LAFS.1112.RL.1.3Archived Standard

Through an analysis of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," and E. E. Cummings' poem "anyone lived in a pretty how town," students will come to realize the importance of the cycle of life and nature as it pertains to human existence. The three texts come from dramatically different genres, time periods, and settings capturing the essence of a universal theme.

Type: Lesson Plan

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

This comprehensive lesson from ReadWriteThink.org helps students understand the complexity of a character (primarily the hero or protagonist) in a literary work. Several resources are included and the lesson is clear and easy to follow. Also, the culminating project offers several choices that should encourage student curiosity and creativity. Although the lesson is written for five 50 minute sessions, the teacher implementing the activities could effectively complete the lesson in less time.

Type: Lesson Plan

After reading Act 1 of The Crucible in which 13 of the 21 characters are introduced, students create Trading Cards to describe and analyze an assigned character. Then they explore portraits of Puritans online to assist them in creating a portrait of the character and present a rationale to explain their work of art. A "Portrait Gallery" is set up around the classroom, so the students are able to refer to portraits during later acts and better understand the characters' motives and relationships.

Type: Lesson Plan

This mini-lesson invites students to think of a literary character as a peer, creating an authentic connection between literature and life. While the lesson uses The Catcher in the Rye as an example, the activities could be centered on the primary character of any novel. Students choose a perspective on the character (from options suggested by the teacher) and work in small groups to identify scenes in the novel that reflect their view. They then select songs appropriate for the character and write a rationale for each song chosen, including supporting evidence from the text. When students present their completed playlists in class, their classmates inevitably make observations that increase everyone's insights into the character and the novel.

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 is Part two of this three-part series on the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Through reading and analyzing excerpts from F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Offshore Pirate" (1920) in Flappers and Philosophers, students will examine the characterization of Artida and Carlyle and compare the two characters.

Type: Lesson Plan

Read excerpts from Bram Stoker’s famous novel Dracula. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine how the author created suspense by tying together the story elements of setting, characters, and action. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Read the first chapter from Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart about a father and son who couldn't be more different. In this interactive tutorial, you'll identify their important traits, examine the importance of their differences, and explain the impact of the author’s choice to introduce these two characters by highlighting their differences.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Read and study excerpts from Willa Cather's classic novel My Antonia to analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding the selection of the narrator, where the story is set, and how the main character is introduced and developed. 

This interactive English Language Arts tutorial is Part Three of three. Click below to open the other tutorials in the series.

• PART ONE -- Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choices
• PART TWO -- Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choicesn Author's Choices

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Analyze the impact of an author's choices using excerpts from Willa Cather's classic novel My Antonia. In this series of interactive tutorials, you'll analyze the impact of an author's choices regarding the selection of the narrator, where the story is set, and how the main character is introduced and developed. 

This is the second tutorial in a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.

• PART ONE -- Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choices
• PART THREE -- Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choices

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Read and study excerpts from Willa Cather's classic novel My Antonia to analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding the selection of the narrator, the setting, and how the main character is introduced and developed. 

This interactive tutorial is Part One of three-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in the series.

• PART TWO -- Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choices
• PART THREE -- Analyzing the Impact of an Author's Choices

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Practice analyzing an author’s specific choices regarding characterization, setting, and plot structure within a text. In this interactive tutorial, we'll use excerpts from the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison to analyze the how various narrative elements impact the meaning of the text.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This web resource from Shmoop provides teachers with multiple teaching ideas to help students explore characterization, plot, symbolism, and theme in The Great Gatsby. Video clips, interactive flash cards, and online quizzes are all featured in this resource to help students see the "green light" regarding Fitzgerald's work.

Type: Teaching Idea

Use this online resource to help your students acquire a deeper understanding of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener." Choose videos that will guide students through analysis of the characters, the work of a scrivener, and the conduct of the lawyers. Questions about the story are also provided for analysis and discussion.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching idea guides students in generating questions for a student led seminar based on their reading of August Wilson's play, "The Piano Lesson". Students will then use their questions to conduct a Socratic Seminar about the play.

Type: Teaching Idea

Of Sound Mind tells the story of the frustrations, anxiety, and sorrow experienced by Theo, who is the only hearing son in a family that is deaf. Theo is torn between helping his family and planning for his future. Students investigate issues of family responsibility, maturity, and deafness in this unit as they cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says, work to analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding elements of the story, and write informative/explanatory texts to convey complex ideas clearly.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

In this unit, students will examine the challenges of transitioning into adulthood faced by Taylor, who is an 18-year-old girl with autism. Taylor must go to Waskesiu Lake for the summer because her mother has a new job. Wild Orchid explores how Taylor learns to apply the coping strategies she has been taught when she finds herself in a new environment. She learns that she can be independent and think for herself. Through this lesson plan, students will work to determine two or more themes of a text, analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding the elements of a story, and write arguments to support claims with valid reasoning and sufficient evidence in response to questions.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence