LAFS.1112.RL.3.9Archived Standard

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

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

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

Learn about two significant writers of the Harlem Renaissance—Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read Hughes' poem "Freedom's Plow" to compare and contrast the authors' treatment of a similar topic and theme. 

This is part two in a two-part series of interactive tutorials. Click HERE to launch Part 1 to identify topics and determine themes in excerpts from Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about two significant writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neal Hurston and Langston Hughes. In this two-part tutorial series, you'll read excerpts of texts from each author. In Part One, you'll practice identifying topics and determining themes using Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. In Part Two, you'll read Hughes' poem "Freedom's Plow" to compare and contrast the authors' treatment of a similar topic and theme.

Click here to launch PART TWO.

Type: Original Student Tutorial