New ReviewZora Neal Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Maya Angelou are featured in a guided inquiry unit. High schoolers research the lives and works of these and other Black women writers and craft an argument, using evidence from their research, to...

Uncle Tom's Cabin was written to expose the evils of slavery. Published in 1852 by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe to demonstrate the terrors and reality of slavery African Americans were experiencing. The interesting resource...

Believe it or not, the world's first author was a woman! A short, illustrated video tells the story of Enheduanna, a Sumerian princess, priestess, and poet who is credited as being the first author. 

Afraid to read Virginia Woolf? Check out a short video that presents arguments for why you should read the works of this famous writer.

What does despair feel like, and what does it look like? Pupils explore the theme of sadness with the sixth episode from the first season of the "There's a Poem for That" playlist. They watch an animated representation of Cristin O'Keefe...

How can poems help people express their innermost feelings? With episode three from the first season of the There's a Poem for That playlist, pupils listen to the narrator share about her inner world. As Andrea Gibson reads her poem,...

How can someone manipulate language to describe an essential resource such as water? Pupils consider the question with the second episode from season one of the There's a Poem for That playlist. Learners watch an animated version of the...

There is more to literature of the American South than Civil War battles and Scarlett O'Hara. A short video introduces viewers to the works of Flannery O'Connor and her world of unique characters that causes readers to consider the dark...

As Amy lament's Jo's decision to rid herself of her singular beauty, Marmee puts a hand to her mouth, awed by her daughter's generosity. Watch the pivotal scene from a Masterpiece production of Little Women, and lead a language arts...

Jo's decision not to marry her childhood friend Laurie broke the hearts of many readers—but it also represented Little Women's successful break from traditional nineteenth-century gender roles. A short clip illustrates Jo's desire to...

How much of Jo's relationship with her writing is based on Louisa May Alcott's struggle to keep both her artistic integrity and her family finances afloat? Watch a short clip from a longer documentary on the author of Little Women that...

Readers may not immediately think of transcendentalism when they consider Little Women, but its tenets of self-reliance, civil disobedience, and progressivism were major influences on Louisa May Alcott and her body of work. Learn more...

Teach the importance of context and perspective with a unit focused on Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. The first lesson considers the role of female characters and readers, including the gender expectations of the time. The...

Women's voices are becoming more prominent in the world of literature, but for centuries, this wasn't the case. Young historians research a woman whose writings are considered to be lost, out of print, or forgotten. They develop an oral...

Learn more about the work of Gwendolyn Brooks with a language arts lesson. Young learners read an informational passage about the acclaimed poet before attempting a shape poem of their own.

Students, while reading and discussing the two texts by Charlotte Bronte and Jean Rhys, compare/contrast the two main characters and juxtapose them as the same character told from two different points of view. They gain insight of how to...

Students are introduced to Nadine Gordimer's Town and Country Lovers in the context of the acts of apartheid. They analyze Gordimer's depiction of racist legislation at its most intimate levels. Students assess how to weave a political...

Twelfth graders explore, discuss and experience a wide variety of texts from around the world written by women. They analyze the different genres covered and view a lot of unique point of views from different female perspectives. Topics...

Students, after reading and discussing the two texts by Flannery O'Connor, "Good Country People" and "Greenleaf," analyze the plot, tone, characters, themes and setting in each story. They write their own short stories dealing with a...

Students, after reading and analyzing Rebecca Brown's "Forgiveness" and Christine Delea's "CoCo Chanel in the Stairwell," explore and focus on the author's tone and genre analysis. They interpret different rhetorical situations as they...

Students, after reading and analyzing, "A Room of One's Own," by Virginia Woolf, analyze how creating and defending one's position as well as how narrative functions as a rhetorical device. They evaluate and focus in on Shakespeare's...

Pupils, through two pieces of writing, identify poetic/language devices through the speakers, personification , imagery, metaphor, etc. They assess the patterns those devices are used in and analyze the theme of each. Each student writes...