While many young historians would say the United States' form of democracy is the longest living, the confederacy established by Hiawatha and the Haudenosaunee is America's precursor. The activity set, complete with a beautifully...

Origin stories aren't just for comic books. Learners explore the Inca origin story and compare it to other familiar creation myths with an installment of the Native American Stories series. An easy-to-use lesson plan includes an...

Most learners likely are not familiar with Statis Myrivilis or his anti-war writings, but his works spur scholars to debate over the role of protest literature in wartime. While the video does situate Myrivilis within the context of the...

While many can identify Ernest Hemingway's famous works, they may be unaware of his service during World War I and how that affected his literary contributions. An video details Hemingway's service in World War I and explains events and...

A mysterious woman. A humble sharing of a meal. A generous gift. The universal value of generosity is threaded throughout a core Choctaw legend on why the tribe began to grow corn. Using part of the Native American Sacred Stories series,...

How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Class members read some of Ellison's non-fiction writings about blues and jazz, listen to records, watch videos, and engage in student-centered discussions. They then produce podcasts...

Encourage readers to determine if Hamlet's madness is actually divinest sense. Class members analyze the words of the play before studying related texts, including T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," scenes from...

Discuss classical appeals of rhetoric through the speeches of Winston Churchill and FDR. Learners read, annotate, and analyze the speeches by the men before using a graphic organizer to track the use of ethos, pathos, and logos. 

Using Visual Thesaurus software, class members participate in a computer-based spelling bee. Then they work in groups to analyze the words and use deductive reasoning to infer spelling patterns. They then present one of their "rules" to...

Building one idea at a time. Scholars complete a close read and multiple activities related to Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon to build upon their understanding of central ideas and motifs. They take part in meaningful discussion...

It's time to put it all together! Using the resource, scholars complete an end-of-unit assessment. They write a multi-paragraph essay, comparing either Audre Lorde's "From the House of Yemanjá" or "An Address by Elizabeth Cady Stanton"...

How does the theme of gender inequality develop in Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own and Shakespeare's Hamlet? Pupils craft a multi-paragraph response to analyze the relationship between the texts. They use evidence from both works to...

There's a fine line between madness and genius. Using the resource, scholars complete a mid-unit assessment based on their study of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. They write a multi-paragraph response, analyzing how two central...

Revenge, mortality, madness—what are the central ideas from Shakespeare's Hamlet? Scholars answer the question by writing multi-paragraph responses. They also identify and discuss literary devices from the play. 

To write an essay or not to write an essay—that is the question! Scholars complete a mid-unit assessment based on their study of Hamlet. They write essays analyzing how Shakespeare develops Hamlet's character in relation to other...

How does Shakespeare employ figurative language to emphasize central ideas in Hamlet? Using an interesting resource, learners complete a Quick Write to answer the question. Additionally, they continue their study of the play by exploring...

Scholars read, analyze, and evaluate argumentative writing. Discussion about arguments of mass incarceration evolves from The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Learners participate in group discussions and...

The novels of John Green cover the gamut of teenager emotions. A guide to his works provides classroom lesson plans for the novels Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, The Fault in Our Stars, and Paper Towns. Each lesson...