The Chronicles of Narnia

Introduce your class to the writing of the indigenous Americans and, even more well known, their story telling. An engaging presentation describes what kinds of texts would be included in the oral stories performed and some common...

American dream or American nightmare? The Great Gatsby comes under scrutiny in a Crash Course on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story of the Jazz Age, its glitter and its ash heaps. The narrator’s focus in Part I of the two-part series, are...

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is the focus of a Great American Read video that urges viewers to read this dystopian novel about a villainous society that oppresses women and minority groups.

One Hundred Years of Solitude introduces readers to magic realism. Told in a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning novel is a candidate for The Great American Read program and aficionados...

Explore connections within and between informational texts with this lesson about encyclopedia articles. Middle schoolers write encyclopedia articles focusing on topics in American history. They discuss how to determine credibility...

This lesson focuses on the vocabulary used in the novel The Great Gatsby. It features a link to a vocabulary list and definitions from the novel and a crossword puzzle using words from the list.

At first glance, it doesn't seem like Betty Smith's story of 11-year old Francie Nolan, a poor Irish girl living in the 1920's Brooklyn, should remain a best-seller for almost 100 years. But A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has remained a...

Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, with historical information about the novel's Jazz Age setting, an author biography, and access to a radio program (audio plus transcript) of excerpts from the novel and analysis of its...

A top vote-getter for the Great American Read program is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Find out why the classic tale, adapted into over 50 films and numerous TV shows, has earned its spot on the favorites list.

Neil deGrasse Tyson shares his rationale for why Gulliver's Travels was his favorite book as a child and still is as an adult. He urges viewers to vote to include Swift's satire in The Great American Read program.