Unit Plan
Helena-West Helena School District

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Instructional Unit Plan

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
Maya Angelou's first autobiography,  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, demonstrates both the author's exemplary writing and the themes of gender and racial injustice that perpetuate beyond the limits of the 20th century. Use a...
Unit Plan
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Book Units Teacher

Story Elements

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This 97-slide PowerPoint uses Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Jeanne DuPrau's The City of Ember, to illustrate the elements of a story. Setting, plot, characterization...
Unit Plan
Syracuse City School District

Reading Comprehension Unit Plan

For Teachers 8th Standards
A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...
Unit Plan
1
1
National Endowment for the Arts

Teacher's Guide: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A 10-lesson unit takes high schoolers through a novel study of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. To start, students learn about Fitzgerald's background and gain historical context that prepares them for a reading of the book. The...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Brown Bagging with Short Stories

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students participate in a study of short story elements, applying their knowledge and understanding to a selection of short stories.  In this short stories lesson, students read five short story selections, identifying conflict,...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

The Play's the Thing: The Drama of Cyrano de Bergerac

For Teachers 8th
Students practice dramatic 'living' through various drama activities. In this drama lesson, students define drama, view examples of dramatic elements in Cyrano de Bergerac and Roxanne, define characterization within the dramas, study the...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Short Stories: The Puzzle Pieces of Life

For Teachers 9th
Students distinguish the elements of fiction in a short story. In this fiction elements lesson, students complete nine lessons of activities to learn about the elements of fiction in short stories.
Unit Plan
Mr. Ambrose

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Good discussion questions, quizzes, and tests teach as well as assess. Readers of The Great Gatsby will learn much from the materials in a 36-page packet designed to help students prepare for the AP Literature exam. Included in the...
Unit Plan
Broadway GPS

ALADDIN: Broadway's New Musical Comedy

For Parents 5th - 9th Standards
Aladdin, Disney's Broadway musical comedy, is a magic carpet ride. Prepare your class for a field trip to the show with a study guide that is a treasure trove of activities, cultural connections, and background information.
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Cyrano de Bergerac Nose His Terms

For Teachers 7th
Students use the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" to identify and analyze drama vocabulary, literary terms and elements of fiction. They write an original version of scenes from the play and develop a character analysis for the lead.
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Teachers See the Truth but Wait: Teaching Short Stories with Literature Circles

For Teachers 9th
Students use literature circles to analyze four short stories from the Realms of Gold, Volume 3. In this literature circle lesson, students are assigned a role in the literature circle to improve their critical thinking skills for...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Life's Lessons: Survival of the Fittest

For Teachers 8th
Students analyze Jack London's use of anthropomorphism to identify the importance of adaptability in life. In this literature lesson, students use the novel The Call of the Wild to identify key elements in survival. Students...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

"Et tu, Brute?" - The Characters, Conflict and Historical context of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

For Teachers 6th
Students analyze the Shakespearian play, "Julius Caesar" in this seven lesson unit. Through readings, hands-on projects, and the study of plot development, comparisons are made to the movie and the historical records available.
Unit Plan
Film Foundation

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: What Is a Movie?

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Watching is not the same as seeing. Transform viewers from passive watchers to active students of film with this 34-page packet, filled with lessons and activities that use Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to examine the technology, the...
Unit Plan
West Jefferson High School

The Novel — Honor

For Teachers 9th Standards
For classes tackling To Kill a Mockingbird, this lesson plan sets readers up for discussions or essay writing with questions and prompts. The prompts encourage individuals to explore beyond the novel itself, looking at...
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: Literary Visions

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Twenty-six half hour videos on literary analysis for high school students that feature authors, scholars, actors and noted critics. Topics include The Art of the Essay, Setting and Character in Short Fiction, Responding to Literature and...
Unit Plan
Department of Defense

Do Dea: Story, Identity, Unity

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Delve into the art of storytelling in this self-guided unit. Multiple topics are covered such as literary genres, the 7 elements of fiction, figurative language, theme, characterization, etc. At the end of the unit, write your own flash...
Unit Plan
Department of Defense

Do Dea: In the Beginning

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This expansive self-guided unit hits on many objectives such as analyzing literature for author's purpose, figuring out the main idea/theme, understanding historical criticism, comparing and contrasting works from major historical...
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: "Elements of Drama" [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This two-page PDF provides a list and brief explanation of the "Elements of Drama" based on the structure of Greek Drama as outlined by Aristotle. These include: Thought, Theme, Ideas; Action, Plot; Characters, Language, Music, and...
Unit Plan
Other

Short Story Elements

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Geared toward high school students, this site contains many notes and links on the aspects of short story, figurative language, and figures of speech.
Unit Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Ga Virtual Learning: Contemporary Literature: The Modern Short Story

For Students 9th - 10th
This lesson is an introduction to the modern short story including defining the short story, how the modern short story differs from the classic short story, the elements of a short story, and what is to be expected in this unit.
Unit Plan
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Holt, Rinehart and Winston: Elements of Literature: The Short Story [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A short group of exercises for students concerning the elements of a short story. Allows students to examine the major story elements, then apply those elements to a given piece of literature.
Unit Plan
TES Global

Blendspace: Interpreting Literature Terms

For Students 3rd - 7th Standards
A fourteen-part learning module on literary terms including links to text, videos, word lists and images on literary terms such as plot, setting, character, point of view, style, theme, and more.
Unit Plan
TES Global

Blendspace: The Giver

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This blendspace includes thirty-two spaces with content connected to Lois Lowry's dystopia novel, The Giver. Links include novel discussion questions, author interviews, and video tutorials to review literary topics.