Cluster 3: Vocabulary Acquisition and UseArchived

Use of these flashcards can help students build their vocabulary and prepare them for SAT testing.

Type: Educational Game

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

This close reading lesson focuses on Mark Twain's comical satire, "Advice to Youth." Students will close read the text three times to analyze Twain's powerful satirical style, as well as the power of nuances. For the first reading, students will focus on academic vocabulary. In the second reading, students will answer text-dependent questions as a guide for their comprehension of the satire. In the third close reading, students will analyze the advice Twain gives, the ways in which his essay critiques society and its behaviors, and how he uses humor, irony, and exaggeration to reveal his advice. For the summative assessment, students will write an argumentative essay in which they make a claim regarding whether or not Twain's advice is still pertinent for the youth of today. Graphic organizers and worksheets, along with teacher keys, and a writing rubric have been provided.

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

Students will research modernism, analyze allusions and images in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," diagnose the character's mental weakness using evidence from the poem, and write him an email about how to improve his state of mind from the perspective of a hypothetical online mental health professional.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students close read chunks of this challenging excerpt from Their Eyes Were Watching God, which was included on the 1987 AP English Literature exam. As they read and mark the text, students will uncover Zora Neale Hurston's layers of meaning within beautiful figurative language and symbolism, all of which communicate Janie's realizations and maturity following Joe Starks's death. The close reading and provided questions lead students to develop interpretations of Janie's character as she reflects on her past and realizes she likes "being lonesome for a change."

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will conduct several close readings of the article "SeaWorld, Activists Make Questionable Claims on Killer Whale Life Spans" by Jason Garcia. For the first close reading, students will focus on selected academic vocabulary. In the second reading, students will analyze the claims made in the article, focusing, in particular, on the validity of each claim made. During the final close reading, students will analyze the argument presented in the article, choose a side, and participate in a Philosophical Chairs discussion.

Type: Lesson Plan

After reading or viewing a text, students are introduced to propaganda techniques and then identify examples in the text. Students discuss these examples, and then explore the use of propaganda in popular culture by looking at examples in the media. Students identify examples of propaganda techniques used in clips of online political advertisements and explain how the techniques are used to persuade voters. Next, students explore the similarities of the propaganda techniques used in the literary text and in the online political ads to explain the commentary the text is making about contemporary society. Finally, students write a persuasive essay in support of a given statement.

In this lesson, some specific references are made to Brave New World as examples. A text list suggests additional novels, short stories, plays, and movies that will also work for this activity.

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

This lesson is part three of a three-part unit that will explore and analyze how different authors convey American Puritanism. In this lesson, students plan to write and then complete an essay to explore how two different authors and texts portray American Puritanism, Jonathan Edwards in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Arthur Miller in “The Crucible.”

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

This lesson is part one of three in a unit that will explore and analyze how American Puritanism has been represented in different texts. The goal of this lesson is for students to analyze the central idea and how the authors' style (figurative language, persuasive techniques) contributes to establishing and achieving the purpose in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

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

The goal of this four-day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to discover the rich language and life lesson embedded in Dillard's text. By reading and rereading the passage closely and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will be equipped to unpack Dillard's essay. When combined with writing about the passage, students will learn to appreciate how Dillard's writing contains a deeper message and derive satisfaction from the struggle to master complex text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will identify and analyze how Emily Dickinson uses figurative language to create tone. Students will complete text marking and annotations to show their analysis and will write a response that explains their analysis.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will identify and analyze how two authors use figurative language to support the themes of each of their poems. Students will complete text marking and annotations to show their analysis of each, and will write a response that explains their analysis of each.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this four-part lesson series, students will delve into the topic of grief through analysis of poetic devices, form, and point of view in poems by Emily Dickinson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Students will connect theme to the poets’ viewpoints on the emotions, or the lack thereof, that one experiences during times of pain and loss. Students will read the poems multiple times to seek layers of meaning and write an in-depth analysis.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn all about symbolism and allegory in this interactive tutorial. We'll use the classic short story "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving to explore the use of symbolism and allegory as types of figurative language. We'll break down the events of the story and analyze how the use of symbolism contributes to the powerful allegory in this haunting tale. This tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series.

Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch Part One.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn all about symbolism and allegory in this interactive tutorial. We'll use the classic short story "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving to explore the use of symbolism and allegory as types of figurative language. We'll break down the events of the story and analyze how the use of symbolism contributes to the powerful allegory in this haunting tale. 

In Part One, we'll cover some important background information and read the opening excerpts of the text. Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part Two.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in this interactive tutorial. You'll learn how to identify and apply three important types of context clues: synonyms, antonyms, and inferences. This tutorial features passages about some of the world's most incredible child prodigies.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn 15 new academic vocabulary words in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Examine some commonly confused pronouns that often trick people into believing that they have the same meaning when their meanings can be very different. This interactive tutorial will help you properly use the following pronouns: who, whom, which, that, their, there, they're.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Avoid "doppelganger danger" as you examine six pairs of commonly confused words in this interactive tutorial. Learn how to correctly use these commonly confused words to improve your language and writing skills.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Avoid "doppelganger danger" as you examine six pairs of commonly confused words. Learning how to correctly use these commonly confused words will help improve your writing and mastery of English.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Examine five pairs of commonly confused words in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial focuses on language and resolving issues of complex usage. You will examine pairs of words that are often confused in order to learn the correct use of each word. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to accurately use these ten commonly confused words. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Avoid "doppelganger danger" as you examine fourteen homophones, which are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Learning how to use these homophones correctly in this interactive tutorial will help you avoid some of the most common usage mistakes.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Avoid "doppelganger danger" as you examine eleven homophones, which are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Learning how to use these homophones correctly in this interactive tutorial will help you avoid some of the most common usage mistakes.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Avoid "doppelganger danger" as you examine twelve homophones, which are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Learning how to use these homophones correctly in this interactive tutorial will help you avoid some of the most common usage mistakes.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to transform words into other words, including nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, adjectives into adverbs, and much more with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Acquire 15 new vocabulary words, identify their parts of speech, synonyms, and antonyms, and use them in context with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Acquire new vocabulary through this interactive tutorial. You'll learn the definitions for 15 new words, as well as their parts of speech, their synonyms and antonyms, and you'll practice using them in context.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore word relationships by identifying and interpreting various figures of speech in context. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the use of several kinds of figures of speech, including hyperbole and paradox. You'll also analyze the nuances in the meaning of words with similar definitions. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Acquire 15 new vocabulary words, identify their parts of speech, synonyms, and antonyms, and use them in context with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to identify and analyze extended metaphors using W.B. Yeats' poem, "The Stolen Child." In this interactive tutorial, we'll examine how Yeats uses figurative language to express the extended metaphor throughout this poem. We'll focus on his use of these seven types of imagery: visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, and organic. Finally, we'll analyze how the poem's extended metaphor conveys a deeper meaning within the text.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn several strategies for determining the meaning of unfamiliar words as you read about the late Dian Fossey's research on mountain gorillas. This interactive tutorial will also help you identify common prefixes and how they affect the meaning of words.

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

In this lesson, students are introduced to the definition and characteristics of a dystopian work by watching video clips from The Matrix and other dystopian films. They first explore the definition and characteristics of utopian and dystopian societies, and then compare and contrast the two using a Venn diagram online tool. Next, they identify the protagonist in clips from The Matrix and then discuss how the clips extend and confirm their understanding of a dystopia. Students then view additional film clips and identify which characteristics of a dystopian society the clip is intended to portray. Finally, they explore how they can apply their knowledge about dystopias to future readings.

Type: Teaching Idea

After gaining skill through analyzing a historic and contemporary speech as a class, students will select a famous speech from a list compiled from several resources and write an essay that identifies and explains the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose while crafting the text to make an effective argument. Their analysis will consider questions such as: What makes the speech an argument?, How did the author's rhetoric evoke a response from the audience?, and Why are the words still venerated today?

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence