Some of the most the most essential works of literature in the world are examples of epic poetry, such as The Odyssey and Paradise Lost. This lesson introduces students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition.

Structured Notetaking is a strategy that helps students become more effective note takers. Using graphic organizers specific to a particular text, structured notes assist students in understanding the content of their reading. Initially teachers create the graphic organizers, but as students become more comfortable with using structured notes they are able to construct their own, matching the structure of their graphic organizer to the structure of the texts they read.

This lesson plan has students create book jackets for independent reading books. Students create the jackets with information about the book, then complete a brief oral presentation about what they think about the novel and why their classmates should read it.

This resource contains a set of discussion questions related to Jane's relationships with different people in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.

This lesson focuses on the author's use of language; moreover, how it is used to convey mood, images, and meaning. Students are tasked here with examining a selection identifying examples of stylistic devices within the passages. Next, students discuss possible reasons for author's selected style choices. The lesson is detailed with examples from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, yet the lesson may be altered to be used with other instructor selected text.

Exploring the use of style in literature helps students understand how language conveys mood, images, and meaning. After exploring the styles of two authors, students will translate passages from one author into the style of another. Then they will translate fables into style of one of the authors.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes an introduction, discussion questions, and author biography designed to enhance student reading of Swamplandia! by Karen Russel, a novel about a family’s struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes discussion questions designed to aid students in exploring The Sweet Girl by Annabel Lyon, a novel that follows Aristotle’s strong-willed daughter as she shapes her own destiny: an unexpected love story, a tender portrait of a girl and her father, and an astonishing journey through the underbelly of a supposedly enlightened society.

In this lesson, students will work in pairs and discuss as a group to explore both the structure and meaning of the poem, "Doha Thing Long Thought and Kind."

In this lesson, students will explore a video of Mahalia Jackson singing as well as analyze the prose poem, "Don't Let Me Be Lonely [Mahalia Jackson is a genius.]" by Claudia Rankine.

In this lesson from the Academy of American Poets, students will explore a painting, Aspect of Negro Life: Song of the Towers, and the poem "A Haircut" by Elizabeth Alexander. Students will also examine the structure of the poem in order to identify what makes it a prose poem.

In this lesson, students will compare the Beatles' song, "Blackbird," to the poem, "In cold spring air" and consider the structure and how it contributes to meaning.

This webpage has great notes for teacher about teaching sonnets. It has actual notes that can be given to students, as well as a list of strategies teachers can use as part of lessons to help students understand the complexities of the sonnet form.

A teacher's guide to Harper Lee's, Go Set A Watchman. Included are chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, writing prompts, and activities.

This lesson helps students understand the deeper meaning of certain things in John Steinbeck's classic novella Of Mice and Men. Students examine the importance of certain symbolic objects and attempt to interpret how the pieces fit together into a larger allegorical narrative.

In this lesson, students review the types of irony before turning their eye to the text of Shakespeare's classic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. There, they'll search for examples of irony in the words of the play, citing act, scene, and line number.

In this lesson, students examine Ray Bradbury's use of sensory details in his short story, The Pedestrian. Students discuss descriptive writing, then look for examples of sensory details in the text before revising a previous draft of their own work to strengthen the sensory details it contains.

In this lesson, students examine the importance of setting in Ray Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains." Students complete a chart that requires them to think critically about the setting of the story, which can be adapted to other texts, then continue their examination in a written piece.

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

In this activity, students will both listen and read aloud Natasha Trethewey's poem, "Theories of Time and Space." Pre-reading activity involves students bringing in photographs from the past as a warmup for the poem's central ideas. Class discussion will focus on the poet's use of structure and imagery and comparing the impact of the poem when read silently versus hearing it read with the poet's own voice and emphasis.