An engaging biography of "Hoosier" poet James Whitcomb Riley serves as a springboard for study of his unique dialect-based verse. Several activities illuminate differences between spoken vernacular and formal language. Learners record...

Langston Hughes' "Theme for English B" is featured in a instructional activity that asks pupils to first read a biography of Hughes and list things about his life they think are important. The class then reads the poem and compares what...

Students read poetry and a biography of poet Anne Carson as part of a creative writing lesson. In this poetry analysis lesson, students read about the poet, read her poetry, and analyze a photograph to then write a poem. Students write...

Phillis Wheatley's poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" is the focus of a lesson that asks readers to consider how the poem is a critique of slavery. Groups comprise a list of words and phrases they notice as well as questions...

Junior high learners discuss Lewis Carroll's classic story, Alice in Wonderland. They observe the image of childhood in his photographs and compare them to present-day images. There is a plethora of ideas and links for discussions...

Tumbling tumbleweeds! Scholars work with video clips, primary and secondary documents, and song lyrics to uncover life in the Old West. They examine song's lyrics to uncover myths told in the 1930s about life in the Wild West. 

Third graders explore about the Chinese rituals of poetry competition. They compare and contrast Chinese picnics with American picnics. Students create short poems, celebrating their own spring poetry picnic. They discuss words or...

High schoolers examine World War I poetry for historical context, poetic devices, and participate in a class discussion. They write an analysis of the poetry's form and its content.

Students study the structure and artistry of Dante's, Divine Comedy. They examine how romantic love is interpreted in the episode of Paolo and Francesca while experiencing literary allusions.

High schoolers examine the relationship between a poem's form and its content in Robert Frost's poem, 'Mending Wall.' They read and analyze the poem, explore websites, listen to an audio clip of Frost reading the poem, and write an...