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Activity
Virginia English Bulletin

Book Trailer Projects From Classroom to Community

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Invite your pupils to express their understanding of a novel through a collaborative video project. Groups choose a novel from those you have studied in class, select four scenes, storyboard the scenes, film the scenes, edit the film,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find": Who's the Real Misfit?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students discuss the characteristics of the literary genre known as "Southern Gothic". They write an analysis of the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Details, Details: How Choices Reveal Character, Setting, Tone, and Theme. (Analyzing and Interpreting, Making Inferences)

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students respond to works of art. In this art interpretation instructional activity, students examine images of art while using concepts they learned as they read literary pieces. They detail the setting, characters, and the mood and...
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PPT
Curated OER

Grapes of Wrath: Setting up Historical Context

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Discuss life in the 1930s in relation to the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, then do a cross-media analysis. Here you'll find background information on film maker John Ford, writer John Steinbeck, and 1930s America. You can compare the...
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Organizer
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Southwest Career and Technical Academy

Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story - Compare and Contrast

For Students 8th - 12th Standards
West Side Story, the modern retelling of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, won ten Academy Awards for its rousing depiction of the tale of star-crossed lovers. But how closely does the plot align to its source material? Compare and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creating Plays from Children's Stories

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers explain how individual elements (e.g., plot, theme, character, conflict, etc.) comprise the structure of a play. They write an original one-act play with developed characters, specific setting, conflict, and resolution.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding Character

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Readers practice character analysis by reviewing Gary Soto's short story "La Bamba" with the whole class (anything you've read together will work). They design t-shirts that feature traits and story elements to reveal the nature of a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Shakespeare 2000

For Teachers 12th Standards
Young thespians can try their hand at writing a script and acting out a scene, while gaining a deeper understanding of the universal topics presented in Shakespeare's wide array of plays. Begin the lesson by conducting a compare and...
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Activity
Curated OER

A Study Guide for The Phantom of the Opera

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Immerse yourself in the beautiful, twisted world of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. A detailed lesson plan provides important details about the writing, stagecraft, music, and literary elements of the famous musical, as...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Literature Soundtracks

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Mix music into your literature class! After reading a novel (either in class or as outside reading), your mix masters create a soundtrack of 10 songs to accompany their reading. What does each song add to the story? A fun activity for all! 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Crane, London, and Literary Naturalism

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners analyze "To Build a Fire" by Jack London and "The Open boat" by Stephen Crane. They write an essay in which they compare and contrast the narrators and plots in each story.
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Activity
Orlando Shakes

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Study Guide

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Can science ever go too far? Learners explore this topic with the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde study guide. They read about the connection between scientific experimentation in fiction and real life and then compare a scene from the novella...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Rock to Teach Literary Devices: Jimi Hendrix “The Wind Cries Mary”

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students explore literary elements through music. In this figurative language lesson, students examine imagery and personification in "The Wind Cries Mary" by Jimi Hendrix.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Boys Will Be Boys...Right?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Through this exercise, high schoolers identify character traits present in Romeo and Juliet. They listen to an excerpt from "The Office of Christian Parents: Showing How Children Are to be Governed" and participate in a Socratic...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Shakespeare 2000

For Teachers 12th
Comparing the more modern film Ten Things I Hate About You to The Taming of the Shrew leads to an understanding of how Shakespearean plots can be applied to modern-day situations and characters. As a culminating activity, groups select a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Drama-Dialogue

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Use drama to study and practice dialogue. Creative minds discuss what dialogue tells about a character, and how it can be used to advance the plot. They read a play, think about what they gleaned from dialogue, and record their...
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Organizer
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Australian Centre For the Moving Image

Dreamworks Animation Character Design

For Students 4th - 8th Standards
Dive into animation creation using Dreamworks® animated films. Compare and contrast characters, wonder and ponder why the plot is so important, and think of background and themes as your creativity unrolls onto paper.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ornithology and Real World Science

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research, art, and...
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Unit Plan
Learning to Give

Teaching Playwriting in Schools

For Teachers 1st - 12th Standards
The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lights! Cameras! Action!: Creating a Drama About the Lyme Art Colony

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Discuss the lives of artists in the Lyme Art Colony in the 1900s with this resource. Young historians write and perform a short scene depicting individuals who lived in the Griswold boardinghouse, used by the colony artists. They use the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Philadelphia Museum of Art

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students study paintings and use their knowledge of story elements to analyze the art. In this art analysis lesson, students review a novel for its elements. Students study the image At the Moulin Rouge: The Dance and discuss the story...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Primary Sources and Protagonists: A Native American Literature Unit

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...
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Activity
Orlando Shakes

Les Misérables: Study Guide

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A writer has the responsibility to defend the less fortunate members of society. At least that was the view of Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables. The novel is the subject of a study guide from Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Learners...
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Beyond Book Reports

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Book study activities can inspire page turning literature analysis of point of view, author's purpose, and much more.