Curated OER
Descriptive Writing: Parrot in the Oven
After reading a selection from Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven, pupils use the graphic organizer to decipher the sensory details within the descriptive paragraph. They list various details under the appropriate sense ("see," "hear,"...
Curated OER
America in Film and Fiction
High schoolers begin the lesson by reading a book on film study. After watching the movie "Citizen Kane", they work together to identify the issues concerning the United States before World War II. As a class, they discuss how the...
Heritage Foundation
Courts and Judges
If the Supreme Court is so supreme, why do all cases not just start there? High schoolers learn why every case does not start at the Supreme Court as well as the importance of hierarchy in the US judicial system in the 11th installment...
Curated OER
Lord of the Flies Quiz
How well does your class know the characters from William Golding's The Lord of the Flies? Learners respond to 25 multiple choice questions about the novel in an online interactive reading comprehension...
Curated OER
Act It Out!
An effective way to demonstrate understanding is by synthesizing one's own work. Use a creative lesson designed for a unit on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun for small groups to show what they know about the play,...
Curated OER
History/Mystery: Regionalism and Ethnicity in the American Detective Novel
Students use mystery novels to focus on the history and ethnicity of different regions of the United States. As a class, they are introduced to the elements of a mystery and compare them to the other types of novels they have read. In...
Curated OER
Reading and Writing the Autobiography With a Study of Zora Neale Hurston
Learners explore the possible relationships between characters in a novel. They read the novel 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' and answer all the questions on each chapter so that the characters and events are familiar to the students.
Curated OER
The African-American Experience in the 20th Century through the Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence and the Novels of Bruce Brooks a
Students attempt to answer how African-American, Latino, and white students address race relations in the United States in the future.
Curated OER
The Odyssey and The Morte Darthur: Reading and Making Observations for Writing and Discussion
Young scholars read "The Odyssey" and "The Morte Darthur". In groups, they research the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology and the history of the places mentioned in the stories. Individually, they are to write a paper about a hero...
Curated OER
Heavy Boots: Group Discussion
Jonathan Safran Foer's phrase, "heavy boots," becomes the focus of a class discussion of grief and sadness. During the reading of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, individuals place examples of their own experiences with these topics...
Curated OER
Pride and Prejudice: KWHL
How much does your class know about the setting of Pride and Prejudice? Explore Jane Austen's romantic world with a KWHL chart that helps kids note what they already know about 18th century England, what they want to know, how they...
Curated OER
Primary Sources and Protagonists: A Native American Literature Unit
Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...
K20 LEARN
Of Mice and Men in the Great Depression: Background and Setting
What were living conditions like in the United States during The Great Depression, and how do those conditions compare with today? That's the question young scholars consider as they prepare to read John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men....
Novelinks
The Little Prince: Response to Art Exercise
Depending on your perspective, solitude can be lovely or very, very lonely. Kids take a look at the simple landscape illustrated in Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, and write a short journal entry about their...
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...
Novelinks
Lord of the Flies: Outlining and Begin Drafting
Help young writers with the daunting prospect of a five-paragraph essay. Using William Golding's Lord of the Flies, learners work through a short process to shore up their brainstorming and prepare to write a longer essay.
Avi Writer
Sophia’s War: A Tale of the Revolution Teaching Guide
Sophia's War, Avi's novel that tracks the adventures of Sophia Calderwood, a fictional character, as well as the true stories of British Major John Andre and General Benedict Arnold during the American Revolution, is the anchor...
EngageNY
Inferring about Character: Analyzing and Discussing Points of View (Chapter 2)
Readers engage in discussion with partners to answer questions about A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Next, they complete exit tickets, writing about how the author creates different points of view for her characters.
Curated OER
The Giver: Lesson 1
Do “memories need to be shared?" Are “memories…forever?" Would you give up memory to live in a perfect world? Introduce a unit centered on Lois Lowry’s utopian/dystopian novel The Giver with a series of activities that has groups...
Curated OER
Phineas Gage: Concept Analysis
Prepare for teaching Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science with this written analysis of the book. The analysis includes a summary, considerations for teachers, project ideas, and a list of additional resources that...
Academy of American Poets
Voice
Four lessons make up a poetry unit that introduces high schoolers to spoken and written poetry. Class members also examine poems as social commentary and connect these poems to various novels and plays. A great way to incorporate poetry...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Realism in Magical Realism
A lesson on magical realism has young historians research how Garcia Marquez weaves historical events and his own experiences into One Hundred Years of Solitude. Using historical records and information found in a biography of Garcia...
Curated OER
Comprehension
Fifth graders study comprehension. In this writing lesson, 5th graders remember what they read and write an introduction for a character from a novel just read including a good description of that character.
Curated OER
Across Five Aprils
Eighth graders are introduced to the novel "Across Five Aprils" written by Irene Hunt. They become familiar with the people, places, and events referenced in the story and comprehend the story of the Civil War. Students are given a...