Browse Lesson Plans

Advice Column

Write anonymous questions for "Dear Know-It-All," an imaginary advice columnist. Then respond to one question in the form of a letter.

Book Buddies

Book Buddies read together and write down responses. They join another pair and use their diverse responses as springboards for conversation.

Book Clubs

These activities are designed to help pupils focus and develop their thinking about the literature which enriches the discussions.

Bridge to Terabithia

See the setting through visualization and drawing. Hear the dialogue by playing "Who am I?"

Ceremony

Understand Ceremony in the context of the “monomyth,” as defined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

Critical Pedagogy: Lawson Fusao Inada

Visit a cultural center to see artifacts and hear first-person accounts of the victimization of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Critical Pedagogy: Abiodun Oyewole

Help students understand the political underpinnings of Abiodun Oyewole's spoken word poetry and learn how to express their own political beliefs.

Critical Pedagogy: Octavia E. Butler

Make connections between newspaper articles and issues Butler raises in the book. Encourage students to involve themselves politically by writing letters that call for social justice.

Critical Pedagogy: Ruthanne Lum McCunn

Discuss the Chinese practice of footbinding and then explore how contemporary American women suffer to make themselves conform to society's standards of beauty.

Cultural Studies: Graciela Limon

Cultural Studies: Ishmael Reed

Compare trickster figures in this poem with the same type of character in other literature.

Cultural Studies: N. Scott Momaday

Use family photographs to contextualize the familial experience of Momaday's work, and to respond through creative writing.

Cultural Studies: Russell Leong

Immerse students in Asian American culture with a class trip to Chinatown in Los Angeles. Create Japanese renga poems to describe the experience.

Current Events

Learn about current events, develop opinions about them, and then express and support those opinions in writing.

Envisionment Building With Literature

Focus on the ideas and questions of the class as they discuss the literature. Multiple interpretations are encouraged.

Envisionment-Building in the Literature Classroom

Adapt any literary text to this generic lesson which reflects the key tenets of the envisionment-building approach.

Facilitating Discussion

Literature and extension activities are connected thematically as students examine issues related to government limits and individual rights.

Flowers for Algernon

Construct a maze and conduct time trials. Introduce the Rorcshach tests and make samples. Create a visual representation or “Body Biography” of one of the characters.

Getting Started With Poetry

Demonstrate sound and effective language. Experiment with writing poems and sharing with younger students.

The Giver

Record personal responses to independently chosen reading material to develop understanding. Enrich this understanding with class discussion, visual transmediation and various other activities.