Lesson Plans

449 Result(s)
Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 3: García Márquez’s Nobel Prize Speech: “The Solitude of Latin America”

In this triumph of magical realism, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" chronicles a century of the remarkable Buendía family’s history in the fictional Colombian town of Macondo. The three lessons presented here explore the fantastic elements of this imaginary world, the real history that lies behind them, and García Márquez’s own philosophical musings on writing about Latin America.

Grade Range
9-12
Pearl S. Buck: "On Discovering America"

American author Pearl S. Buck spent most of her life in China. She returned to America in 1934, "an immigrant among immigrants…in my native land." In this lesson, students will explore American attitudes toward immigration in the 1930s through Pearl S. Buck's essay, "On Discovering America." They will explore the meaning of the term "American" in this context and look at how the media portrayed immigrants.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 1: Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

Students examine the divided nature of Raskolnikov’s character and personality. Then they uncover the divided natures of other characters—a fact that becomes increasingly evident as the novel progresses to go beyond character analysis to comprehend Dostoyevsky’s underlying themes. What does the novel imply about human nature? Dostoevsky clearly perceived that people are neither simple nor easily classified; they are often torn in opposite directions by forces both inside of and outside of themselves, sometimes with catastrophic results.

Grade Range
6-8
Animating Poetry: Reading Poems about the Natural World

Centered on poems about the natural world, this lesson encourages students, first, to make the reading of poetry a creative act; and, second, to appreciate particular literary devices in their functions as semaphores or interpretive signals.

Grade Range
6-8
A Story of Epic Proportions: What makes a Poem an Epic?

Some of the most the most essential works of literature in the world are examples of epic poetry, such as The Odyssey and Paradise Lost. This lesson introduces students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition.

Grade Range
9-12
The Mexican Revolution

This lesson, based on primary source analysis, introduces students to the Mexican Revolution and some of its lasting legacies.

Grade Range
9-12
Sor Juana, la poetisa: Los sonetos

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, una muy importante figura literaria a nivel mundial y la primer gran poeta de la América Latina, es un producto del Siglo de Oro Español.

Grade Range
6-8
Edward Hopper's House by the Railroad: From Painting to Poem

After a close reading and comparison of Edward Hopper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem about the painting, students explore the types of emotion generated by each work in the viewer or reader and examine how the painter and poet each achieved these responses.