Browse Lesson Plans

Great Expectations

Allow students to become active learners and even teachers as they read and understand Great Expectations.

Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone

Encourage students to find the voice in the novel and to experience it through various projects.

Independent Reading

The goal of this lesson is to help students recognize that reading books can help them understand their own lives

Inquiry: Esmeralda Santiago

Inquiry: James Baldwin

Research topics related to three works by James Baldwin and collaborate to produce group web sites.

Inquiry: Rudolfo Anaya

See a mural that depicts struggles of Mexican Americans and stimulate questioning, discussion, and research about Anaya's work.

Inquiry: Tomás Rivera

Students question the translator of ...y no se lo tragó la tierra... (And the Earth Did Not Devour Him) by Tomás Rivera, conduct Internet research, and interview Mexican immigrants who work in their school.

A Lesson Before Dying

Invite an author to read their work and answer students’ questions. Also invite community members to discuss experiences similar to those in the novel.

Life's Not Fair

Read two books on the same theme, record questions and responses and meet with others reading the same book.

Literature Circles

Choose books and read in class. Review how to act during a discussion and meet in literature circles to discuss the books.

Literature Discussion Groups

Choose from several texts offered. Record individual reactions and share them during discussion groups.

Milton Brasher-Cunningham, Frankenstein

Take students on a field trip to a laboratory or bring in a guest speaker. Construct a creature/robot/monster/automaton/machine.

Persuasive Writing

Use discussions of rap music to encourage the class to develop and articulate their opinions in persuasive writing pieces.

Preparing for Group Discussions

Use Post-It™ Notes to record reactions while reading and share these notes during discussion.

Reader Response: James Welch

James Welch's work is further understood by focusing on specific compelling and significant words.

Reader Response: Keith Gilyard

Small groups discuss several of the poems, and create their own visual "poemographies" in response to Gilyard's work.

Reader Response: Mourning Dove

In a traditional "lodge," students become part of a clan and members of a tribe who create and tell stories of their own.

Reader Response: Pat Mora

Poems written in response to Pat Mora's collection My Own True Name are shared at a local café.

Reading Workshop

The class works on individual goals, preparing literature log entries in writer's notebooks and developing a literary poster and a presentation based on a novel.

Small Literature Groups

Small book groups select their own book, read them aloud, discuss them, write letters to a "Book Buddy" and produce a culminating project.