EngageNY
Grade 11 ELA Module 4 Overview
The intricate craft of narrative writing can make a happy story feel exuberant or a sad story feel devastating. With 42 extensive lessons that include poignant discussion questions, standards-aligned self-reflections, engaging writing...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Author Study: Kate Chopin
Four stories by Kate Chopin offer high schoolers an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the ways authors use various literary elements and movements to develop their themes and social commentaries.
National Endowment for the Arts
Teacher's Guide: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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...
Novelinks
Words By Heart: Anticipation Guide
The anticipation guide for Words by Heart is the first of a series of six, contains lesson plans for the activity as well as a handout to be completed individually, in pairs, or as a class. It sparks interest for the text...
Film English
We've All Been There
What does empathy look like? Encourage your pupils to put themselves in another person's shoes with several writing and discussion activities that relate to a featured short film. Over the course of the lesson, individuals collaborate...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 2
Sometimes, sensory details can bring you back to a familiar place. Study the setting descriptions from a critical chapter in Amy Tan's A Joy Luck Club, and discuss how they enhance the book's plot and contribute to a central theme.
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 5
Even the most rigid expectations come from a place of deeply held values. In a key chapter of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, explore the ways that Jing-Mei's mother's parental expectations affect her relationship with Jing-Mei. Tenth...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 4
Vivid quotes and strong sensory language compose Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, bringing the women to life as they navigate through issues surrounding identity and maternal relationships. Examine Waverly's relationship with her mother...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 10
An engaging unit connects Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson's shared themes of madness and departure from reality. The 10th lesson in the unit explores Dickinson's figurative language and structure choices in "I Felt a Funeral, in my...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 18
The punishment must fit the crime, even for a king. Sophocles' Oedipus the King meets its grisly end with a activity that focuses on the conclusion of the play and Oedipus' self-assigned punishment. Learners connect the symbolism of his...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 2
The second module in a series for high school seniors focuses on tracking the central idea of a text across genres and from multiple author and character perspectives. Twelfth graders read a speech by Benazir Bhutto entitled "Ideas Live...
Curated OER
The Negro Speaks of Rivers Themes
In this poetry analysis worksheet, learners respond to 5 discussion questions that require them to investigate the symbolism of rivers in the Langston Hughes poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers."
Curated OER
My Antonia: Concept Analysis
Use this analysis of My Antonia to help inform your instruction and prepare your pupils for the project and enrichment ideas listed at the end of the resource. The analysis covers big questions related to the text, themes, plot elements,...
Curated OER
Shizuko’s Daughter: Anticipation Guide
Focus on the literary themes of Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter with an anticipation guide. Kids read statements about respect, abandonment, and love, and mark their agreement or disagreement before beginning the novel. After they...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 19
Now that readers can see the full scope of Sophocles' Oedipus the King, they can draw connections between the dramatic ending and the textual evidence throughout the Greek tragedy. As they prepare for the unit assessment writing prompt,...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: What Is Happiness?
Jack London's heart for adventure has come to define the spirit of America and its frontier. Selected passages from the foreword The Cruise of the Snark take eighth graders through London's construction and voyage of his ship before...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Macbeth: Influence of Supernatural
Something wickedly wonderful this way comes in a lesson that focuses on Macbeth. After a close reading of the play, class members craft a literary analysis essay in which they use evidence from the text to show how Shakespeare uses the...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Structure Forming Meaning
Teach literary lovers how to form opinions about form. Scholars read
informational text about the form used in villanelles. After analyzing
the structure used in the poetry with graphic organizers and gallery
walks, writers create...
Livaudais-Baker English Classroom
Lord of the Flies: William Golding's Masterpiece
Spoiler Alert! An 18-slide presentation includes information about author William Golding, his experiences reflected in Lord of the Flies, a summary of the story, the political and religious allegorical levels of the novel, and the themes.
Simon & Schuster
Curriculum Guide to: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Five lessons make up a curriculum guide to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Readers find examples of Twain's use of irony, closely examine Huck's colloquial language, as well as his sense of morality, and identify themes in the novel....
Simon & Schuster
Classroom Activities for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
A 16-page packet includes three activities for a unit study of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Before beginning the novel, class members identify the factors in their lives that helped create their frame of reference,...
Simon & Schuster
Curriculum Guide to: The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad's novellas The Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer are the focus of five lessons in this Curriculum Guide. Lessons are designed to advance analytical reading skills, examine Conrad's use of "The Double" theme, the...
Bermudian Springs School District
John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath — Independent Reading
Lies, deceit, betrayal, criminality: these topics are just a few of the reasons that John Steinbeck's classic novel The Grapes of Wrath has captivated people since its 1939 publication. Scholars begin the lesson by reading...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 4: Unit 2, Lesson 2
What is the best way to determine the theme of a text? Pupils analyze how central ideas emerge in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. They work in small groups and engage in a whole-class discussion to discuss the play's plot. Finally,...