In this lesson, students examine symbolism. First, they define symbolism and examine symbols in non-literary situations (religious, national, or cultural symbols). Then, they take the activity further by writing an analysis of a literary symbol.

This lesson introduces the nonfiction work "The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness" to the students and teacher. Simon Wiesenthal's tale pairs with a series of photos from the Holocaust and a powerpoint with background information for the students.

In this lesson, students view art and photographs, then attempt to capture the theme and tone of those works in writing. Students first discuss the art as a class before splitting into pairs to write a first draft of a story or poem that captures the feeling of the visual works.

In this lesson, students examine "The Interlopers," a short story by Saki, in an attempt to find the theme of the tale. Students consider the text and its twist ending, including various elements of short stories, before working in small groups to try and come to a conclusion about what the theme of the story might be.

In this lesson, students imitate Charles Dickens' writing style after reviewing the techniques that make his writing unique.

In this lesson, students learn to differentiate between denotation and connotation by using associations with names.

This page details two lessons centered around projects based on The Masque of the Red Death, by Edgar Allan Poe. Students create masks and discuss the symbolic significance of the seven rooms of Prospero's palace.

This pair of mini-lessons offer convenient ways to teach cause and effect in the English classroom. The first lesson uses graphic organizers to show students cause and effect visually, and the second uses statistics to give students practice interpreting graphs and statistics.

In this lesson, students use song lyrics and poetry to examine how an author's message can change drastically over the course of a text.

This lesson is part of a larger unit dealing with Early American Literature. In this lesson, students will become familiar with the figurative devices and strategies used by 17th century Puritan poets when creating closed or fixed form poetry.

Students use a tuning protocol to give and receive peer-to-peer feedback on student writing in a structured, safe environment.

Students can use the ADDIE Model Template to plan their project-based learning assignment.

In this unit from the Standford University The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute students develop a broader understanding of the struggle for equality from 1868 to the present by exploring first-person narratives from a diverse group of Americans. Beginning with a study of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, students determine the criteria for identifying an event as historically significant. Students then explore the impact of the struggle for equality by interviewing people in their community and utilizing resources such as Toni Morrison’s Remember: The Journey to School Integration, Voices of Civil Rights, a national oral history project by the Library of Congress, and StoryCorps, an independent non-profit project that focuses on oral history collections of individuals’ life experiences.

Students will read, critically analyze and write about a series of poems dealing with 'songs about the American experience."

A series of lessons to introduce students to writing a mutigenre paper. Students will analyze and identify literary elements present in selected novels, work in collaborative groups and sythesize various genres to publish a multigenre webpage.

In this lesson students will listen to examples of several dialects and discuss what they hear about each speaker from the recordings. As a class, students will also define dialect and use Alice Walker's novel the Color Purple to continue their analysis.

This lesson pairs Ernest Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain" with Raymond Carver's "Little Things" to guide students to an understanding of the characteristics of minimalist fiction. When asked to think about the reasons behind the popularity of minimalism, students begin to appreciate how literature develops and learn to see it as a reflection of the culture. Afterwards, students are tasked with comparing both works using a Venn diagram. Next, students read additional Carver stories to develop a list of characteristics for minimalist writing. Finally, students explore the roots of minimalism and write using characteristics of the style.

Students will learn about characters and their traits. Using graphic organizers and video clips, students will be able to determine character traits and the main idea of a text.

In this lesson, students will pair reading and discussion of Tim O'Brien's story "The Things they Carried" with a letter-writing activity intended to help students analyze text to identify figurative and connotative meaning as well as ultimately organize and create their own piece of prose.

In this lesson based on St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, students will write an objective summary and work in small groups to analyze the way the author develops the central ideas.