In this lesson, students read a designated chapter of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". In small groups, students discuss chapter summary and answer specific questions related to the chapter. Groups will present summaries, addressing answers to specific questions, thereby chunking information.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes discussion questions for The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou to aid in student comprehension and understanding of the famous author and her life.

Like many 19th century photographers, Mark Twain struggled with how best to portray fictionalized characters while creating social commentary. In this lesson, students will compare and contrast Twain's novel and excerpts from Frederick Douglass' narrative to original photos of 19th century slaves. After writing journal entries about Huck Finn's Jim and Frederick Douglass, students write an essay evaluating the reliable depiction of slavery.

In this lesson students look critically at the story, "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allen Poe. They use prediction strategies to form and refine thier opinions about the story line progression in each work. They read the story, screen the film, discuss reactions to both works, and plan and write a persuasive essay analyzing the validity of the film interpretation.

Students will explore the connotations of the colors associated with the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby." They will discuss the meaning of connotation and how word meanings can change. Next they will work in groups to explore the cultural connotations of a particular color, present findings to the class, keep a color log as they read the novel, and write an analysis of a major character.

In this lesson on connotative vs. denotative meaning, students will explore the three ways in which connotations create meaning.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes questions, discussion topics, and an author biography intended to enhance student reading of Louis de Bernieres's Corelli's Mandolin.

In this lesson, students use the Cornell notes tool to do close reading of informational text.

This teacher's guide for Counting Backwards by Laura Lascarso includes questions that cover key ideas and details as well as craft and structure, and postreading activities.

This page contains a set of discussion questions for Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

In this lesson, students will read chapters XXXV-XXXVI of The Awakening, focusing on how the central ideas build on one another and interact as Edna and Robert confess their feelings for one another.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes an introduction, discussion questions, and author biography designed to enhance student reading of Crow Lake, Mary Lawson's universal drama of love and misunderstanding recounts a family’s tragic and moving past.

This page contains discussion questions for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes an introduction, discussion questions, suggested reading list, and author biography designed to enhance student understanding of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

The lessons in this curriculum resource will guide students through reading strategies, debate, individual reflection, group activities, and discussions of The Scarlet Letter.

In this activity, students can create a storyboard capturing the narrative arc in a story with a six-cell storyboard containing the major parts of the plot diagram. For each cell, have students create a scene that follows the story in the sequence using: Exposition, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes questions to help students explore Charles Dickens' novel, David Copperfield. The book most closely resembling Dickens' own life, its hero, orphaned as a boy, grows up to discover love and happiness, heartbreak and sorrow amid a cast of eccentrics, innocents, and villains.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes an introduction, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, and author biography designed to enhance student discussion of author Alice Munro's book, Dear Life. Students will explore the quiet drama of her characters’ buried desires, their errors and regrets, and their lives’ most memorable crises and turning points.

This page contains discussion questions for Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther.