Lesson Plan
1
1
Star Wars in the Classroom

"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 11

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Class members take center stage as groups perform scenes from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. Actors are encouraged to add stage directions to the script, as well as create costumes and props to...
Lesson Plan
1
1
Star Wars in the Classroom

"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 12

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Class members compare the final 30 minutes of Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope with Act V of Doescher's play, William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope and consider how the choice of media influences viewers' impression...
Lesson Plan
Teach with Movies

Teaching Students to Write a Narrative

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Encourage narrative writing with a clever exercise. Class members watch episodes from movies and describe what happened to a character, including details about the setting, plot, and characters. Writers then craft a narrative about a...
Lesson Plan
1
1
Roald Dahl

Matilda - Miss Honey and The Trunchbull

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
As the instructor reads aloud several quotes from five chapters of the story Matilda, class members mime their interpretation of the scenes. Then, after reading "Miss Honey" and "The Trenchbull" (chapters seven and eight), the...
Lesson Plan
Prestwick House

Analyzing Multiple Interpretations of Literature

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
Literacy Design Collaborative

Author Study: Kate Chopin

For Students 11th - 12th Standards
Four stories by Kate Chopin offer high schoolers an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the ways authors use various literary elements and movements to develop their themes and social commentaries. 
Lesson Plan
Literacy Design Collaborative

The Lottery

For Students 6th Standards
Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" provides middle schoolers with an opportunity to hone their close reading and literary analysis skills. After annotating their copy of the story, writer's craft an essay in which they analyze...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 10 ELA Module 4: Unit 2, Lesson 1

For Teachers 10th Standards
What do readers discover about a character within the first few sections of a text? Pupils begin reading Shakespeare's Macbeth and analyze the language in the first few scenes of the play. They also demonstrate understanding with a Quick...
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Power of Personal Narrative

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed Standards
Personal narratives are powerful things. Whether told from the first-person or third-person point of view, whether in the form of an essay, a short story, novel, or video, whether fiction or fact, they capture readers and give them...
Interactive
PBS

Shifting Perspectives in Toni Morrison's Beloved

For Students 10th - 12th Standards
An interactive provides readers with an opportunity to record their reactions to Beloved, Toni Morrison's powerful narrative based on the life of Margaret Garner. Prompts ask them to consider how the shifting point of view contributes to...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Analyzing Character: Who is Lyddie?

For Teachers 7th Standards
Character analysis can help readers feel more connected to a literary text. Scholars explore the topic by writing an acrostic poem about the main character from Katherine Paterson's novel, Lyddie. Then, pupils watch a short video to help...
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Symbolism of Castle's Bedroom in Ghost

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
To conclude a unit study of Jason Reynold's Ghost, class members examine how Castle's feeling about his bedroom change over the course of the novel. Groups use the provided graphic organizer to identify the plot of the novel and then use...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Heroes Are Made of This: Studying the Character of Heroes

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What makes heroes and villains? A six-part unit plan asks young scholars to explore the concept of heroism and the characteristics they consider heroic and unheroic. Groups create character maps that focus on how characters are shaped by...
Lesson Plan
Teach With Movies

The Great Gatsby

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Are you thinking about incorporating a film version of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel in a study of The Great Gatsby? Check out a guide loaded with suggestions for how to supplement a reading of the novel with scenes from three film...
Lesson Plan
2
2
National Endowment for the Humanities

Theme Analysis in A Christmas Carol

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Why does Charles Dickens have Ebenezer go from scrooge to light-hearted and generous? From "Bah, humbug!" to "God Bless Us, Every One!" After rereading Dickens' preface to A Christmas Carol, learners analyze quotations from the tale that...
Lesson Plan
2
2
National Endowment for the Humanities

Themes in Lord of the Flies

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is the anchor text for a lesson that teaches readers how to distinguish between a literary topic and a literary theme. Using the provided worksheets, groups first chart some themes and propose a...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Toni Morrison's Beloved: For Sixty Million and More

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Complex, disturbing, and challenging, Beloved is the focus of a lesson that provides three activities to guide a close reading of Toni Morrison's novel. Readers create chapter titles based on key plot elements or themes,...
Lesson Plan
1
1
National Endowment for the Humanities

Narrative Voice in Moby Dick

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Call him a reliable narrator! Ishmael is the focus of a instructional activity that asks readers to analyze the complex character of Herman Melville's narrator as he is introduced in the first chapter of Moby Dick.
Lesson Plan
1
1
National Endowment for the Humanities

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Pain and suffering do not have to be inevitable in a study of Crime and Punishment. A carefully scaffolded lesson introduces readers to the divided natures of the characters in Fyodor Dostoevsky's complex novel. Groups use the...
Lesson Plan
1
1
National Endowment for the Humanities

Man and Superman

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Ordinary and extraordinary readers will find much to contemplate in a lesson on Crime and Punishment as they examine the dichotomies in Dostoevsky's novel. Scholars reflect on Raskolnikov's theory that extraordinary individuals are not...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

A Visual Exploration Of Theme: Picture The Theme

For Teachers 8th Standards
"What is the theme of this story?" Now there's a question that can strike fear in the hearts of learners. Here's a lesson that uses photographs to introduce the concept of theme. Scholars examine six photographs and then attach a theme...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

"The Lady, Or The Tiger?" Which Do You Choose?: Internal and External Conflict

For Teachers 9th Standards
"How come there's no ending?" After a close reading of Frank R. Stockton's tale "The Lady, or the Tiger?" in which scholars examine each of the main characters' conflicts and motivations, writers craft their own ending using textual...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Femme Fatales - The Landlady and Mrs. Maloney: Character Analysis Across Multiple Texts

For Teachers 9th Standards
Two stories by Roald Dahl, "Lamb to the Slaughter" and "The Landlady" provide readers an opportunity to compare stories by the same author. After a close reading of the stories, teams select a character from one of the tales, craft...
Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

I Need A (Super)Hero: Literary Elements And Narrative Writing

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Need a hero? Super! Groups create their modern-day marvel and craft a narrative with all the elements required in such a tale.

Other popular searches