In this lesson, students will analyze Orwell’s carefully chosen words, details, repetitions, and characterizations in these first few pages, students can construct a strong understanding of some of the key features of this society that will give them a solid framework for comprehending the rest of the novel.

This lesson reviews the literary devices at work in John Updike's "Ace in the Hole." Students consider professional athletes who didn't pan out before taking an in-depth look at Updike's techniques.

Students will complete a close reading of Ted Kooser’s poem, Abandoned Farmhouse.  Students will use their knowledge about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl to determine the setting and characters in the poem. After analyzing the author’s style, use of figurative language, and structure of the poem, students will write an ORIGINAL POEM in the spirit of Abandoned Farmhouse by using the same syntax.  Using the original poem and a template as a guide, students will compose a poem that reveals who they are through the voice of important objects in their homes.

In this lesson, students use a circular chart to analyze the plot structure of John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men. Students consider the similar structures of each chapter and how the novel ends where it began, leading into a literary analysis essay about the novel.

This page offers teachers and students a glimpse into some of the differences between the film version and original text of Animal Farm, by George Orwell.

This lesson contains an assessment intended to measure student understanding of the theory of Objectivism - the central idea in Ayn Rand's novel, The Fountainhead.

This introductory lesson provides materials for teachers to use while reading Ray Bradbury's classic novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, consisting of powerpoint presentations with important quotes from the chapters of the book.

This lesson has students analyze various elements of Tennessee William's classic play, A Streetcar Named Desire, to uncover the characterization of various characters in the play. Students can work in individuals or groups to create an oral presentation focused on one character from the play.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the Greek tragedy Agamemon through a role-play activity. Students are given a summary of the play, then grouped up to evaluate Agamemnon's decisions.

In this lesson from Expeditionary Learning, students will perform a close reading of Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. They will answer questions using specific details from the text and explain why they chose those details. Students will also use context clues to access new vocabulary. This is Lesson 2 of 10 from the unit Grade 3 Curriculum Map Unit 2, Module 1: http://engageny.org/resource/grade-3-ela-module-1-unit-2 .

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

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this unit, students will take a look at the historical vision of the American Dream as put together by our Founding Fathers. They will be asked: How, if at all, has this dream changed? Is this dream your dream? First students will participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing for his or her vision of the American Dream, and then they will write an argument laying out and defending their personal view of what the American Dream should be.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and annotate closely one of the documents that they feel expresses the American Dream.
Students participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing his or her vision of the American Dream.
Students write a paper, taking into consideration the different points of view in the documents read, answering the question “What is the American Dream now?”
Students write their own argument describing and defending their vision of what the American Dream should be.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What has been the historical vision of the American Dream?
What should the American Dream be? (What should we as individuals and as a nation aspire to?)
How would women, former slaves, and other disenfranchised groups living during the time these documents were written respond to them?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, students will share their work with their classmates and celebrate their accomplishments.

This lesson has students work in cooperative groups to understand and analyze Shakespearean sonnets. The final product is a scrapbook containing analyses of the sonnets by the different group members.

In this lesson, students compare the novel Something Wicked This Way Comes to an episode of the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer entitled "Hush." Both texts feature mysterious, silent men who come into a town and create literal and figurative nightmares for its residents. Students complete a chart and take notes from a powerpoint on the similarities and differences between the two.

A teacher's guide to Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Includes common core aligned pre-reading promts, discussion questions, post-reading promts and writing activities.

In this lesson, students learn some of the basics of rhythm in poetry by writing haiku. Students select from a variety of photos of nature, then write about their chosen photo.

This lesson plan helps ease students into a unit on poetry. Students answer some preliminary questions to activate their prior knowledge of the topic before delving into a poetry anthology and discussing poems they find as a group.

This introductory lesson gives students some of the background information they'll need to be successful in a unit based on William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night. Students write mini-scripts about love, then go through an early speech from the play to acclimate themselves to Shakespeare's language.