The final lesson in the "What Makes Democracy Work?" series examines the connections between imagination, literature, and democracy. Class members listen to a podcast, read an excerpt from Azar Nafisi's, The Republic of Imagination, and...

Examine the contributions of African-Americans in the worlds of art and literature. Over the course of a few days, young scholars will read and analyze a poem, a short story, and a piece of art. They complete a range of...

Who is Mo Willems? Explore the author with your class. Learners read books written by Willems, compare and contrast the characters therein, and make predictions about what will happen. Finish off this author study by having small groups...

Historical fiction can be a valuable asset when learning about the past. Integrate several novels written about the Civil War into your social studies unit, with groups of four working collaboratively to comprehend the novel from...

Looking to set up literature circles in your class? Use these materials to support pupils when they meet in groups. Pupils take on various roles over the course of reading and meet with their groups to share the work they have done on...

Dive into classical Chinese literature with this packet. Provided first is a comprehensive summary and a half-page long historical context of Water Margin. As your class reads the section entitled "Wu Sung Fights the Tiger," pose the...

Class members identify bullying in contemporary texts and role play how they might change those scenes to examples of anti-bullying. They then re-define their initial definitions of bullying and discuss what they...

How was Edgar Allan Poe able to create "intriguing, memorable, and lasting literature"? To answer this question, learners analyze the syntax, diction, and characterizations in Poe's poems and short stories and compare the impact of these...

Use this packet as a companion to your study of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. The resource breaks the novel up into several chunks, and for each chunk provides activities, background information, vocabulary, graphic organizers, and response...

Does your class love The Simpsons? It might seem dated, but with reruns constantly popping up on television, this show still holds the attention of most of your learners. Play the opening sequence of an episode, and brainstorm any...

Yo-ho-ho, Treasure Island can be lots of fun with the aid of a resource that guides readers' exploration of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of buccaneers and buried gold. It's the glory of the read that will turn your...

Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record...

Provide your class with an opportunity to examine race through a variety of literary works. They read and analyze a chosen poem, interview, speech, or story describing race in America. They then use key words from the original work to...

Dive your class into a reading of Island of the Blue Dolphins with this in-depth study guide. Breaking the novel into three parts, the resource begins each section with a focus activity that identifies a specific theme or question...

Case studies, an examination of images, and readings of passages from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are used to spark conversations in ESL/ELD social studies classes about this highly-charged topic. Using a variety of...

The words of Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience seem particularly relevant today, as are his writings and those of other transcendental thinkers who ask what it mean to live deliberately and what are the responsibilities of...

Gear up for Halloween by studying the horror genre with your class and analyzing films and texts to uncover the genre's traditional conventions.

Imagine an entire course devoted to dystopian literature. If that concept appeals to you, check out this course that uses 1984 as the anchor text and includes classic short stories as well.

There is a reason why an Oscar is given each year for the Best Adaptation Screenplay. Adaptations are the focus of an exercise that asks class members to compare a work of literature with a least one adaptation of the work into a...

Introduce young learners to the subject of economics using their favorite stories and books. Including 24 separate lessons, this guide covers economic principles such as trade, scarcity, consumer goods and services, renewable and...

The author study gets an update in a research project designed for high schoolers. Scholars search for information about literary figures that connects them to their times, their works, their themes, and other writers. Researchers also...

While many young scholars are familiar with the Holocaust, they may not understand the specific history that led to the unprecedented atrocity. The first lesson in the unit helps teachers gauge their pupils' background knowledge. A...

Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...

It's no myth: this packet on Greek mythology is an excellent addition to your social studies curriculum. With writing activities, such as short answer responses and biopoems, and reading activities, which include creation stories and...