Lesson Plans

318 Result(s)
Grade Range
6-8
Lesson 2: Scrooge as He is Revealed during the Ghostly Experiences

In this lesson, part of a unit on Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," students examine Scrooge’s experiences with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future and discover how Dickens used both direct and indirect characterization to create a protagonist who is more than just a stereotype.

Grade Range
6-12
Lesson 1: Language Analysis Based on Stave 1

In this lesson, part of a unit on Charles Dickens', "A Christmas Carol," students focus on the first stave of the novel as they identify the meanings of words and phrases that may be unfamiliar to them. This activity facilitates close examination of and immersion in the text and leads to an understanding of Scrooge before his ghostly experiences.

Grade Range
6-8
Examining Utopia & Dystopia in The Giver

Throughout Lois Lowry’s The Giver, the main character Jonas realizes there are more elements to life than he has been led to believe. This lesson explores how The Giver addresses issues of personal identity, memory, and the value of reading and education, as well as other famous classics in this genre and books that students may have read on their own.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 3: Themes in Lord of the Flies

Lesson 3 involves distinguishing between a literary topic and a literary theme. It articulates a variety of William Golding’s themes implicit in the novel Lord of the Flies" and has students recognize the dominant theme of human nature’s propensity for destruction.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 2: Symbolism in Lord of the Flies

Lesson 2 is a study of symbols in William Golding’s novel "Lord of the Flies." After reviewing the general concept of symbolism, students focus on four of the most dominant symbols that permeate the novel: the island itself; the conch; the Lord of the Flies effigy; fire.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 1: Characterization in Lord of the Flies

This lesson focuses on character analysis throughout William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. While contemplating both direct and indirect characterization techniques, students will be able to consider how characterization builds relationships among the boys in the novel.

Grade Range
6-8
Thornton Wilder's Our Town: The Reader as Writer

To appreciate some of the extra-literary elements of a play, students pause at various intervals in their study of Thornton Wilder's Our Town to develop their own settings, characters, and conflicts.

Grade Range
9-12
The 'Secret Society' and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, "class struggle" is portrayed as an intensely personal affair, as much a tension within the mind of a single character as a conflict between characters. This lesson activities asks students to consider Gatsby's experiences as not only those of an individual, but as those of a society and culture. Students will closely study the text and exam some of Fitzgerald's letters and other statements.

Grade Range
9-12
Walt Whitman's Notebooks and Poetry: The Sweep of the Universe

Clues to Walt Whitman's effort to create a new and distinctly American form of verse may be found in his Notebooks, now available online from the American Memory Collection.  In an entry to be examined in this lesson, Whitman indicated that he wanted his poetry to explore important ideas of a universal scope (as in the European tradition), but in authentic American situations and settings using specific details with direct appeal to the senses.

Grade Range
9-12
Common Visions, Common Voices

Trace similar motifs in the artwork and folklore of India, Africa, the Maya, and Native Americans.