EngageNY
Collecting Details: The Challenges Ha Faces and Ha as a Dynamic Character
What is a dynamic character? Using an interesting resource, scholars set out to answer the question. They create graphic organizers to collect details about character development as they read the novel Inside Out & Back Again. They...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Text Analysis and Character Revelations: Flowers for Algernon
What does your character reveal about you? Scholars carry out several activities to determine the reveal of character in Flowers for Algernon. Readers answer text dependent questions, complete diary entries, write reflections, and use...
Pixton Comics Inc.
Elements of an Epic
Mythic heroes, gods and goddesses, and epic tales come alive as young artists craft their own graphic novel or mind map for classic epics, including The Odyssey, Beowulf, Harry Potter, and Star Wars, identifying the six elements of every...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Elie Wiesel's Acceptance Speech Analysis
Elie Wiesel's Nobel Prize Acceptance speech provides young historians with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to use evidence from the speech. They work together to analyze how Wiesel uses rhetorical devices and syntax to...
Literacy Design Collaborative
The Lottery
Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" provides middle schoolers with an opportunity to hone their close reading and literary analysis skills. After annotating their copy of the story, writer's craft an essay in which they analyze...
Literacy Design Collaborative
The Scarlet Letter and Hester Prynne
Is Hester Prynne a virtuous woman? To conclude a unit study of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter class members craft an argument essay in which they use the standards listed in Proverbs 31 from the Bible to judge Hester's virtues.
Literacy Design Collaborative
Rethinking Ophelia
How can a gender theoretical lens shape the way Ophelia is perceived in Hamlet? That is the question writers must answer in an explanatory essay to conclude their study of Shakespeare's revenge tragedy.
Literacy Design Collaborative
To Be or Not to Be: The Evolution of Hamlet’s Personality
How does Hamlet's state of mind change over the course of Shakespeare's most famous revenge tragedy? After a close reading of Hamlet's soliloquies in Act III, scene 1 and Act IV, scene iv, class members engage in a Paideia/Socratic...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Building Ideas and Making Connections: "Monkey See, Monkey Do"
Reading a scientific article about cross-species synchronization may sound like a yawner. But "Monkey See, Monkey Do" is a fascinating tale that just happens to be about yawning, within and across species. After a close reading, class...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Analyzing Language through Dialogue and Internal Monologue in "The Scarlet Ibis"
James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis" provides eighth graders with an opportunity to sharpen their literary analysis skills. After a close reading of the text, class members highlight and annotate parts of the dialogue and...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Author Study: Kate Chopin
Four stories by Kate Chopin offer high schoolers an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the ways authors use various literary elements and movements to develop their themes and social commentaries.
Literacy Design Collaborative
The House on Mango Street
After reading Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, class members craft an essay in which they use evidence from a variety of vignettes to demonstrate how Cisneros develops Esperanza's character.
Pace University
Short Stories
A reading of Kevin Lamb's short story "Lost in the Woods" launches a study of how writers use elements such as foreshadowing, mood, character development, setting, and conflict to engage readers. Class members then demonstrate what they...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 3: Unit 1, Lesson 6
Is there an underlying message? After looking at an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, scholars discuss how the author uses words to present a claim. Learners work through an evidence tool and guided questions to support...
The New York Times
Teaching Orwell and '1984’ with the New York Times
Doublethink and alternate facts? Big Brother and Facebook? 1984 and 2019? Sales of 1984 have surged and so has the use of George Orwell's dystopian classic in classrooms. Whether new to teaching the novel or a seasoned veteran you'll...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 15
Some things are worth doing again. Scholars take a look to see which ideas Martin Luther King Jr. revisits and refines in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." To help with the process, readers answer guided questions, look at word...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 14
Let's see how the story unfolds. Scholars examine paragraphs of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to determine how King unfolds his analysis of the church. Before arriving at an answer, learners work in pairs and...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 10
Scholars review the previous nine lessons of analysis of King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and use their work to create a formal essay responding to a writing prompt about the purpose of the work. This mid-unit assessment is a quick...
Curated OER
Poetry Analysis Sheet
Tasking class members to analyze a poem can strike fear into the hearts of many learners. Here's a activity that takes the mystery out of the process by providing questions about what to look for in the text and to the devices poets use...
College Board
AP® English Language: Reading and Writing Analytically
How can teachers ensure their pupils are well prepared for the AP® English exam? The reference material is a good place to start! Educators read seven essays detailing best practices for teaching scholars to read critically and write...
Adult Fiction by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Ghost Boys: Educator Guide
The spirit of the Civil Rights Movement lives on in a more literal than figurative way in Ghost Boys. A focused lesson plan features Jewell Parker Rhodes' novel about ghosts of slain black teenagers, including the main character, Jerome,...
Free Library of Philadelphia
Resources for Ghost Boys
Jewell Parker Rhodes, the author of Ghost Boys, wanted to bring the historical legacy of Emmett Till and the current topic of racial prejudice into today's young readers' mindsets. Use a reading guide and set of discussion questions to...
Maryland Department of Education
A Raisin in the Sun and Dreams Deferred
To conclude a study of A Raisin in the Sun and to prepare for a visit to the Lewis Museum, class members analyze Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem." Learners then draw connections to characters in the play and to their own experiences by...
Perfection Learning
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
A revolutionary work of literature requires a revolutionary assessment project. A series of activities on Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings includes discussion questions, a plot synopsis, and a selection of both short and...