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Activity
Curated OER

Express Yourself Lesson Seed 15: Theme

For Teachers 6th Standards
Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...
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Organizer
1
1
McGraw Hill

Phonics Teachers Resource Book

For Teachers 1st - 3rd Standards
Looking to improve your classes literacy program? Then look no further. This comprehensive collection of resources includes worksheets and activities covering everything from r-controlled vowels and consonant digraphs, to the different...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.9

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
As the saying goes: there are no new stories. Standard 9 for reading literature in the Common Core addresses this fact and requires that learners be able to analyze how authors use the themes, stories, and characters of earlier works....
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Activity
1
1
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Identifying the theme or central idea of a text is a skill many young readers struggle with. It is also the second standard for reading literature in the Common Core. This resource, one from a series of Common Core lessons, can provide...
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Activity
1
1
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
You want your class to meet all of the Common Core standards, and here is one way to tackle the first speaking and listening standard. Given a theme to focus on from "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy, small groups come up...
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Unit Plan
Cleveland Metro School District

Novel Lesson for The Giver

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Lois Lowry's The Giver is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking works of literature in the middle school curriculum. Round out your novel unit with a collection of reading activities, comprehension questions, memoir and journal...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Animal Farm: Symbolism and Theme

For Teachers 11th - 12th
If you want some help with teaching themes and symbols in Animal Farm, this may be beneficial. After a class discussion about possible themes, class members write a paragraph explaining which they believe is the most important. Next,...
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Lesson Plan
Maine Content Literacy Project

Understanding Theme

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The ninth in a fourteen-lesson series, this plan marks a sort of midpoint in a unit devoted to the study of short stories. Pupils learn about theme and work on their short story projects by adding to their blogs, checking in with the...
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Lesson Plan
2
2
Maryland Department of Education

The Concept of Identity Lesson 3: The Archetypal Approach to Literary Criticism

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
As class members continue their study of approaches to literary criticism, readers examine the symbolism and archetypal patterns in John Knowles' A Separate Peace, and how these parallels are used to develop a theme in the story.
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Maine Content Literacy Project

The Process of Reading vocabulary, literary elements

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Cover Freytag's Triangle and examine Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" in this third lesson plan in a series of fourteen based around short stories. Learners take a quiz and discuss Freytag's triangle. They apply the triangle to "The Bet" and...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.7

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Use this resource's pairings of classical literature and paintings to practice the skill of comparing different artistic mediums with your ELA class. Addressing standard 7 for literature in the Common Core, the resource encourages your...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.3

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Focus on complex characters with a lesson from a series that teaches individual skills from the Common Core. Specifically, this resource provides practice with standard RL.9-10.3. Get pupils thinking and talking about characters with the...
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Lesson Plan
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.2

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
There is nothing more frustrating than discussing theme in literature, and now the Common Core requires that your learners determine two or more, and discuss the development of it throughout the text. This is crazy, but manageable with...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

After Reading: "Plot the Plot" Activity in the Library Media Class

For Teachers 6th - 8th
"Plot the plot" of "The Adventures of the Speckled Band" with your young readers. Take a few days to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story as a class or in pairs, having learners write down what they consider to be the most important...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bias and Crime in Media

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Critical thinking and social justice are central themes for this resource on bias and crime in media. The class views and discusses an incisive PSA that highlights assumptions based on race. Small groups read newspaper opinion pieces...
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Unit Plan
5
5
Santa Ana Unified School District

The Power of Point of View

For Teachers 7th Standards
Sometimes a whole story can change based on the perspective of the person telling it. Practice identifying and analyzing point of view in various reading passages and writing assignments with a language arts packet, complete with Common...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Close Read, Part 1: “Hugo, the Lord’s Nephew”

For Teachers 6th Standards
Fourth time is a charm. Learners complete multiple reads of Hugo, the Lord’s Nephew. On the fourth read, they make notes about each page on sticky notes. They then complete a think-pair-share activity with a partner to determine the...
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Activity
Curated OER

A Multi-Media Approach to Teaching The Grapes of Wrath

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Integrate history, math, and art into a study of The Grapes of Wrath with a series of activities that ask learners to investigate the social, political, economic, and environmental factors at play during the 1930s. Designed to be used...
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Activity
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.9

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Guided by close-reading questions, groups examine the similarities and differences between the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. In addition, they look at how the principles are presented in these two foundational US...
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Activity
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.7

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Comparing information found in images, charts, and graphs with that found in written text can be a challenge for even senior high scholars. Provide learners with an opportunity to practice this skill with an exercise that asks them to...
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Activity
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.6

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Sometimes it's all too easy to slip into informal language, ya know? Help your class master code-switching with the activity and drill provided here. The activity is a literature discussion where formal language is required. The...
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Lesson Plan
Maine Content Literacy Project

Introduction to Short Story Writers Say

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
There are so many authors of short stories, and your class can have the chance to study quite a few. This seventh lesson in a series of fourteen continues the decision-making process for the final assessment: a short story author study....
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Academy of American Poets

We Sing America

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Pair the famous poems "I Hear America Singing," by Walt Whitman, and "I, Too, Sing America," by Langston Hughes, with a more recent poem by Elizabeth Alexander called "Praise Song for the Day" to demonstrate a theme and introduce your...
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Lesson Plan
Prestwick House

The Poetry of Bob Dylan

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Bob Dylan's selection as the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first songwriter ever to receive the honor, has focused the attention of a new generation on the work of the legendary artist. Class members analyze the...