Students read Patrick Henry's speech. They review prior learning about persuasive writing, and the American revolutionary war. Students listen as the teacher reads Patrick Henry's speech aloud to the class using lots of emotion and...

Students read poems about Tuberculosis by John Keats. Using the poems, they identify similies, metaphors, personification and imagery. In groups, they make connections about the author's outlook on life and how his disease impacted his...

Students create primitive forms and caricatures to represent meaningful figures and/or events in their own lives, present their own works to the class, and attempt to interpret the relevant meaning from other students' work.

Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience. They apply knowledge of language structure,...

Ninth graders read the play, "A Raisin in the Sun," and participate in a class discussion about "identity." They discuss racial identity and examine and interpret how community influences a personal identity. They demonstrate how...

Students investigate the many forms of Haitian art. They compare the art of some different cultures, religions, countries, and philosophies. Students also read the biography of an artist to build context for a particular piece of...

Students discover the challenges of translating poetry written in a character-based language through the study of Lao-tzu's work, Daodejing. This lesson includes possible extensions and evaluations.

Tenth graders read and analyze the first two chapters of the novel, 'Bless Me, Ultima.' They respond to a partners journal entry, discuss the two major landscapes in the novel, and create a drawing/interpretation of what these landscapes...

Students identify subtle messages advertisers send (often unintentionally) about age in the course of trying to sell products; to analyze the consequences, both positive and negative, those messages have on the American audience; to...

Fourth graders compare and contrast Fudge and Peter, two main characters from "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing". They use a software template to analyze and compare the characters in a rough draft, edit their work and then produce a...

High schoolers discover the techniques of creating Japanese Tanka poetry through in-class discussions and a fun group competition. This lesson is an excellent introduction to Japanese literature and/or poetry.

Students compare postcard samples from Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX. They examine them to find common elements they share (tone, mood, romanticized themes, artistic elements, etc.) They create postcards to show the "real" Austin.

Students assess the diversity of the photographs taken by a Czech photographer, that illustrate how existed in 1920's Texas. Then students compare and contrast these photographs with more current photographs of Texans and evaluate in...

Learners explore the various societal and cultural "lenses" which color their perspectives and life experiences by reading the short story "What Means Switch" by Gish Jen. They discuss how the cultural ideas and beliefs affect the...

Students become familiar with the achievements of the artist Faith Ringgold. They take notice of the patterns in their environment. They connect the mathematical concept of patterns to create a class quilt.

Fourth graders identify the character traits of Peter in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. They find quotations in the story that illlustrate the traits. Students use Kidspiration to write their reports on a template.

Students create a six-panel byobu (Japanese visual storytelling) based upon the book "To Kill A Mockingbird" in this lesson suitable for an early High School Language Arts or Social Studies classroom.

A Wikipedia Encyclopedia article that defines aesthetics and discusses it in a number of contexts, including literature. A broad definition of the term is provided at the top of the page, and then links are provided to discussions of the...

This site features an article entitled "Tragic and Comic Visions in The Brothers Karamazov" written by contemporary author Joyce Carol Oates. The article originally appeared in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Winter 1968-1969.

Writers and craftsmen including Alexander Pope, John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, and Josiah Wedgwood found inspiration in the classical period. This article explores how their works adopted the style, genres, aesthetic values, and subjects...

Defines the term aesthetics in a number of different contexts including both the philosophy of art and the criticism of art. This is a fairly clear discussion of a rather complex topic broken down into a number of subsections. Although...

Explore the world of Twentieth Century British literature through this informative site. Find out how and why Georgian and Modernism movements developed. Includes a quiz.

This site gives an overview of classicism, then proceeds to compare it with neoclassicism. The article then explores the roots of the term "classicism" and its inherent meaning to the Greeks and Romans. Contains a French translation.