Curated OER
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Students explore the book A Midsummer Night's Dream. In this literature lesson, students identify main characters and vocabulary words from the text. Students participate in a book discussion group.
Curated OER
Much Ado About Nothing Masks Lesson
Learners examine the personality traits of characters. In this characterization lesson, students read act 2 of "Much Ado About Nothing" and create masks to represent the characters in the play.
Curated OER
If I Wasn't Me, What Would I Be?
Students use their metacognitive skills to complete a self-worth and self-concept activity. In this self-worth lesson plan, students finish a sentence about what else they would like to be and then explain why they would want to change....
Curated OER
The Power of Words: Male Bashing and Gender
Students brainstorm words that typically describe men or women. They also brainstorm words that are insulting to both genders. They answer questions about the activity and discuss their answers.
Curated OER
Divinity of hell
Learners have to look at the text of the play Othello and cut the text in half. Each group then moves to the computer to their right and continues on with what that group wrote. They then have to stage the final script and perform in...
Curated OER
Theme Personalization Oral Project - Romeo and Juliet
Students choose a creative medium for expressing personalization of one of the themes from the play. They share their projects orally. Instructions, rubric, and suggested theme choices are included.
Curated OER
Much Ado About Nothing
Students explore the genre of romantic comedy through their reading of Much Ado About Nothing. In this literary genres instructional activity, students study the genre of romantic comedy through their reading of Much Ado About Nothing....
Curated OER
Writing Task
Eighth graders consider parallel relationships in Much Ado About Nothing and the structure of the play within an extended piece of writing. In this point of view instructional activity, 8th graders examine relationships and write a...
Curated OER
Til Death Do Us Part
Ninth graders read Romeo and Juliet. They complete a character analysis on one of the major players and present it in an informative and entertaining way. They rewrite and perform one scene from another character's point of view.
Curated OER
Reviewing Status Using Hamlet
Students complete exercises examining the use of status and class in selected portions of Hamlet. Working in pairs of small groups, students act out the mannerisms encountered in the selected text. They compare and contrast these...
Curated OER
Da Vinci's Renaissance
Students study the Renaissance through an examination of the life and accomplishments of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - My Last Dutchess
Draw back the curtain, add a spot of joy to your class, and let learners be lessoned by a close reading exercise that models how to develop an interpretation based on evidence drawn from a text. Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “My...
Curated OER
"Pray, Why Speakest Thou Thusly?"
Examine popular language and slang and how they have changed over the course of American history. Conduct Internet research, use an online interactive Colonial House website to translate 17th century language into 21st century language,...
Curated OER
What's In a Name?
Introduce your language arts class to connotation, denotation, and diction. Middle schoolers identify and differentiate between the connotative and denotative meanings of words by analyzing the fictitious sports team names. Learners...
BBC
Tudors: Life and Society
Here is an interesting activity that lets kids explore what life was like during the Tudor period. The activity is written two different ways, one for computer use and one without. It is also written with special instructions for...
Curated OER
From Page to Stage
Students, utilizing video clips and Web sites, compare specific passages from original texts to moments in Broadway musicals on which they were based, analyzing similarities and differences between them. They adapt literature into a...
Curated OER
Listening to Poetry: Sounds of the Sonnet
Learners investigate how sound influences meaning in poetry by listening to sonnets. They write an analysis after listening to and reading sonnets.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Close Reading in the Classroom
Close reading is key to the analysis and interpretation of literature. A close reading of the title and the epigraph of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” offers readers an opportunity to examine how even single words or names can...
Prestwick House
Reading Challenge
One of the big challenges of assigning independent reading is helping class members find a book to read. Another is encouraging readers to read a variety of genres. Never fear, help is here in the form of a quest that asks individuals to...
Curated OER
Sonnet Explication
Students analyze close readings of poems, looking up words in the dictionary, and discussing the major parts of dictionary definitions, including word origin and parts of speech. They examine sonnets, then compare/contrast their findings.
Curated OER
Reviving the Renaissance
Bring the Internet and the Renaissance together in this presentation assignment. Middle schoolers give a presentation on the Renaissance, using computers to both research and create the slides. The lesson includes a short assessment as...
Curated OER
Who Wrote That?
Students explore the Project Gutenberg website and conduct a webquest to answer questions about well known literature and authors.
Curated OER
Knock, Knock, or Whose Line is it Anyway?
Students compare two versions of Macbeth and participate in improvisational acting. In this improvisational lesson, students read and discuss the text before watching two different versions of the film. Students roleplay a scenario and...
Curated OER
"I am not what I am"
Students make connections between their own epithets and those used in Othello.