As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

Students will perform a close reading of a scene from Shakespeare (or another complex text). Students will evaluate the more important elements of a scene including plot, tone, and movement.

This page contains discussion questions for Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes an introduction, discussion questions, and an author biography designed to enhance student discussion of Mark Dunn's book, Ella Minnow Pea, a satirical novel of language and ideas.

This Random House for High School Teachers teacher's guide includes an introduction and overview; discussion questions; author biography; and suggestions for further reading designed to enhance student discussion of Mark Dunn's book, Ella Minnow Pea, a satirical novel of language and ideas.

This page contains a set of discussion questions for Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons.

This page contains a summary and detailed analysis of The End of Something by Ernest Hemingway, as well as in-depth discussion questions and prompts for response.

In this TED Ed lesson focused on Homer's "Odyssey," students will explore the cultural background of the work and discuss the significance of its themes. Discussion questions and additional resources available in the sidebar.

This essay prompt can serve as a culmination of the study of Their Eyes Were Watching God. A thorough study of the text allows students to follow several motifs throughout the text like roads, fences and gates, horizons, and the stages of trees. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

These three activities help students decipher some of the symbolism in the famous American play, Death of a Salesman. Students also consider the ways their own lives can relate to the play.

In this lesson, students explore how photography can illuminate aspects of their identity, including cultural backgrounds, family histories, engagement in societal groups, personal privilege, and the points of intersectionality between those. To start this exploration, your students will consider the idea of self-portraiture and the depth of information (or misinformation) that photography can express, by analyzing others’ self-portraits. Following a discussion of the factors that shape background and identity, students then begin to consider their own identities. Students create their own digital self-portraits pulling from ideas around personal background and identity to take the popular digital photography format to another level. In the final reflection, students connect their own identities to the idea of the self, and to the self-portrait, as they begin to consider the changes they would like to see in their world.

In one of literature's most haunting denunciations of censorship, Ray Bradbury uses the materials of science fiction to tell the story of Guy Montag, a fireman forced to burn books. The Big Read Reader's Guide deepens your exploration with interviews, booklists, time lines, and historical information. We hope this guide and syllabus allow you to have fun with your students while introducing them to the work of a great American author.

William Faulkner's self-proclaimed masterpiece, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, is a fascinating exploration of the many voices found in a Southern family and community. The following curriculum unit examines the novel's use of multiple voices in its narrative.

In this lesson, students complete two assessment tasks for The Catcher in the Rye. Students complete an essay test on the novel with a choice of prompts, assessing student knowledge of both the novel and informational writing.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes an introduction, discussion questions, author biography, and suggested reading list designed to enhance student reading of Jonathan Lethem’s acclaimed coming of age novel, The Fortress of Solitude.

This lesson has students compare the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's to the novella of the same name by Truman Capote. Students are introduced to the movie, watch it, compare the two, and test their knowledge of the content of the film.

This Random House for High School Teachers teacher's guide includes an introduction and overview; discussion questions; suggested activities; vocabulary; author biography; and suggestions for further reading designed to enhance student discussion of Alan Drew's novel, Gardens of Water, a novel that calls into question how religious faith, sacrifice, and family loyalty come into play in the aftermath of a catastrophe.

In this lesson, students consider whether the eponymous character in Toni Morrison's classic novel Beloved is a ghost. Students consider powerpoints with prompt questions about the book, discuss the novel, and create an argument about whether the novel should be considered a ghost story.

Students will complete close textual reading questions aligned with Common Core shifts for literacy. Scroll to "ELA 11-12 Winter Dreams" to access download.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes questions to help students explore Charles Dickens' novel, Great Expectations, a tale of intrigue, unattainable love, and all of the happiness money can't buy.