Curated OER
The Real World Revisited
Class members participate in a series of hands on, online, and multimedia activities to identify the difference between primary and secondary sources. They watch a related video and visit a variety of sites to locate primary and...
Curated OER
Things Fall Apart: Research, Writing & Presentation Project
A great resource for your unit on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Small groups conduct research about related topics (list included), write papers, present PowerPoint slide shows, and take a student-created test. Fill in a few gaps to...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 13: Unit Culmination - Symposium
To conclude a unit on the concept of diversity in world literature, class members conduct a symposium on "African Literature in Global Perspectives." In order to earn a spot on the panel, individuals craft an original thesis that...
Japan Society
National Identity and Literature from Okinawa
A lesson plan originally designed around the short story "Mr. Saito of Heaven Building" by Yamanokuchi Baku, this resource provides historical background, discussion questions, and brief writing assignments that help your class explore...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Twinning At-Risk Students
Students at-risk in high school and primary grades pair up to read and write together. They create books modeled after authors and illustrators. They hold a parents' day to display their completed books.
Boston University
South African Short Stories: Apartheid, Civil Rights, and You
How are short stories from South Africa connected to issues of civil rights in the United States? A unit plan uses South African short stories to discuss issues such as apartheid, colonization, and civil rights. Questions and activities...
What So Proudly We Hail
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: A Lesson on the Declaration of Independence
What does it mean to say that a right is unalienable? How did the founding fathers convey this revolutionary concept in the Declaration of Independence? Engage in a close reading and analysis of the Declaration of Independence, and...
Bright Hub Education
Teaching "Gone with the Wind" in High School: Ideas & Activities
Plan on using Gone with the Wind as a reading selection? Here's a packet of prompts for activities and assessments.
Curated OER
Close Reading of a Sonnet
Students practice reading sonnets line by line to find the message of the sonnet. In this sonnet lesson, students read a sonnet one line at a time as the teacher projects it for the entire class. As each line is shown, students focus...
Curated OER
Inside the Mind of the Unreliable Narrator
Create interdisciplinary connections and promote high-level inferences by studying unreliable narrators.
Curated OER
Shakespeare: Standing on the Bookshelves of Giant
A phenomenal lesson on Shakespeare! Middle and high school learners create WebQuests about the texts and authors that Shakespeare himself studied when he was in grammar school. They use a variety of media in order to create dramatic...
Curated OER
Poetry Through Digital Storytelling
Bring digital storytelling to your language arts class! To begin, learners select their own topic, such as a poem that reflects a life experience they had or a historical figure who interests them. Then they work to create a storyboard...
Curated OER
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding - Essay Questions
In this literature worksheet, students respond to 29 short answer and essay questions about Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." Students may also link to an online interactive quiz on the novel at the bottom of the page.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Biographers
High schoolers research biographical facts about Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce and complete literary analysis activities. In this biographical lesson plan, students research basic biographical facts about Poe and Bierce. High...
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
Understanding Human Rights Through One Woman's Struggle: Aung San Suu Kyi
Young scholars analyze human rights in the international community. In this human rights lesson, students explore the United Nations, and the Declaration of Human Rights. Young scholars read about Aung San Suu Kyi and watch a video about...
Curated OER
Lincoln's Legend and Legacy
Students evaluate Lincoln's impact on American History. In this Civil War activity, students view a film clip of writings about Lincoln. Students take notes and compare how the writings define his legacy. Students write their own poem or...
Curated OER
A Year in the Work of the Bard
Students study the life and times of Shakespeare. In this William Shakespeare instructional activity, students research the noted Web sites to discover details about Shakespeare's life and the times he lived in. Students also virtually...
Curated OER
New York City: Passionate About Shakespeare
Students read passages from Shakespeare and have a Town Hall meeting in which they defend Shakespeare as part of American culture.
Curated OER
The Windrush Generation
Students complete a variety of language based activities to study the feelings of the Caribbean immigrants who arrived in the UK in the 1940's and 1950's. They use a poem as the basis to begin their studies of the Windrush Generation....
Curated OER
Taking Notes from Written Documents
In this notetaking skills activity, students discuss the main events and opinions of a document, as well as listing three things the document tells about life at the time it was written.