In this lesson, students explore symbolism in general before examining the specific symblols present in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

The TPCASTT template will allow students to think deeply during close reading and analysis of poetry. TPCASTT is appropriate for upper elementary through high school.

In this lesson, students develop a fuller understanding of the character of Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie by Tennesee Williams. Students work in groups of three or four to unpack quotations about Amanda and present their ideas about the character to the class.

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.

This page includes a series of humorous quotes from great American author Mark Twain, along with a short lesson plan that has students analyze Twain's quotes before finding funny quotations from other American humorists.

In this lesson, students learn the key parts of paragraph writing. Students review sentence and paragraph types, then break down a nonfiction piece by sentence to see how the different types of sentences are used in context.

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 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 combine history, civics, and English in an examination of the trial process from the nonfiction novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Students consider Jim Williams' trial process, which included four different trials.

In this lesson, students will analyze song lyrics and then choose their own soundtrack to go along with The Catcher in the Rye. Students work in groups to come up with a tracklist for their soundtracks before writing a comparison between the novel and a song chosen by the teacher.

This lesson asks students to consider how literature reflects real life in a discussion about John Steinbeck's novel, The Winter of our Discontent.

In this lesson, students learn the definition and concept of theme in a literary work. Students look at a list of the main themes of the novel The Great Gatsby, which they will trace as they read the book.

This lesson introduces several assignments related to In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Students create powerpoint presentations that describe the case and crime from the novel, view the short horror film "The Strangers," and write an essay comparing the film and the novel.

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.

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 has students use context clues to figure out the meaning of nonsense words as practice for actually figuring out word meanings. Students look at replacement words in a section from The Most Dangerous Game. The Jabberwocky is available for additional practice.

In this lesson plan, students learn a little about what media literacy is and why it's important. Students turn a critical eye to newspaper headlines and articles while considering what is really important and how to look past what is presented.

In this lesson, students read The Wife of Bath's prologue from The Canterbury Tales, then look for modern texts such as magazine articles that contain similar contradictions to the Wife's prologue. Also included are several writing prompts to continue the lesson.

This lesson gives students the information they need to practice writing great introductions for essays and other academic writing assignments.