Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
Moving to the Poems of Angel Island
A poem carved on Angel Island's walls is the guiding text of a instructional activity that challenges scholars to put movement into a written piece of art. After warm up-activities, learners play a game of "Pass the Clap" and "Pass the...
Academy of American Poets
The Immigrant Experience
The Buttonhook by Mary Jo Salter is the focus of a unit that explores the immigration experience to Ellis Island. First, scholars bring in an artifact that represents their heritage. A group-exercise allows them to share and discuss...
Simon & Schuster
Curriculum Guide to: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations can prove to be a challenge for instructors who choose to use Dickens's novel as required reading. Here's a curriculum guide that includes lessons that address some of these challenges. The first lesson in critical...
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Proofreading
Where's the proof? Using the resource, scholars learn proofreading marks and complete a series of worksheets to practice using them correctly. Then, they make intentional errors to a writing passage before switching with a partner to...
University of California
Silk Roads
We take for granted globalization today, but its roots run deep within China centuries ago. Using texts from ancient Chinese historians and photographs of items showing growing Eurasian trade, scholars look at the traces of...
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
The Power of Propaganda in Shaping Civic Actions and Understanding
Propaganda posters are powerful. Using images from The Art of War: American Poster Art 1941-1945 exhibit, young historians analyze the symbols, images, colors, and text used to rally support for World War II. Through seven activities,...
Academy of American Poets
On Marilyn Nelson's Poem “1905”
Marilyn Nelson's poem, "1905," asks young scholars to compare and contrast George Washington Carver and Albert Einstein. After studying images of the two scientists and listing their observations, class members listen to several readings...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Symbolism in Lord of the Flies
Readers of Lord of the Flies examine the four main symbols William Golding develops in his novel: the island, the conch, the Lord of the Flies effigy, and fire. Partners select one of the major symbols and create an image by adding words...
National Woman's History Museum
Ida B. Wells: Suffragist and Anti-Lynching Activist
Suffragette, investigative journalist, and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells is the focus of a instructional activity that has young historians study the work of this amazing woman. Scholars watch a video biography of Wells, read the...
Trinity University
Dante's Inferno: Allegory, Hero's Journey, or Epic Poem? Yes!
Dante Alighieri's "The Inferno" is the central text in a unit designed for high school seniors. Scholars compare the Christian concept of Hell to Dante's. In addition, they examine the tale as an example of epic poetry, as an allegory,...
K20 LEARN
A Stone's Throw Away - The Dangers Of Tradition: The Lottery
Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" is the anchor text for a lesson that teaches young readers how to use the Tip of the Iceberg strategy to go below the surface of a tale. After reading the short story and an article about the...
K20 LEARN
Between The Lines: Inferences In The Narrative Life Of Frederick Douglass Excerpt
Good literature can be much like an iceberg requiring readers to presume that the bulk of the meaning may be inferred to be found below the surface. Here's a instructional activity that asks scholars to conduct a close reading of...
K20 LEARN
Growing Themes
The theme of a work is not a single word! Rather it is a statement that reflects what a writer believes or wants readers to understand about a topic or subject. Here's a short, but powerful lesson that utilizes passages from The...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "November 2: Día De Los Muertos" By Alberto Ríos
Scholars examine a colorful and detailed picture, then view an engaging video in preparation for reading the poem "November 2: Día De Los Muertos" by Alberto Ríos. Learners discuss their observations, feelings conveyed, and the...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "Tamales on Christmas" by Christian Robinson
A lesson spotlights the poem "Tamales on Christmas" by Christian Robinson. Scholars discuss their favorite foods and then examine a lively picture of a family preparing tamales. After listening to the poem twice, learners participate in...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s “Learning to Read”
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's poem "Learning to Read" is the focus of a instructional activity that teaches middle schoolers how to do a close reading of a text. The instructional activity introduces them to a brief biography of the...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 7: Anne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex Teacher Guide
Frequently banned, often challenged, a mainstay of middle school curriculum, Tales from the Secret Annex, is the featured text in the seventh unit in the Teacher Guide Core Knowledge Program. The 134-page guide includes an...
K20 LEARN
Lord of the Flies Unit, Lesson 6: I've Got The Power
Readers of Lord of the Flies consider the symbols of power William Golding uses in his dystopian novel and support their choice with evidence from the text.
Curated OER
"The Story of an Hour" Lesson 1: Teacher's Guide and Notes
Attitudes toward women have changed radically in the last hundred years. The first instructional activity in a six-part unit that uses Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour" as an anchor text begins with a shared reading of...
K20 LEARN
The Monkey's Paw - Be Careful What You Wish For: Foreshadowing
W. W. Jacobs' horror story, "The Monkey's Paw," is used to introduce foreshadowing. As they advance through the story, young readers make predictions about what might happen next and how the story might end. Pairs work through the...
K20 LEARN
The New Colossus: Determining Author's Perspective
Introduce young scholars to the concept of the author's perspective with a lesson that uses Emma Lazarus's poem, "The New Colossus," as the anchor text. Groups use a T-chart to identify words that reveal the author's point of view...
K20 LEARN
The Consequences of Time Travel: Analyzing Short Stories
Ray Bradbury's short story "A Sound of Thunder" is the anchor text in a activity that asks high schoolers to find examples of cause, effect, and foreshadowing in the tale. They then create a brochure advertising trips with Time Travel, Inc.
K20 LEARN
Identity: Characterization/Character Traits
"Who am I?" Guy de Maupassant's short story "The Necklace," Julio Naboa Polanco's poem "Identity," and a clip from a Jason Bourne film provide learners with a context to consider the traits that makeup identity. Scholars create a...
K20 LEARN
Things Are Lit at Thornfield: Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre offers scholars an opportunity to practice reading comprehension skills. Pairs are assigned a word from the text, use their prior knowledge, and consider the context, connotation, and denotation of the word to posit a...