LAFS.910.RL.1.1Archived Standard

This lesson is the third in a series of three based on O. Henry's short story "The Gift of the Magi." The previous lessons provide instruction in using context clues to determine word meanings and in analyzing the significance of literary devices as they support the theme of Love and Sacrifice. In this final lesson, students will apply their knowledge of context clues from lesson one and their analysis of theme from lesson two as they consider the use of irony in the texts: "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Shivering Beggar," a poem by Robert Graves.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson two in a three-part series on “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry. In this lesson, students will analyze the development of the theme of love and sacrifice in O. Henry's classic short story, "The Gift of the Magi." Students will write an extended paragraph analyzing how point of view, setting, or plot contributes to the theme.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery." Students will then read the short story, work to determine the meaning of selected vocabulary words from the text, and answer guided reading questions. In the summative assessment, students will become newspaper reporters and write an article to describe the events of the lottery, as if they were present on the day the lottery took place.

Type: Lesson Plan

The hero's journey is an archetypal plot structure found in modern novels and can also be found in popular poetry. After students have read the novella Anthem by Ayn Rand, they will examine the poem "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley for elements of the Hero's Journey. Students will work collaboratively to decide whether or not all aspects of the hero's journey are demonstrated efficiently in this variety of texts.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read the poem "The War After the War" by Debora Greger and examine the three different perspectives within the poem. This lesson provides an opportunity for students to examine and analyze figurative language and perspective, as well as craft their own poem using multiple perspectives and figurative language.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson focuses on an excerpt from Markus Zusak's novel The Book Thief. Students will read an excerpt to discover Zusak's powerful writing style, as well as the power of words through the eyes of Liesel, the novel's protagonist. Students will demonstrate their analysis through answering a short response question.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to assist students with formulating inferences and making predictions using the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand. The lesson begins with the teacher modeling the process using a graphic organizer (an answer key is provided). Students then practice in small groups, pairs, and finally independently before being assessed.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read three extended text excerpts from Frankenstein in which the Creature is the narrator and view several clips from film adaptations of the Creature. The students will annotate during the reading of the text and determine the meaning of selected vocabulary words from the text. Students will engage in discussion on how the Creature changes and what causes those changes. As a summative assessment for the lesson, students will write an extended argumentative response with a claim about whether the Creature is monster-like or not.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will read William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" one chunk at a time to examine elements of plot, culture, setting, and point of view that contribute to the mystery and suspense that lead to its dark, even terrifying, ending.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will analyze protagonist, antagonist, conflict, resolution, and hubris in three classic myths: "Odysseus and Polyphemus," "Athena and Arachne," and "Echo and Narcissus." They will write an essay explaining the message of each myth using examples from the myths and discuss the impact of the recurring theme of hubris on the ancient Greek audience.

Type: Lesson Plan

There's more to plot than identifying the series of events in a story. After viewing a PowerPoint presentation on plot structure, students will read and analyze the plots of three different short stories (as a class, in small groups, and individually). Then, they will use an online interactive plot structure tool to diagram the plot lines. This lesson also includes a writing assessment with rubric.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students often have difficulty envisioning and making sense of a story that is set in a markedly different time or circumstance than their own. This two-day activity introduces students to the dystopian society of 1984 by George Orwell. By analyzing Orwell's carefully chosen words, details, repetitions, and characterizations in these first few pages, students can construct a strong understanding of some of the key features of this society that will give them a solid framework for comprehending the rest of the novel. Doing this kind of close reading work also reinforces to students that authors do not randomly select the details they include in a text; they choose words carefully to create a mood or construct a particular image of a character or place in a reader's mind. The overriding question that students should be able to answer at the end of this exercise is: What can we understand about Winston Smith and the society he lives in based on the descriptive details George Orwell includes in the first few pages of 1984?

Type: Lesson Plan

From the resource:

After reading a play, students create a resume for one of the characters. Students first discuss what they know about resumes, then select a character from the play to focus on and jot down notes about that character. Next, they search the internet for historical background information. Students then explore the play again, looking for both direct and implied information about their characters and noting the location of supporting details. Finally, students draft resumes for their characters and search a job listing site for a job for which their character is qualified.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows students to explore characters and their traits through a series of exercises using text evidence. Both printed materials and online organizers are provided. The final culminating activity asks students to "become" a character and describe himself/herself as well as describing other characters. Students then guess which character is being described.

Type: Lesson Plan

A study of Charlotte Perkins Gillman's short story, "The Yellow Wall-Paper", this lesson touches upon literary elements such as setting, characterization, symbol and narration, in addition to addressing the social and historical aspects of the author and her times. There is a preceding lesson at the same location that speaks to a woman's role in society during the early part of the 20th Century.

Type: Lesson Plan

The focus of this lesson is to have students rewrite the ending of All Quiet on the Western Front. The newly created ending must include some form of irony in order to stay with the ironic elements of the book. Students will then peer edit each other's ending, and then revise their final draft. Finally, students will create a new cover for the book in which they will reveal their new title to the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this lesson (lesson 3 in 3-part unit) is for students to be able to analyze and interpret the ways in which an author's style (use of literary devices) develops the author's purpose, tone, and theme found in complex and challenging texts. Close-reading skills culminate in a literary analysis essay in which students analyze how an author creates meaning through deliberate choices of language devices.

Type: Lesson Plan

From the resource:
"From personal computers to the latest electronic gadgetry for the home or entertainment, Americans seem to have fallen in love with just about anything that will make our high-tech lifestyles more comfortable, convenient, and enjoyable. Students first complete a survey to establish their beliefs about technology before using a literary elements map to explore the role of a fictional technology in a novel such as 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, REM World, or Feed. Next, students discuss and debate what they believe the story's author is saying about technology. By exploring the fictional technology, students are urged to think more deeply about their own beliefs and to pay attention to the ways that technology is described and used. This lesson plan can also be completed with short stories, video games, films, and other fictional resources that examine issues related to science and technology and their possible effects on society."

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore poetic expression, both written and spoken, and evaluate its significance as a medium for social commentary. Students will also examine literary devices including metaphor, simile, symbolism, and point of view.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students learn about the usefulness of annotation in making diverse connections with a text that lead to deep analysis. They then make, revise, and publish annotations for a short piece of text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson (part 2 of 2 in a unit), students will read and analyze literary devices in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." Students will practice text-coding the story to note uses of setting, imagery, diction, and foreshadowing. Students will complete a handout where they will analyze how Jackson creates suspense through the use of setting, imagery, diction, and foreshadowing. For the summative assessment, students will write an essay comparing and contrasting Edgar Allan Poe's use of suspense with Jackson's, making a claim as to which author more successfully creates a suspenseful mood.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this second lesson out of a three-lesson unit, students will continue analyzing the characteristics of an Epic Hero as they read books 1-10 of The Odyssey. Students will analyze characteristics by looking at the ways in which characters are developed through the decisions they make and/or fail to make.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will examine the figurative language and literary devices used in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death." They will read the first part of the story with support and modeling from the teacher, the next part with a partner or in small groups, and the final section on their own. Students will also use various strategies to determine the meaning of selected vocabulary within the context of the story and identify which of those words and phrases create the suspenseful mood in the story. In the summative assessment, students will share their analysis and provide textual examples of how Poe creates suspense in his story.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explore books 13-23 of The Odyssey through text coding and analysis of both character development and theme. For the summative assessment, students will write a short response analyzing characterization and universal themes of Courage and Perseverance in the text and drawing conclusions, supported by textual evidence, about the nature of the Epic Hero.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read and analyze the poem, "To an Athlete Dying Young" for the figurative language of metaphor and imagery and how each works together to create both a somber mood and support the universal theme of death.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read "My Watch: An Instructive Little Tale," by Mark Twain. Students will analyze how Twain’s use of figurative language creates style. Students will present their analysis in an oral presentation.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will review the format of a villanelle and analyze how it contributes to the defiant tone of the poem. At the conclusion of the lesson, students will write a short response to answer the question: “How does Dylan Thomas’s use of metaphor and imagery create a defiant tone and support the universal theme of death?”

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the third and final lesson in a unit analyzing rhetorical appeals. In this lesson, students will identify and analyze rhetorical appeals in a speech from President Obama and plan an outline for an essay to explain President Obama’s choices to establish meaning and achieve his purpose in the speech.

Type: Lesson Plan

I Declare War Part 2 is an extension of Part 1; therefore, the lessons must be done in sequential order. In Part 2, students will use the TPC(F)ASTT analysis chart to analyze "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen and outline a comparative analysis of Owen's views on war versus Lincoln's views and examine the strategies they use to bring their viewpoints across. The poetry analysis of "Dulce Et Decorum Est" can be used to introduce students to literary analysis at the beginning of the year before they attempt more complex poems.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson (the third in a three-lesson unit), students will analyze an excerpt from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Working collaboratively and independently, students will explore the diction, images, details, language and syntax of the text. The summative assessment requires students to write an essay analyzing how the author uses language and literary techniques to convey the experience of the soldiers in the Vietnam War. Supporting handouts and materials are provided.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the culminating lesson in a three-part series designed to support students as they embrace poetry analysis. The purpose of this lesson is for students to reflect on the poems they analyzed in lessons one and two. Students will then create a digital presentation to share with the class that explains their analysis of the use of symbols, imagery, mood, and theme in poetry.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is Part 2 of a poetry unit designed to support students as they embrace the study of poetry. Part One focuses on universal themes. In this lesson, students read and analyze two poems for their use of imagery as it supports the mood of each.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson provides students with an opportunity to read, analyze and interpret William Shakespeare's "The Seven Ages of Man." Students are then asked to compare and contrast the different ages of man identified in the monologue and those that they developed as a class prior to reading the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to prepare students for reading I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. Students will learn a notetaking strategy, strategies for determining character development, tracking key events happening during a chapter, and determining the central idea of a chapter.

Type: Lesson Plan

The overarching goal of this series of three lessons is for ninth-grade students to be able to read works of literature, write their own theme statements and provide text-based supporting details and thorough analysis proving their theme statements. Lesson One includes instruction and practice with writing theme statements and including primary support details with a series of three texts from Aesop's Fables. *Lesson two presents students with a longer and more challenging children's story titled One. Students will draft their own theme statements and support and analyze the text using a literary analysis paragraph structure titled TIQA*. Finally, lesson three has students returning to Aesop's Fables and writing a TIQA paragraph, a longer literary analysis paragraph supported by not only textual evidence or quotes, but also strong literary analysis. Through collaborative discussions and repeated reading, responding, writing and analyzing, students will learn to consistently craft correct theme statements and support them with relevant textual details and analysis.

*The bolded section is relevant only to this lesson, which is the 2nd in a series of 3.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will summarize and analyze Petrarch's love sonnets (including "Sonnet 18", "Sonnet 159" and "Sonnet 104") and then do the same with Shakespeare's love sonnets (including "Sonnet 18", "Sonnet 130" and "Sonnet 106"), comparing Shakespeare's themes and approach to Petrarch's themes and approach. The summative assessment is an essay in which students will summarize and analyze Shakespeare's "Sonnet 27" and describe how that poem reflects and diverges from Petrarch's themes and style.

Type: Lesson Plan

The lesson introduces students to irony and how instances of irony in a piece of literature, "A Sound of Thunder" (1070L) by Ray Bradbury, advances the plot. Students are exposed to examples of irony from other works of literature to assist them with this particular form of figurative language. The summative assessment entails a written analysis of how the author incorporates instances of irony to further develop the plot.

Type: Lesson Plan

The overarching goal of this series of three lessons is for ninth-grade students to be able to read works of literature, write their own theme statements, provide text-based supporting details/evidence, and thorough analysis, proving their theme statements. *Lesson One includes instruction and practice with writing theme statements and including primary supporting details with a series of three texts from Aesop's Fables.* Lesson two presents students with a longer and more challenging children's story titled One. Students will draft their own theme statements and support and analyze the text using a literary analysis paragraph structure titled TIQA. Finally, lesson three has students returning to Aesop's Fables and writing a TIQA paragraph, a longer literary analysis paragraph supported not only by textual evidence or quotes, but also including strong literary analysis. Through collaborative discussions and repeated reading, responding, writing and analyzing, students will learn to consistently craft correct theme statements and support them with relevant textual details and analysis.

*The bolded section is relevant only to this lesson, the first in a series of three.

Type: Lesson Plan

The purpose of this lesson is to provide students with an opportunity to analyze a character, in particular, one who suffers from a mental illness. The selected text is Terry Truman"s Inside Out (710L) in which the main character, Zach, suffers from schizophrenia. However, other suggested titles are provided and would suffice for this lesson. Specifically, students will be required to identify what the main character thinks, says, and does in order to support a multi-paragraph character analysis that incorporates textual evidence.

Type: Lesson Plan

Upon reading “The Masque of the Red Death,” students will analyze the universal theme of humans trying to escape death and will create a one-page visual summary of their analysis in this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s short story "Harrison Bergeron" and analyze his use of the elements of characterization and symbolism to support the ironic tone developed in the text in this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will create story boards to show their analysis of plot, characters, and setting in Act One of Romeo and Juliet. Students will then use the information analyzed with the the reading of Act One and the story board creations to answer a short response question.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a culminating activity for Shakespeare’s Macbeth. By breaking down the Shakespearean language and paraphrasing the text to modern day language, students will use their new dialogue to transform their new version of the text into a short video. Students will deliver an oral presentation to the class to explain the choices they made in their new version of the scene.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will be provided with an opportunity to learn about an easy to follow process for writing effective short response questions, using support from the text. While this lesson teaches the process using an excerpt from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, it could also be adapted to fit with any short excerpt from a literary or information text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson (part one of a three-part unit), students will analyze the characteristics of a Greek hero and explain how these characteristics are developed in the myth of "Perseus." Students will closely read the text, and ask, and answer text-dependent questions as they read the story. These skills will then culminate in later lessons (parts two and three) with a product in the form of an essay or written speech about "Perseus."

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this lesson is that students will be able to analyze and interpret the ways in which an author's style (use of literary devices) develops the author's purpose, tone, and theme found in complex and challenging texts. Close-reading skills culminate in paragraph writing (Lesson 2) and then a style analysis essay (Lesson 3) in which students analyze how an author creates meaning through deliberate choices of devices of language.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part one of a 3-part unit. The goal of Lesson 1 is that students will be able to identify and explain the effect of literary devices and what they reveal about the author's purpose, tone, and theme found within a specific passage. In Lesson 2, students will write paragraphs based on the devices found in the passage and their meaning. In Lesson 3, students will write an essay based on the prompt in Lesson 1 and using the activities of both Lessons 1 and 2.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will compare and contrast the tone and theme of two poems about death. Students will annotate text, complete a directed note taking organizer, and will write a compare/contrast essay.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an excerpt from the prologue of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. They will focus on how the word choices impact the mood of the excerpt. The summative assessment is a two-paragraph writing assignment which will require students to discuss how Zusak's use of figurative language creates mood in the prologue.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read the O. Henry short story "Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen." Through scaffold learning tasks, the students will analyze the two main characters and their interactions throughout the story. Students will practice using various strategies to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in context. Students will also analyze the author's word choice, including his use of figurative language, and its impact on the tone of the story. These activities will build toward students' participation in a Socratic Seminar as the summative assessment for the lesson. The text of the story, reading comprehension questions, a teacher guide to assist with discussion, a vocabulary handout, and Socratic Seminar questions are all included within the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the culminating lesson in a three-part series exploring and analyzing Emily Dickinson's style. In part one, students conducted historical and literary research on the Romantic Period, in part two, students used historical and literary research as they read and analyzed a variety of Dickinson’s letters written during the Romantic Period. In this lesson, students will investigate primary and secondary documents on movements that influenced Dickinson and will create a literary reference kit to share with the class - a collection of materials that are representative of the period.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is the first of three interrelated lessons in a unit which use text and fine arts (photography and paintings) to convey the theme(s) of immigration, shared American ideals, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. The first lesson asks students to analyze "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. Students' understanding of text and earlier waves of immigration will be fostered by viewing photographs of immigrants to Ellis Island.

Type: Lesson Plan

The purpose of this lesson is to help students learn how to compare and contrast fiction and nonfiction texts that explore similar topics. In this lesson, students will compare and contrast aspects of the popular novel The Hunger Games with an informative text on food shortages in Africa and an informative text on fear and the "flight or fight" response.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be practicing close reading and literary analysis skills, annotating, and writing an analysis of texts. During the class discussion, students will practice listening skills and use explicit examples from a text to support their analysis in this lesson. Suggested excerpts from Annie Dillard's From an American Childhood, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain are referenced in this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read the short story, "Harrison Bergeron," and analyze the universal themes as they relate to dystopian literature in this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Read the famous short story “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov and explore the impact of a fifteen-year bet made between a lawyer and a banker in this three-part tutorial series.

In Part One, you’ll cite textual evidence that supports an analysis of what the text states explicitly, or directly, and make inferences and support them with textual evidence. By the end of Part One, you should be able to make three inferences about how the bet has transformed the lawyer by the middle of the story and support your inferences with textual evidence.

Make sure to complete all three parts!

Click HERE to launch "Risky Betting: Text Evidence and Inferences (Part Two)."

Click HERE to launch "Risky Betting: Analyzing a Universal Theme (Part Three)." 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Get ready to travel back in time to London, England during the Victorian era in this interactive tutorial that uses text excerpts from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This tutorial is Part Two of a three-part series. You should complete Part One before beginning this tutorial. In Part Two, you will read excerpts from the last half of the story and practice citing evidence to support analysis of a literary text. In the third tutorial in this series, you’ll learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices using evidence from this story. 

Make sure to complete all three parts! Click to HERE launch Part One. Click HERE to launch Part Three. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Practice citing evidence to support analysis of a literary text as you read excerpts from one of the most famous works of horror fiction of all time, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

This tutorial is Part One of a three-part tutorial. In Part Two, you'll continue your analysis of the text. In Part Three, you'll learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices using evidence from this story. Make sure to complete all three parts! 

Click HERE to launch Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part Three. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Analyze the use of rhetoric in a courtroom speech from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In this interactive tutorial, we'll break down the speech to analyze its use of persuasion. We'll also examine how the speech achieves its purpose through the use of pathos, ethos, and logos. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Analyze a complex character’s development in text excerpts from the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze how the main character is described and developed through his interaction with other characters.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to determine the theme of a fictional text using excerpts from Book 12 of Homer's The Odyssey. In this interactive tutorial, you'll learn how to determine the theme of a text based on the characters and events of the story. You'll also practice distinguishing between themes and topics in a work of literature. Finally, you'll create your own theme statement for The Odyssey using details from the text.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to identify explicit and implicit text evidence within a fictional text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read excerpts from Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations. You'll also practice making inferences about the characters and settings based on the evidence provided in the text.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This teaching idea addresses the pros and cons of discussion by analyzing the concept of utopia in a satire. Students collaborate in small groups to create a Discussion Web that addresses the question, "Are people equal?" Students engage in meaningful discussions analyzing all sides of their initial response, form a consensus, and present it to the class. Students then read "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and use supporting details to complete another Discussion Web that examines whether or not the people in the story are equal. Web-based graphic organizers, assessments, and extension activities are included.

Type: Teaching Idea

How do places and experiences affect writers' lives and works? Is where a writer comes from relevant to reading their work? In this lesson, students consider the power of place in their own lives, research the life of a writer, and develop travel brochures and annotated maps representing the significance of geography in a writer's life.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students read a high-interest short story. A PowerPoint mini-lesson explains the difference between freewriting and summary writing helping students distinguish between the two. An additional PowerPoint mini-lesson on writing thesis statements for literary analysis is provided. Students progress from freewriting to generating thesis statements to writing an outline for a literary analysis essay.

Type: Teaching Idea

Many students do not appreciate the importance of memorizing and reciting poems. This teaching idea will help them appreciate the value and relevancy of poetry by encouraging them to imagine situations where a scrap or two of memorized poetry can relate to every-day real-life situations. It would be an engaging opening activity for a poetry unit.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students use an online chart to match the character traits of a character in a book they are reading with specific actions the character takes. Students then work in pairs to "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using Internet reference tools to compile lists of accurate, powerful adjectives supported with details from the reading. Students read each other's lists of adjectives and try to identify who is being described.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will use teaching strategies as they read and discuss Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel's memoir Night. Everyone in the classroom takes a turn assuming the "teacher" role in a reciprocal teaching activity, as the class works with four comprehension strategies: predicting, question generating, summarizing, and clarifying.

Type: Teaching Idea

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Things That Are features a mystery: How can a 17-year-old girl who is blind and learning how to deal with her disability help an elusive fugitive wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)? In this unit, students learn how this teen manages her own life, including finding her way in the community, keeping on top of school work, and, more importantly, nurturing a special relationship, as they work to cite textual evidence to support text analysis, participate in collaborative discussions to determine and analyze its theme and how complex characters are developed, and give a presentation of their findings and supporting evidence.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

The Running Dream is the story of Jessica, a 16-year-old star runner who loses her leg in a bus accident. She learns to look beyond the disability and discover the real person inside as she becomes friends with Rosa, who has cerebral palsy. In this unit, students examine the issues and challenges of coping with a disability and its effect on relationships and self-esteem as they analyze how complex characters develop over the course of the story, and write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

Students use art and poetry to explore and understand the major historical, societal, and literary characteristics of the Romantic period in eight high-interest, collaborative lessons. After reviewing paintings from the Romantic Period and using William Wordsworth's poetry, students write an essay showing their understanding of Romanticism.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This lesson asks students to explore the motivation behind characters' actions in To Kill a Mockingbird. Students first engage in a free-write activity. They then do research and creative thinking to design a poster and plan a presentation representing a psychological profile for a selected character, while determining what specific factors (such as family, career, environment, and so forth) have the greatest influence on the characters' decision making throughout the novel. The groups present their findings to the class by assuming the persona of their character and explaining the psychological factors influencing their behavior in the novel.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence