This lesson plan, centered around 1984 but adaptable to any piece of dystopian literature, asks students to make connections between the horrible futures predicted in the text and the reality of the world around them.

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.

In this Crash Course Literature resource, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Part 2: The Raft, the River, and the Weird Ending of Huckleberry Finn, students will explore the metaphors in the book, a little bit about what the metaphors like the Island and the River and the Raft might mean, and why one should pay attention to said metaphors. Students will also look at the ending of the book, which a lot of people believe isn't up to the standards of the rest of the novel.

In this lesson, students will analyze the conclusion of The Awakening, focusing on the meaning and aesthetic impact of the narrative.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes an introduction, discussion questions, and author biography designed to enhance student reading of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, a novel that won both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1992.

This Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide includes an introduction, discussion questions, and author biography designed to enhance student reading of Philip Roth's American Pastoral.

Students compose epitaphs for deceased characters in "Hamlet," paying close attention to how their words appeal to the senses, create imagery, suggest mood, and set tone. Students will design gravestones to display their epitaphs. Students must capture the essence of their character's personality and station in life.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is an excellent example of many of the concepts the poets were addressing at the turn of the twentieth century. Poets were experimenting with poetic form and responding to the destruction that consumed the Lost Generation. In particular, Eliot incorporates the spirit of the Moderns through his stream of consciousness form and the allusions found in Prufrock’s interior monologue. 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.

Allegories are similar to metaphors: in both the author uses one subject to represent another, seemingly unrelated, subject. However, unlike metaphors, which are generally short and contained within a few lines, an allegory extends its representation over the course of an entire story, novel, or poem. This lesson plan will introduce students to the concept of allegory by using George Orwell’s widely read novella, Animal Farm, which is available on Project Gutenberg.

This article explains the ways in which Arthur Miller altered the historic events of the Salem Witch Trials in order to build the plot and characters of the dramatic work "The Crucible." A series of questions for consideration and discussion are at the end of the page.

This guide to The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne includes analysis of the story, an extensive selection of study and discussion questions, key vocabulary terms, and a follow-up assignment.

This resource contains discussion topics and postreading activities for Barefoot Heart by Elva Treviño Hart.

This page discusses two works by William Faulkner: Barn Burning and A Rose for Emily. This resource includes teaching strategies, an overview of themes and connections, and discussion questions.

The world of modern theater owes its roots to the tragedians of Ancient Greece. As far back as the 5th Century BCE, actors and playwrights were entertaining the masses with intriguing stories. This five-minute video unveils the ancient theatrical innovations that made the way for Broadway.

In this Common Core aligned teacher's guide to Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel, students will explore the idea that that there is more than one way of seeing and more than one way of communicating. This guide provides suggested topics for discussions, terms for consideration, supplemental reading, and activities.

A teachers guide for Before My Eyes by Caroline Bock, including in-depth insight to the setting, characters, and author's inspiration, questions for class discussion, and activities to provoke deeper understanding of issues

In this Random House for High School Teacher's Guide for Black Swan Green, David Mitchell's coming of age novel, students will explore vocabulary, author background, discussion questions, writing prompts, and extension ideas designed to enhance student understanding of character, theme, and structure.

This extensive study guide for Brighton Rock by Graham Greene summarizes the novel and explores characterization and themes in depth, and includes discussion questions for each part of the novel and strategies for assessment preparation.

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.