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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

In Her Shoes: Lois Weber and the Female Filmmakers Who Shaped Early Hollywood

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Lois Weber has been forgotten. So have Dorothy Davenport Reid, Gene Gauntier, and many others. High school sleuths use advanced search engines to investigate these women and discover clues to their disappearance from filmography and...
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Study Guide
Penguin Books

A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Poems by Robert Frost A Boy’s Will and North of Boston

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
Here's a must-have guide for instructors who use Robert Frost's poems in their classes. The 24-page guide focuses on poems included in Frost's first two volumes of poems, background information on the poet, and what Frost thought was an...
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Study Guide
Penguin Books

Teacher’s Guide: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
A 10-page guide to John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men includes a brief plot summary, information about preparing readers for the language in the novel, pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading questions, essay prompts, and project...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Character vs. Society in The Invisible Man

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed Standards
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is difficult to read and difficult to teach. The novel is so highly regarded that it is one of most often listed as an option for the AP Literature and Composition exam. The materials in this packet from PBS...
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PPT
National Humanities Center

Teaching The Great Gatsby: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar

For Teachers 11th - 12th
The 41 slides in a professional development seminar model how to use close reading techniques to examine the many layers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In addition to passages from the novel, slides provide biographical...
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Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Decoding the Dystopian Characteristics of Macintosh’s “1984” Commercial

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Known as one of the most iconic advertisements of the 20th century, Macintosh's "1984" commercial has become more of a social statement. Present the ad to a new audience of viewers with a lesson focused on identifying dystopian...
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Handout
3
3
Loudoun County Public Schools

Figurative Language Packet

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
A definitive resource for your figurative language unit includes several worksheets and activities to reinforce writing skills. It addresses poetic elements such as simile and metaphor, personification, hyperbole, and idioms, and...
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Lesson Plan
Yale University

What Lies Beneath: A Strategy for Introducing Literary Symbolism

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.” You’re never too old for Dr. Seuss and using The Sneetches and The Lorax is a great way to introduce readers to allegories, parables, and literary symbolism. The lessons...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan: Finding Treasures Within

For Teachers K - 5th
Sherlock Holmes had fantastic skills of observation. Your super sleuths will examine the pattern, rhythm, texture, and color of a painting to uncover the symbolism beneath. A great activity, that incorporates observation, art analysis,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Statue of Liberty: The Meaning and Use of a National Symbol

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Engage your class in a series of activities, each related to the use or analysis of symbols used to convey patriotic or national concepts. They identify different national symbols and explain their meanings, discussing the importance of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry Shopping Spree

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Scholars demonstrate the ability to evaluate authors' use of literary elements such as metaphor, simile, personification, imagery, and onomatopoeia. They are provided with a checklist and must shop for poems that contain the poetry terms...
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Interactive
Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Close Reading of Poetry: Practice 3 (English II Reading)

For Students 10th Standards
Poems by Shel Silverstein, Emily Dickinson, Jean Toomer, Maya Angelou, and others offer users of the final interactive in a ten-part set to demonstrate what they have learned about how writers use imagery, metaphors, allusions, and...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

Abigail and John in Love

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The second lesson in the series asks groups to analyze an exchange of love letters between Abigail and John Adams. Scholars identify the many allusions and references in the letters and consider what they can infer about the writers.
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Voices from the Past: History and Literature

For Teachers 10th - 11th Standards
Art can enhance the understanding of history. That's the big idea in a instructional activity that has young scholars read Randall Jarrell's poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" and an excerpt from John Hersey's Hiroshima, which...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

"The Interlopers": Are You Ready to Rumble? Conflict, Motivation, and Setting

For Teachers 10th - 11th Standards
Capulets and Montagues. Sharks and Jets. Nortenos and Surenos. Gradwitzes and Znaeyms? Hector Hugh Munro's short story "The Interlopers" invites high schoolers to consider the causes of conflicts and reflect on what it takes to resolve...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

If You're a Bird, I'm a Bird: Symbolism

For Teachers 8th - 9th Standards
Would a bluebird be as scary as a vulture? Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is the central text in a lesson plan about symbolism. After a close reading of the poem, learners consider what the raven might represent to the narrator. They then...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

It’s Never Too Late to Apologize: Character Development and Theme in “The Scarlet Ibis”

For Teachers 9th Standards
Sometimes saying I'm sorry just doesn't cut it. Scholars examine a series of apology poems, songs, and stories and consider each speaker's regrets. Using what they have learned, they analyze James Hurst's short story, "The Scarlet Ibis,"...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

It Wasn't Me: "The Crucible"

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Scholars complete their study of the collective fear in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" by conducting a mock trial to determine how many witches are in the class. Groups then analyze sections of the play for the literary devices used and...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Locating Archetypes in Pop Culture, Literature, and Life

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Archetypes help readers connect literature to the world around them. A lesson plan uses elements of pop culture to teach about archetypal traits of common characters  and discuss issues of perception and other literary devices. At the...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Where I'm From: Poetry

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
We carry memories of where we're from; tweens and teens can capture these memories by first listening to several memory poems and then crafting their own. They analyze literary devices other poets use, brainstorm a list of images they...
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Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Should Washington's NFL Team Change Their Name?

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
"What's in a name?" Is it irrelevant, as Juliet suggests in Shakespeare's play, or is nomenclature deeply significant? Young scholars weigh in on the debate by examining the controversy over the NFL's Washington, D.C. Redskins. Groups...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
K20 LEARN

Lord of the Flies Unit, Lesson 8: In The End

For Teachers 9th Standards
To end the unit, groups use the Honeycomb Harvest strategy to show connections among a character, symbols, and themes in the novel and then create an Anchor Chart for the character that includes a symbol that best represents him. They...
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Lesson Plan
1
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K20 LEARN

Lord of the Flies Unit, Lesson 7: Good To Be Bad

For Teachers 9th Standards
The seventh lesson in the Lord of the Flies unit asks scholars to consider whether or not an individual can overcome the worst thing they have ever done. Groups read different articles related to the question, share their expertise in a...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
K20 LEARN

Lord of the Flies Unit, Lesson 4: Bad to the Bone

For Teachers 9th Standards
Is the nature of humans inherently good or evil? That is the question scholars consider in the fourth lesson of the Lord of the Flies unit. In a Four Corners activity, they examine statements about human nature and stand by the poster...