Students listen carefully to a portion of the Poetry Out Loud CD. They focus on the tones the poet uses in his recitation of a poem. Then they map a poem of their own so that a classmate can read it using the tonal qualities intended...

Poems are meant to be heard. Hearing a poem being read enriches one’s understanding of the tone and mood of the piece. Introduce your class to the sounds of poetry with a packet that not only details how to use poetry recordings in the...

Students compare and contrast the flawed families in two plays. In this American drama lesson, students read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Long Day's Journey into Night. Students research information about the playrights and examine the...

Using the poems "First Snow" by Ted Kooser and "Eating Alone" by Yi-Young Lee (or other suggested poems by Robert Frost or Sara Teasdale), middle schoolers search for examples of figurative language. Guide your learners by discussing...

High schoolers explore the role of tone in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. In this literature lesson, students perform scenes from the play inflecting the tone that they believe Shakespeare intended. 

Reader's Theater is a great way to build fluency, intonation, and dramatic flare. The class reads the theater piece, "The New Friends" paying attention to how they express emotion and feeling as they read. They discuss the use of plot,...

During a drama circle, scholars closely examine the play created in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. The pupils read Act 3 Scene 1 and turn and talk to their partners about the scene. They then complete a handout and discuss the...

Students examine the role of tone in a comedy play. They also discover how to paraphrase a passage and explain a character's point of view.

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce’s short story, is used to model how structural moves, the decisions an author makes about setting, point of view, time order, etc., can be examined to reveal an author’s purpose. Groups...

Students write a coherent script based on characterization, theme, conflict and emotional tone as found in the songs' lyrics and develop an understanding of the enjoyment that comes through discipline and hard work leading toward a...

Feel the rhythm! Pupils begin reading Act 2, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as they continue participating in a drama circle. With discussion, they examine Shakespeare's use of rhyme, rhythm, and meter, analyzing how...

Learners investigate the life and works of Eugene O'Neill. In this American theater lesson, students read biographical information about O'Neill and review Long Day's Journey into Night. Learners then analyze the play in order to deliver...

Students consider the tone of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. In this drama lesson plan, students read the first two acts of the play and discuss tone of the acts. Students also respond to questions about the characters and their...

Students place emphasis on the use of figurative language when analyzing prose and poetry. In this figurative language lesson, students explore the tone of a story and its imagery. Students read and discuss how the author uses imagery in...

Students examine the alliances in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. In this drama lesson, students read the play and act out the conflict and controversy among Brutus, Caesar, Cassius, and Marc Antony.

Students discover Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. In this drama lesson, students read the first act of the play and then rewrite the original passages in today's English.

Students perform and discuss three scenes from the play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. They discuss the similarities and differences, identify the order of the scenes, and read the first twenty lines of the play.

A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...

Pass the tea! Using the resource, scholars participate in a Tea Party protocol to analyze text and images about inventions that helped meet societal demands. After sharing their observations with each other, they discuss visual elements...

To conclude a study of A Raisin in the Sun and to prepare for a visit to the Lewis Museum, class members analyze Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem." Learners then draw connections to characters in the play and to their own experiences...

Eighth graders identify figurative language and poetry in this literary analysis lesson. Using Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and a YouTube video for "The Walrus and the Carpenter," young readers complete a literary device...

Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this instructional activity prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct...

Cross-comparison, the technique of focusing on two different texts with the same themes, motifs, events, etc., is employed in an exercise that asks groups to examine two different translations of “The Ruin,” a poem, written in Old...

What does it mean to read expressively? Beginning readers hear examples of expressive reading and partner up to practice. One partner reads The Littlest Pumpkin and the other partner reads Franklin and his Friend. While...