Lesson Plans

419 Result(s)
Grade Range
9-12
Lessons of the Indian Epics: Following the Dharma

This lesson plan is designed to allow instructors to explore Hindu culture by examining the characters of the Indian epic poem  Ramayana, and the choices they make. Students will be able to explore the Hindu concept of right behavior (dharma) through an investigation of the epic poem, the Ramayana.

Grade Range
9-12
George Orwell's Essay on his Life in Burma: "Shooting An Elephant"

In addition to being an accomplished novelist, George Orwell was also an experienced essayist. Among his most powerful essays is the 1931 autobiographical essay "Shooting an Elephant," which Orwell based on his experience as a police officer in colonial Burma. Through close reading of this piece, students will be engage deeply with the text and discuss the major literary tools present in Orwell's writing.

Grade Range
9-12
Lessons of the Indian Epics: The Ramayana

The Ramayana (ram-EYE-ya-na) and the Mahabharata (ma-ha-BA-ra-ta), the great Indian epics, are among the most important works of literature in South Asia. Both contain important lessons on wisdom, behavior and morality, and have been used for centuries not only as entertainment, but also as a way of instructing both children and adults in the exemplary behavior toward which they are urged to strive and the immoral behavior they are urged to shun. In this lesson, students will read an abridged version of the Ramayana, and will explore the ways in which the story of Rama contains elements, such as the Epic Hero Cycle, that place it within the epic poetry tradition.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 4: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Narration, Voice, and the Compson Family's New System

The third chapter of "The Sound and the Fury" is told from the perspective of Jason Compson, now the patriarchal head of the family, after his father's death, Quentin's suicide, and Caddy's abandonment of her own daughter (also named Quentin). His leadership does not bode well for keeping intact the remnants of the Compson family, ultimately indicating the passing of both the Old South at large and its one-time aristocratic families such as the Compsons.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 2: Thirteen Ways of Reading a Modernist Poem

This lesson prompts students to think about a poem’s speaker within the larger context of modernist poetry. First, students will review the role of the speaker in two poems of the Romanticism period before focusing on the differences in Wallace Stevens’ modernist “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

Grade Range
6-8
The Aztecs: Mighty Warriors of Mexico

The Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was the hub of a rich civilization that dominated the region of modern-day Mexico at the time the Spanish forces arrived. In this lesson, students will learn about the history and culture of the Aztecs and discover why their civilization came to an abrupt end.

Grade Range
6-12
Shakespeare's Othello and the Power of Language

By means of group performances, writing exercises, and online search activities, students learn about the sometimes dangerous and destructive powers of language, particularly when wielded by such an eloquent and unscrupulous character as Shakespeare's Iago.

Grade Range
9-12
Hammurabi's Code: What Does It Tell Us About Old Babylonia?

King Hammurabi ruled Babylon, located along the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, from 1792–1750 BCE however, today he is most famous for a series of judgments inscribed on a large stone stele and dubbed Hammurabi's Code. In this lesson students will learn about the contents of the Code, and what it tells us about life in Babylonia in the 18th century BCE.