Cluster 2: Knowledge of LanguageArchived

In this lesson, students will consider the literary elements Shakespeare uses to communicate King Henry's inability to sleep. As they close read this passage multiple times, students will discover how diction, tone, syntax, and imagery help to convey King Henry's state of mind. Once they have grappled with the text in small groups and on their own, they will bring their discoveries and interpretations together in a final essay. A text marking handout and key, independent practice questions and key, a planning sheet, and a writing rubric have been included with the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will perform multiple close readings of the well-known "To be or not to be" soliloquy from William Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hamlet. The lesson is appropriate for 11th or 12th grade students who have some familiarity with reading Shakespeare but would benefit from fluency practice with the difficult text, as well as vocabulary building and argumentative writing about literature. The closure and extension activities provide suggestions for taking this study further using other Hamlet (or other Shakespearean) soliloquies.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan explores symmetry in the structure and themes of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," delving into the antagonist's representation of the "duality of nature." In examining knightly virtues, students will measure Gawain's strength as the poem's hero. The lesson explains background information that every medieval thinker listening to a performance of the poem would know, in an effort to put the student into the mind-set of the medieval audience, providing a deeper appreciation and understanding of the work.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students identify and categorize different ways Jonathan Swift and those who have edited his text since its initial publication used semicolons in the essay "A Modest Proposal." They compare these uses with rules for semicolon use as indicated in online guides, theorizing about uses that do not follow the rules. Following this analysis and theorizing, students use what they learn about punctuation and its influence on meaning to write insightfully about their findings, using semicolons as they do so.

Type: Lesson Plan

Batten down the hatches, mateys! In this two-part series, you'll learn about syntax and the ways in which writing with varied syntax can affect the meaning of a text. This tutorial is Part Two. In this tutorial, you'll learn about complex sentence structures. Then you'll combine what you learned in both parts of this series to identify different sentence structures and analyze the effect of simple, compound, and complex sentence structures on the meaning of a text. You'll also practice writing using varied syntax. 

Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two! Click HERE to view Part One.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Ahoy, mateys! Learn about syntax and the ways in which writing with varied syntax can affect the meaning of a text. In this two-part interactive tutorial, you'll learn about syntax. You'll practice identifying simple, compound, and complex sentence structures and analyze the effect of these different types of structures on the meaning of a text. You'll also practice writing using varied syntax. 

Make sure to complete both parts of this series! Click HERE for Part Two.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This teaching idea is designed to help students analyze grammar pet peeves. Students begin by thinking about their own grammar pet peeves and then read a "Dear Abby" column in which she lists several grammar pet peeves of her own. Students become aware that attitudes about race, social class, moral and ethical character and 'proper' language use are intertwined and that rants such as this one reveal those attitudes. Finally, students discuss the pet peeves as a class while gaining an understanding that issues of race, class, combined with audience expectations, help to determine what is considered 'proper' language use.

Type: Teaching Idea

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

Students learn to use commas, semicolons, colons, and exclamation points correctly, and explore how they can use punctuation to contribute to the development of their own voice and style in writing.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence