Newseum
Editorials and Opinion Articles
Reading the news is fun, and that's a fact! With the lesson plan, scholars differentiate between fact and opinion as they read editorial articles. They complete a worksheet to analyze the information before writing their own editorials...
Curated OER
Student Based Oral Reading & Presentation Study of Shakespeare's 12th Night
Students develop an appreciation for Shakespeare by researching the Elizabethan period and situations in the Twelfth Night. In this Shakespeare play lesson, students complete a 52 page packet to learn about the period of time and...
Curated OER
Modern Minstrelsy: Exploring Racist Stereotypes in Literature and Life
Satires may be designed to expose a bias to ridicule but if misunderstood can they reinforce that bias? Langston Hughes poem, “Minstrel Man” opens a discussion of racist stereotypes, the minstrel tradition, and the musical, “The...
Annenberg Foundation
Utopian Promise
Scholars learn all about the Puritans in the third installment of a 16-part lesson series. After watching a video, they read and discuss biographies of Puritans and Quakers from American history, write journal entries and poetry, and...
PBS
Mark Twain: Storyteller, Novelist, and Humorist
Scholars investigate the use of satire in Mark Twain's writing. Literary lovers research the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, political cartoons, and videos to see how Twain uses satire to make the stories more memorable....
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Many Bens: Character Revealed in Writing
Benjamin Franklin may be known as a Founding Father, but he was also a prolific writer. Scholars examine his better-known pieces to learn about genre, voice, and early American history. The resource includes options for various...
PBS
Catch-22: What It Means to Be a(n Anti)Hero
Catch-22, Joseph Heller's send-up of military organizational bureaucracy, provides readers with an opportunity to consider the importance of the anti-hero. Class members fill out a worksheet comparing and contrasting the qualities of...
Curated OER
Respect for Authority
Students develop cross-cultural understanding. In this democracy lesson, students discuss core democratic values as they examine the governance in their school and their local community. Students also discuss the effectiveness of...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Comic Strips
Who says comic strips aren’t educational? Prove these naysayers wrong by asking your class members to create a comic strip for a selected vocabulary word. Using online technological tools that provide access to an array of options for...
Curated OER
Who Fought for the Union?
Learners read New York Times articles, letters, and listen to songs written from a soldier's perspective during the Civil War in order to understand who was fighting in the Union Army. This is a great lesson, complete with weblinks,...
Curated OER
Make a Mockery of Magazines
Students examine tabloids. In this journalism lesson, students compare and contrast satirical magazines and then plan, write, and compile their own.
Curated OER
Analyzing Huck Finn: A Cooperative Learning Lesson
High schoolers answer questions from "Huckleberry Finn" in groups. They use the internet or other sources to help them in their answer. They share their responses with the class and discuss.
Curated OER
Exploring Heroism
Students examine the concept of heroism in this instructional activity, through personal reflection, group activities and a thoughtful analysis of the documentary, HEROES OF GROUND ZERO. They explore their own understanding of what it...
Curated OER
How Poets Evoke Social and Historical Representations
Students explore how poems represent the social, historical, and cultural times that they were written in. In this poetry lesson plan, students compare and contrast poems with music of the time and explore implications of writing poems...
Curated OER
The Parts of an Editorial
Students take notes as the teacher goes over the contents of an editorial and four types of an editorial. Students view an editorial and identify the structural elements in the sample as well as identify the type of editorial they are...
Curated OER
ABBA - Lesson 4
Students discover a connection between the genres of popular music and musical theater. They find and discuss musicals written in many different musical styles.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Literary Humor
Young scholars examine Nathaniel Hawthorne's style of humor and compare it to other humorists. They discuss the purpose of literary humor and determine how it develops characters and plots in stories. They analyze the use of different...
Curated OER
A New Candidate for Animal Farm
Students create an advertising campaign in which a candidate from Animal Farm will run for an upcoming election. For this follow-up activity to George Orwell's Animal Farm lesson, students explore propaganda, rhetoric, and satire as they...
Curated OER
Unit Plan for Mark Twain and American Humor
Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. In this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...
Curated OER
Carnival Celebrations: Masks and Vejigantes
Students explore Carnival. For this Puerto Rico Carnival lesson, students discover the history of the cultural celebration as well as the significance of the elaborate masks worn for the festivities. Students create their own Carnival...
Curated OER
Twain: An American Humorist
Students examine American humor and character through analysis of works by Mark Twain. In this cross curricular lesson, students develop a definition of American humor and determine how and why some consider Twain the 'first truly...
Curated OER
Political Cartoons as Part of the Election Process
Students explore the impact of political cartoons on American elections. In this presidential elections lesson, students discuss the election process and then analyze political cartoons that were published during presidential elections....
Curated OER
Literature: Porgy and Bess
Learners examine the various portrayals of African-Americans in literature, focusing on the opera, Porgy and Bess. They conduct Internet research on African-American culture between the two World Wars. Students write fictional or...
Center for History Education
How Did the Public View Women’s Contributions to the Revolutionary War Effort?
Calling upon the legacies of Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, and Catherine the Great, Esther Reed rallied Southern women to support the American Revolution. Using a broadside by Reed and other primary sources, such as poetry, young historians...