Cluster 2: Craft and StructureArchived

In this lesson, students will read and analyze two poems by John Donne: "Holy Sonnet X" and "Holy Sonnet VI." Text-dependent questions, an answer key, and teacher's help notes are included. As the summative assessment for the lesson, students will write a brief comparison/contrast essay to examine how Death is portrayed across both poems. A rubric for the essay is included, along with a writing organizer to help struggling writers draft a basic essay.

Type: Lesson Plan

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

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

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

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

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

This learning module supports implementation of academic standards in the 11-12th grade classroom. It includes a learning module template for teachers, as well as a student handout that provides the literary text and the learning tasks. The purpose of this lesson is for students to read, understand, and analyze complex text through close reading and scaffolded learning tasks. At the conclusion of the lesson, students will conduct an inquiry-based research task that culminates in an analysis paper that asks students to use evidence from their research and the text to support an original claim.

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

Explore Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" and examine words, phrases, and lines with multiple meanings. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze how these multiple meanings can affect a reader’s interpretation of the poem.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream" in this two-part series of interactive tutorials. In Part Two, you'll examine word choices, rhyme, and personification, and explain the impact of specific word choices on the meaning and beauty of the poem.

Click HERE to launch Part One before starting Part Two. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore Edgar Allan Poe's "A Dream Within a Dream" in this two-part series of interactive tutorials. In Part 1, you'll examine words with multiple meanings and make inferences about selected key words in the poem. By the end of this series, you should be able to explain the impact of specific word choices on the meaning and beauty of the poem. 

After you complete Part One, click HERE to open Part Two.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify use of verbal and dramatic irony in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" in this interactive two-part tutorial. Students will also examine how Poe's use of irony with first person point of view affects the story. This tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series. In Part One, students read and analyzed the first two excerpts from the story. In Part Two, students will read and analyze the last three excerpts from the story.

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

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify use of verbal and dramatic irony in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" in this interactive two-part tutorial. You'll also examine how Poe's use of irony with first person point of view affects the story. You'll read and analyze the first two excerpts from the story in Part One, and the last three excerpts from the story in Part Two.

Be sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to open Part Two. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to analyze the use of irony to distinguish what is directly stated from what is really meant within the text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine humorous epitaphs from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology. You'll learn to interpret an author’s true feelings and intentions versus what is actually stated in the text.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how the meaning and tone of a poem is shaped by the author's specific word choice. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read Sonnet 43 (“How Do I Love Thee?”) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. You'll examine how her specific word choice affects the overall tone and meaning of the poem.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Study excerpts from a suspenseful science fiction short story in this interactive tutorial. In this tutorial, you'll study excerpts from "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury. You'll study his use of color imagery, learn about the connotations of particular colors, and analyze the impact of color imagery on the meaning of the text.

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

JJonathan Swift's 1729 pamphlet "A Modest Proposal" is a model for satirizing social problems. In this 2 week unit, students complete multiple readings of Swift's essay: a guided reading with the teacher, a collaborative reading with a peer, and an independent reading. Through guided reading questions, students will examine satiric devices used by Swift, in addition to analyzing tone and how the various sections of the piece work togeher. Then, pairs of students will develop a mock television newscast or editorial script, like those found on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update," The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, or The Colbert Report, including appropriate visual images in PowerPoint. In their script, students will collaboratively identify a contemporary social problem, analyze it, and develop an outrageous satiric solution to resolve it.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence