Louisiana Department of Education
Unit: Hamlet
Encourage readers to determine if Hamlet's madness is actually divinest sense. Class members analyze the words of the play before studying related texts, including T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," scenes from...
Dream of a Nation
Writing a Narrative Essay
Imagine using narrative essays to encourage change. This multi-week unit plan does just that. After reading a series of articles from Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America, class members examine the...
Shakespeare Uncovered
Henry IV, Part I: Does Father Know Best?
“Yea, there thou mak’st me sad and mak’st me sin/In envy that my Lord Northumberland/Should be the father to so blest a son--.” Henry IV, Part I, provides the text for a series of exercises that ask class members to examine the...
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Case Study: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic – Factors Beyond the Biological that Influence the Spread of Disease
A very timely instructional activity looks at the social and political factors that affect the spread of disease. Using the 1918 Influenza Pandemic as a case study, pupils research factors that influenced the spread of the disease,...
PBS
The Power of Personal Narrative
Personal narratives are powerful things. Whether told from the first-person or third-person point of view, whether in the form of an essay, a short story, novel, or video, whether fiction or fact, they capture readers and give them...
NPR
Chinese American Women Lesson Plan
The National Women's History Museum provides a plan designed to accompany their online CyberExhibit, Chinese American Women; a History of Resilience and Resistance. After examining a series of primary and secondary source documents,...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 3: The Archetypal Approach to Literary Criticism
As class members continue their study of approaches to literary criticism, readers examine the symbolism and archetypal patterns in John Knowles' A Separate Peace, and how these parallels are used to develop a theme in the story.
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
The Writer’s Toolbox: What You Need to Master the Craft
Strengthen your high schoolers' writing with a series of steps for writing successfully. With sections on organizing an essay, choosing a topic, crafting a thesis statement, and revising a draft, the lesson encourages your class to...
Curated OER
Constructing Narrative from the Migrant Experience in Literature
Excerpts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and from John Fante's Ask the Dust, as well as a variety of primary source documents provide the background for an examination of the migrant experience from 1920-1945.
Novelinks
The Winter’s Tale: Bio Poem
Readers of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale demonstrate their understanding of the play by selecting a character and crafting a bio poem that reveals his or her fears and aspirations.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem
High schoolers analyze modernist poetry and the role of speaker in example poems. Learners study modernist poems from the Romanticism and Victorian periods as well as Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Using a...
Curated OER
Ancient Cultures News Broadcast
How does geography influence daily life? Guided by an essential question, class groups select and then research an ancient culture, and develop a news broadcast about the geographical setting and its impact on the culture. Teams select...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Showing Creative Problem Solving
After reading excerpts in which Buck solves a problem in Jack London's The Call of the Wild, students write their own three-paragraph animal stories imitating London's style and word choice. Teacher and student instructions are provided...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Writing Fix Homepage
Have you ever needed someone to help you out with your writing? This site offers help to students and teachers. The lessons and resources are organized based on the 6 Writing Traits model. An especially interesting feature of the site is...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How to Write Descriptively
The point of fiction is to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story. But how do writers suck readers into stories in this way? Nalo Hopkinson shares some tips for how to use language to make your...
Other
Sonic Storytelling: Writing Method for Radio Drama
This article is filled with tips for beginners on how to write radio drama sketches or adapt stories into radio plays. You'll see examples of sketches as well as tips on writing well. W.9-10.3, 3a, 3b Narratives, W.11-12.3, 3a, 3b...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Outlining Plot
This video tutorial focuses on outlining plot; it explains that we outline plot as a way to analyze it; to analyze plot, focus on main events and interaction involving main characters. It offers three methods for outlining plot:...
Peace Corps
Peace Corps: Narrative Cartoons
Using the communicative means of cartooning, learners examine essays from various Peace Corps volunteers and recount them by writing their own cartoons.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway:writing an Engaging Story With Literary Strategies to Enhance Plot
You will be able to use various literary strategies and devices, including dialogue and suspense, to enhance the plot in a short story. W.11-12.3b Narratives
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Plot Development (English I Reading)
You will be able to analyze how flashback, foreshadowing, sub-plots, or parallel plot structures can be used in developing a plot in a short story.
Other
Storyboard That
Create your own storyboard with this interactive tool. The storyboard framework is a graphic organizer that helps structure students work into a linear and concise story. Although it feels easy at first, breaking down ones thoughts into...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Development of Characters Through Literary Devices
In this lesson, students learn how writers develop characters through a variety of techniques: narration, dialogue, interaction with other characters, interaction with setting, and characters' thoughts. RL.9-10.3 Analyzing Characters,...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Analyze Linear Plot Developments in Literary Texts/fiction
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson focuses on how conflicts determine the resolution of the story. In this lesson, students learn how to recognize conflict, analyze linear plot, and determine how...
Department of Defense
Do Dea: Story, Identity, Unity
Delve into the art of storytelling in this self-guided unit. Multiple topics are covered such as literary genres, the 7 elements of fiction, figurative language, theme, characterization, etc. At the end of the unit, write your own flash...