Unit Plan
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Why Did Mamma Change Her Mind? [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th
"Why Did Mamma Change Her Mind?" is a one page, fictional, reading passage about a party. Mom said her son and daughter could each have 5 friends (5 boys and 5 girls). The girl wanted all girls so the party was cancelled. It is followed...
Activity
Read Works

Read Works: I Need Quiet!

For Teachers K Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] A literary text about a boy named Kahlil who figured out a way to eliminate noisy distractions so he could read. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Hide and Seek

For Teachers 4th
[Free Registration/Login Required] A literary text about a girl named Tracy who played hide and seek with the cousins she was babysitting. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Website
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Nature/national Geographic: Flora's Background and Motivation

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about what motivated Flora, a woman from the city, to move to the African bush in this short video from Nature/National Geographic. This is one in a series of three videos about Flora's life. [7:00]
eBook
Other

America Dept. Of State: Outline of American Literature [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This online book presents an overview of American literature chronologically. Eras and movements are explained and biographies of significant authors are provided. This is a good way to understand the background and influences of...
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Using Digital Notebook to Visualize Thematic Links

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Students will work in groups of two or three to produce two pages of a digital scrapbook covering a thematic element from Macbeth. The pages will then be assembled into a visual review of the play's themes and character motivations...
Website
Universal Teacher

Moore's Teacher Resources: Studying Macbeth

For Students 9th - 10th
A site from the UK on William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Complete with information on the historical context, character analysis, thematic elements, and review questions.
Article
Other

Writing World: Four Ways to Bring Settings to Life

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
A great resource outlining four major ways to make settings appear more real and genuine in fiction. Deals with themes such as motion, experience, mood, and the senses. W.11-12.3d Sensory/precise lang narratives
Article
Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets: 103 Things to Do Before/during/after Reading

For Students K - 1st Standards
The highly-respected Reading Rockets program offers both teachers and students a toolkit of ways to connect more actively with the materials they read. Some of these techniques are specifically for fiction-reading, others are designed...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Using Picture Books to Teach Plot Development and Confict Res.

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
Students read picture books to explore the concepts of plot development and conflict resolution. They first learn about the connections between reading and writing, and then revise their own writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.4
Article
Caro Clarke

Historical Fiction: Who Rules?

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This is the fifteenth article in a series designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on the genre of historical fiction and the role of the author. Is the author a researcher or a story-teller?
Handout
Ted Nellen

Cyber English (By Ted Nellen): Characterization

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This is a glossary entry for the term "Characterization" including a definition and the characteristics to be developed: Character's appearance, actions, thoughts, voice, and reaction from others.
Unit Plan
Other

Literature Unit: "A Day No Pigs Would Die"

For Students 6th - 8th
This site features questions for each of the chapters in Robert Newton Peck's "A Day No Pigs Would Die."
Website
BBC

Bbc: Gcse Bitesize: "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"

For Students 9th - 10th
Analyze literature through the study of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson. Made specifically for students preparing to take the GCSE test, this site is beneficial to all students learning about Stevenson or the elements...
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Neh: Edsit Ement: Cinderella Folk Tales (Lesson Plans)

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
These five activities allow students to explore the various Cinderella folktales, while comparing and contrasting the characters. They provide lesson extensions, links to charts, discussion questions and the like.
Website
Shmoop University

Shmoop: Ender's Game

For Students 9th - 10th
Shmoop's study guide for Orson Scott Card's science fiction novel, Ender's Game, includes chapter summaries, character descriptions, explanation of themes, and analysis of various elements in the novel. It also offers study questions and...