The resource is a SOAPSTone graphic organizer template. SOAPSTone is an analysis tool.

Students will examine their preconceptions about Shakespeare and his work. Then, after reading one theater critic's case for reading and seeing Shakespeare, they will use the Times to explore adaptations of a Shakespearean play they are currently studying. Finally, they will use these as a springboard for staging their own scenes from the play in a new way, using an adaptation they have read about as a model.

This resource provides a lesson pertaining to a close reading of "A Long Thin Line". Students will complete an analysis using a graphic organizer, review the article using the SOAPStone method and finally repsond to the work in the form of a freestyle writing.

This resource contains a primary source about a supreme court case related to World War II. Accompanying the reading are text-dependent questions, an academic vocabulary list, and a writing prompt with student samples.

The film "12 Years a Slave" is based on the 1853 slave narrative of the same name. This lesson pairs an excerpt from the original text by Solomon Northup with a recent Times article that discusses Mr. Northup's narrative in the context of the antislavery literary genre. In studying these two texts together, students examine what Northup's narrative reveals about the institution of slavery.

In this lesson, students explore the historical context of Walt Whitman's concept of "democratic poetry" by reading his poetry and prose and by examining daguerreotypes taken circa 1850. Next, students will compare the poetic concepts and techniques behind Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" and Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again," and have an opportunity to apply similar concepts and techniques in creating a poem from their own experience.

In the 1850's abolition was not a widely embraced movement in the U.S. It was considered radical and extreme. In his speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" Frederick Douglas sought to make abolition acceptable to Northern whites. In addition to making historical points about attitudes towards slavery in the 19th century, this speech can be used to teach formal rhetoric. The lesson features five interactive activities requiring close reading and analysis of Frederick's use of language and rhetorical strategies.