true war story? Tim O’Brien says that fiction is for “getting at the truth when the truth isn’t sufficient for the truth.” To get at the truth about war, class members examine primary source materials from the...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Researching and Writing
Designed for teachers, this resource identifies problems learners face when attempting a research project and approaches instructors can use to help their class members overcome these obstacles. Suggestions are included for how to help...
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...
Curated OER
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
"People Everyday" offers class members an opportunity to develop their literacy analysis skills and to develop media literacy. Guided by an included list of discussion questions, groups examaine the word choice, literary devices used,...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Charles Baudelaire: Poète Maudit (The Cursed Poet)
After learning the main ideas of the Decadent movement, students work in small groups to read and translate poems by the French poet Charles Baudelaire using basic etymology skills. They then read the accurate English translations to see...
Curated OER
The Art of Violence
Violence and human suffering, as represented in art and film, are the focus of an investigation of the power of visual images and the moral implications of such representations. Class members examine “Guernica,” Pablo Picasso’s massive...
Curated OER
"War of the Worlds": A Broadcast Re-Creation
Why did Orson Welles' 1938 Broadcast of a adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds cause such a panic? To answer this question, class members listen to the original broadcast and research the panic that resulted. They then engage...