PBS
Catch-22: Satirize This!
Some assignments are great, some can become great, and some have greatness thrust upon them. This one is great. After completing Joseph Heller's classic satire, Catch-22, groups craft and present their own political satire.
Dick Blick Art Materials
Painted Story Quilt
Creating story quilts is a great way to combine art, social studies and literature. Kids select a story, a published one or one of their own, to illustrate, paint on a canvas square, embellish, and mount on a felt backing.
Curated OER
Character Tea Party
A tea party in Wonderland? An East Egg brunch with Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Nick? Breakfast with Miss Havisham, Lady Macbeth, and Abigail Williams? Or dinner with Andre, Hamlet, and Randle Patrick McMurphy? Class members select a favorite...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Civil War on Sunday
Reading Mary Pope Osborne's Civil War on Sunday? Here's a packet crammed with activities, exercises, reading guides, and project suggestions. A must-have for your curriculum library.
Curated OER
Character Traits in Fables
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this lesson is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as the...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Intensities in the Classroom
Everyone learns and experiences life differently. A set of lessons about character intensities encourages middle and high schoolers to analyze themselves, their peers, and characters from a book based on the five listed intensities:...
Listening Library
The Sign of the Beaver
Extend a class reading of the novel The Sign of the Beaver across all subject areas with this literature unit guide. From basic discussion questions and writing prompts, to a research project about tracking animals, this resource offers...
Curated OER
Russian Literature: Leo Tolstoy
Tenth graders research the life and literature of Leo Tolstoy. Through reading and research, 10th graders identify key events in the author's life. They explore the major themes of his writing and complete a research project. Reading...
Curated OER
Core Book Guide for The Upstairs Room
Learners read "The Upstairs Room" and participate in literature analysis regarding justice. In this Holocaust Literature lesson, students read a short story and discuss critical thinking questions. Learners write journal entries and...
Curated OER
Publishing an Alphabet Book
Students research, write and publish an A,B,C book based on research of their own.
Curated OER
Plentiful Plants Book Review
In this literature activity, students choose a nonfiction book about plants to read and report about. They note the title, author, illustrator, and publisher. They follow five directions to draw and label plant diagrams, make charts,...
Curated OER
The Velveteen Rabbit
First graders discuss and touch stuffed animals and a real rabbit. They complete a KWL chart about rabbits. They listen to the story The Velveteen Rabbit and discuss it. They research rabbits in the library and make a book.
Curated OER
Classroom Fun with Flat Stanley!
Students complete various activities based on the Flat Stanley books. In this Flat Stanley lesson, students brainstorm a list of supernatural qualities as an introduction to the book, then create story webs based on the book characters...
Curated OER
Celebrating Halloween through Language and Literature
Use the theme of Halloween to spice up campfire stories, journal writing, and presentations in your classroom.
Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to Ruta Sepetys
Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Robots
Two activities work with a fiction and nonfiction book about robots‚—Robot Dreams by Sara Varon and Robot by Roger Bridgman. Scholars read each story, then build a robot out of found objects, examine robot sensors, and search for...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Gardening
A Reading Adventure Pack invites scholars to start gardening. Following a reading of two books—fiction and nonfiction—young green thumbs repurpose food containers to grow an herb garden in their kitchen, plant seeds in starter pots out...
University of Wisconsin
Don Quixote in Wisconsin
Are you looking for background information on Cervantes and his Don Quixote? How about a study guide and discussion questions or project ideas? Even journal prompts, tests, and quizzes? A 98-page teaching guide simplifies the quest with...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to Al Capone Does My Shirts
It's hard to imagine that life on Alcatraz could be dull. A series of intriguing lessons take readers through the novel Al Capone Does my Shirts. Pre-reading questions introduce the text and a range of suggestions, from comic strips to...
Curated OER
Design a Book Cover
Students explore character, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict for a book that they are reading. Sample book covers are provided and students apply what they have learned by designing a book cover.
Teach With Movies
Title: "The Red Badge of Courage" - Topics: U.S./1860 - 1861; Literature/U.S.
Designed to be used with a showing of the 1951 version of The Red Badge of Courage staring Audie Murphy, this learning guide includes discussion questions, suggestions for activities, and topics that can be discussed with parents.
Curated OER
Loving Literature
First graders, after having "Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman read to them, participate in group discussions or independentally work to analyze a spreadsheet to identify essential elements in the story and graph their data. In...
Curated OER
Leyendas and Children's Literature
Students in high school read books to elementary students. They also examine cultural writings and legends from Latin America. They complete projects over the information they have found and give one of them to the elementary student.
Curated OER
Making Books
Students make a variety of books using the computer program iPhoto and digital images of their choosing. This lesson plan for the upper-elementary classroom includes an example of student work and four possible lesson plan extensions and...