Cluster 3: Integration of Knowledge and IdeasArchived

Huck Finn's moral journey parallels Mark Twain's own questions about slavery. Like the photographers of the nineteenth-century, Twain, a Realist, struggled with how best to portray fictionalized characters, while still expressing truth and creating social commentary. In this lesson, students use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast Mark Twain's novel and/or excerpts from Frederick Doulgass' narrative to original photographs of slaves from the late-nineteenth century. Then they write an essay to compare the different portrayals, arguing to what extent art can reliably reflect truth. In addition, they will discuss art as social commentary.

Type: Lesson Plan

In Part 2 of this three-lesson mini-unit students will complete close readings of two different creation myths. After looking closely at the texts, they will cite specific textual evidence to compare and contrast these myths and their similarities to other creation stories, to infer what the authors hinted at in terms of creation, and to realize the impact of specific word choices on the general tone of a piece of literature.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part two of a three lesson unit that will explore and analyze how different authors convey American Puritanism. In lessons two of this unit, students will analyze key literary elements and Miller’s use of rhetoric to create mood in the play, "The Crucible."

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will analyze how Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson each used figurative language to develop a specific tone in relation to mortality. They will also consider how each poet reflected the time periods within which they wrote.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn about two significant writers of the Harlem Renaissance—Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read Hughes' poem "Freedom's Plow" to compare and contrast the authors' treatment of a similar topic and theme. 

This is part two in a two-part series of interactive tutorials. Click HERE to launch Part 1 to identify topics and determine themes in excerpts from Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Examine text excerpts from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and evaluate several film clips based on different adaptations of Shelley's novel in this two-part interactive tutorial. By the end of this two-part tutorial, you should be able to analyze how the films’ various adaptations of the novel changes the audience’s perception of the creature that Mary Shelley originally created. This tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series.

Part One should be completed before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part One.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about two significant writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes. In this two-part tutorial series, you'll read excerpts of texts from each author. In Part One, you'll practice identifying topics and determining themes using Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. In Part Two, you'll read Hughes' poem "Freedom's Plow" to compare and contrast the authors' treatment of a similar topic and theme.

Click here to launch PART TWO.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Examine text excerpts from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and evaluate several film clips based on different adaptations of Shelley's novel in this two-part interactive tutorial. By the end of this two-part series, you should be able to analyze how the films’ various adaptations of the novel changes the audience’s perception of the creature Mary Shelley originally created.

Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part 2.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This teaching idea involves analysis of original drafts and edits that Langston Hughes made to the poem "Ballad of Booker T." The Library of Congress site provides a primary source analysis tool, teacher guides, and supplemental resources about Booker T. Washington.

Type: Teaching Idea