This site contains links
to lesson plans and resources for
adolescent and young adult (grades 6-12)
literature, including
short stories,
mysteries,
and
English literature.
Since there is considerable
overlap between authors and titles
for children and adolescents, go to
my site for
children's literature
if you do not find what you
need on this page. All links on
this page were checked and updated 10-17-07
Index:
Multiple Works/Movements/Genres;
Resources for Adolescent
Literature;
Short Stories;
Specific Authors/Works
(Alphabetical by Author:
A
- B
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- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
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R
- S
- T
- U
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- W
-
XYZ);
Lesson Plans for Multiple
Authors/Works
Doucette Index
A search engine for K-12 literature-based
teaching ideas. Just type in
the name of the book or author and click on
Begin Search.
Booktalks: Quick and Simple
Over 300 "booktalks" for introducing the works
to students.
Class Zone Mc Dougall Littell Novel
Guides
Guides including a summary,
suggested teaching activities,
and research assignments for more
than 60 popular works.
Discovery Channel School
Many lesson
plans for social studies,
science, and literature.
EDSITEment Literature and Language
Arts
Many high quality lesson plans
from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Novels: Generic Lesson Plans
A number of lesson ideas for book reports, book
chats, character analyses,
etc.
Personal Responses to a
Novel
A collection of ideas for a literature unit based
on fictional genre.
Novels: Lesson Plans, Resources,
and Reading Lists
Essay topics, resources, activities, and lesson
plans for a large number
of authors and works.
Decades of the 20th Century
Project
A high school lesson plan that provides an overview
of 20th Century literature.
Movements in American Literature
An 11th-grade lesson plan.
Dear Character
A lesson plan in which students write a letter
as if it were written by
a character from a book they are studying.
Dewar's Profile
A strategy to help students identify essential
elements of a character.
Woman: Her American Experience
An 18-week literature course for the 12th-grade
complete with information
and lesson plans.
Twentieth Century Latin
American Writing
A collection of units for middle school and high
school.
Crossing the Border: A Study
of Immigration Through Literature
A unit for grades 6-8.
Asian-American Writer's
Workshop
Though developed for ESL students in grades 6-9,
this unit could be adapted for
other students and grade levels.
Detective Fiction: Its Use
as History and Fiction
A secondary unit.
Course Materials for the
Study of Science Fiction
Study guides for nine works of science fiction
including The War of the Worlds
and The Martian Chronicles.
A Introduction to the Literature
of WW I
A high school lesson plan.
Literature Resources
Pronouncing Dictionary of
Authors' Names
An alphabetical pronunciation guide.
What to Read: An Adolescent
Literature Website
A site designed to be a resource for both teachers
and students. It is
a place to explore and find out about
a book that you might like to read
or a book to recommend to your students.
Great Books Home Page
A well-indexed site with information and links
on the "great books."
American Literary Movements
Descriptions of various American literary movements
such as Arminianism,
Concord Chronology, Covenant Theology,
Native American Literature, Plantation
Tradition, Southwestern Humor, and
the Travel Narrative.
Victorian Web
Excellent resource for information about Victorian
authors and their works.
Postcolonial
and Postimperial Literature: An Overview
Another excellent
resource.
Movements in American Literature
American Authors on the
Web
Links to sites
about American authors.
Literature Study Guides,
Etc.
Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, and other study materials
for literature from
my
Homework Help Page.
Multiple Author Links
Pages with
lists of links to authors
from my
Homework Help Page.
Specific Author Links
Links to pages
for more than 100 specific
authors from my
Homework Help Page.
Science Fiction Resource
Guide
Short Story Lesson Plans
Interpreting a Short Story
An 8th-grade lesson plan from LearnNC.
How to Read a Short Story
Good information to share with your students before
assigning a short
story.
Short Stories and Sitcoms
A middle-grade lesson plan.
Elements of the Short Story
An extensive unit for grades 7-8.
Teaching Plot Structure throough Short Stories
A high school leson plan from ReadWriteThink.
See also
Short Story Fair: Responding to Short Stories
in Multiple Media and Genres
and
Ghosts and Fear in Language Arts
for other high school lesson plans from this
same source.
Short Story Unit
An elaborate unit for grades 11-12. See also
Short Story Unit Plan
for another high school
unit.
Everybody Has a Story
A unit on story forms for grades 10-12.
Short Story Writers
A WebQuest designed for 10th-graders. See also
Study of Short Story and Turkish Author Omer Seyfettin
for another WebQuest.
The Short Story
Resources for an Internet-based unit for grades 9-12.
Specific Authors/Works (Listed
Alphabetically by Author)
A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q -
R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
-
XYZ
If the book or author for
which you are looking is not listed
here, please try
The Doucette Index,
Random House Teacher's Guides,
The Gateway,
Class Zone
Mc Dougall Littell
Novel Guides,
or
Web
English Teacher - Young Adult Fiction
A
Rudolfo Anaya
A Score CyberGuide unit for grades 7-12 on
The Legend of La Llorona.
Click here
for information on Anaya.
Bless Me, Ultima
A 10th-grade unit for this
novel by Rudolfo Anaya. See also
Bless Me, Ultima.
Autobiography: Maya Angelou
A unit based on the novels of
Maya Angelou,
including her famous work
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings
An 9th-grade unit with more
than 20 lesson plans.
Amazing Grace
A unit on the lives of
Maya Angelou
and
James Comer.
Jane Austen
A secondary lesson plan on
Austen's
Pride and Prejudice.
Nothing But the Truth (Avi)
A "novel guide" that includes a summary, theme
openers, crosscurricular
activities, and research assignments..
Also, see
Avi's Homepage
and
Avi Teacher Resource
File
with other lesson plans
for books by Avi.
B
Natalie Babbit
Links to lesson plans and
resources for
Tuck Everlasting
from
Web English Teacher.
Tuck Everlasting
Social dilemmas and cooperative learning activities
for grades 4-8 on this
book by
Natalie
Babbitt.
For other activities, see
Tuck Everlasting CyberGuide.
Ray Bradbury
A Teacher Resource File with links to biographies,
many lesson plans, and
bibliographies. See also
On the Voyage to Values
for a 7th-grade lesson
plan using
Bradbury's
"All Summer in a Day" and
Study Guide for Ray Bradbury's
The Martian Chronicles.
Fahrenheit 451
A teaching guide for this Bradbury novel. See
also
Spark Notes: Fahrenheit
451.
Click here
for discussion questions
to use with the movie version
of this novel.
Final Destination: Pearl
from China
An interdiscilinary high school lesson plan
using
Pearl S.
Buck's
novel,
The Good Earth.
See also
The Good Earth and China Research Paper.
C
Lewis Carroll
Click above for lesson plans and resources for
Alice in Wonderland
.
Lesson Plan for Ceremony
A lesson plan examining Ceremony in the context of
monolyth as defined by
Joseph Campbell's
The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Willa Cather
A lesson plan titled "Pioneer
Values in Willa Cather's My Antonia.
"
Geoffrey Chaucer
Click above to go to lesson plans and resources
for Chaucer's The
Canterbury Tales .
Kate Chopin and Other Woman
Writers at the Turn of the Century
A lesson plan suitable for grades 11-12. See also
Kate Chopin: Teacher Resource File.
Seven Daughters and Seven
Sons : the Middle East
Through Literature
A high school lesson plan using
Barbara Cohen's
retelling of this traditional
Arabic tale.
Robert Cormier
A biography and links to lesson ideas for
The Chocolate War
and other works. See also
Novel Guide: The Chocolate
War.
War Beyond Romance: The
Red Badge of Courage and Other Considerations
An extensive high school unit on this novel by
Stephen
Crane.
Courage and Fear
A lesson plan using The Red Badge of Courage
developed as an example
of confluent education. See also
Red Badge of Courage: A New
Kind of Realism.
Caring for Cambodia: Children of the River
An Internet-based high school lesson plan for
Linda Crew's
novel.
See also
Children of the River
for a summary and discussion questions.
Karen Cushman
A Teacher Resource File with links to biographies,
lesson plans, and other resourses for teaching about
Ms. Cushman's
novels.
D
A Storybook
Romance: Dante's Paolo and
Francesca
A high school lesson plan on Dante's Divine
Comedy. See also
Dante Lessons for the Web
for additional teaching
ideas. Click
here
for extensive information
and resources on Dante.
Unit
Guide: Lessons on Dante's Inferno
A ten-lesson unit, plus
related grammar lessons and writing
assignments.
For additional resources
for teaching Dante's Inferno,
see
Project Ideas for Dante
and
Study Guide: The Inferno.
Charles Dickens
Click above to go to lesson plans for Dickens.
Lois Duncan
A teachers guide from Random
House for Daughters of
Eve. Go to
Web English Teacher
for links to teachers guides
for several other books by
Lois Duncan
including
I Know What You Did Last Summer.
E
Ralph Ellison
A lesson plan for grades 11-12. For further
information on
Ellison
and
The Invisible Man,
click on the preceding colored text.
See
also
Vocabulary from Invisible
Man.
F
A Vast and Enduring Moment:
Faulkner's Literary Reputation
A lesson plan for grades 7-12 in which students
learn about
William Faulkner,
his writing style, and his
significance in the literary world..
See also
Teaching Faulkner,
which provides articles and
suggestions for the teaching
of Faulkner works in high school or college.
InstantWebQuest: William Faulkner's Life
See
also
WebQuest:
William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott
Fitzgerald)
Suggestions for teaching activities.
Click here
for information on Fitzgerald.
See also
The Great Gatsby:
Unit Syllabus,
An Index
to the Great Gatsby,
and
The Great Gatsby:
A Beginner's Guide.
The "Secret Society" and Fitzgerald's The
Great Gatsby
A lesson plan for grades 9-12 from EDSITEment. See
also
F. Scott Fitzgerald and
the 1920s.
Slave Dancer
A unit with chapter-by-chapter discussion questions
for this novel by
Paula Fox.
See also
Paula Fox @ Web English Teacher.
Diary
of Anne Frank (Anne Frank in the
World, 1929-1945: Teacher Workbook)
Lesson plans for grades 5-8 for teaching about
Anne Frank and Holocaust-related
subjects. See
also
Anne frank Intro,
a middle school lesson plan;
Anne Frank: One of Hundreds of Thousands,
a lesson plan for grades 6-8;
Anne Frank WebQuest,
an excellent Internet activity
for grades 7-9;
Trackstar: Anne Frank History,
another Internet-based
lesson;
The Truth About Anne Frank,
A 12-lesson unit; The
Anne Frank Internet
Guide,
an excellent
resource;
Anne Frank:
Her Life and Times,
photographs
and information about Anne's journal
and how it survived World War II; and
Cybrary of the
Holocaust,
a comprehensive
site with images and recollections
of survivors, a teacher's guide,
and links.
G
Ernest J. Gaines
A unit outline plus study guides, activities,
and projects for A Lesson
Before Dying.
Click
here
for links to biographical
information and lesson plans for
several other books by Gaines.
Lord of the Flies (William
Golding)
A CyberGuide with activities 9th grade or above.
See also
Personality and Lord of the Flies
(A 12th-grade
lesson plan) as well as
Recognizing Symbolism and
Allegory: Part I
and
Part
II
(two 12th-grade lesson plans
for this novel). Click on the colored
text for
Spark Notes
and information on
William Golding.
Bette Greene Teacher Resource
File
Lessons, a biography and criticism for The
Summer of My German Soldier
. See also
The Summer of My German Soldier,
a Web Quest exploring the
historical backdrop for this novel
and
Summer of My German Soldier@ Web English
Teacher.
For student
study guides
click
here.
If you are looking for
further information on
teaching about World War II through literature,
see
World War II as Seen Through
the Eyes of Children's Literature.
H
A Raisin in the Sun
A "novel
guide" complete with suggested teaching activities
for this book by
Lorraine Hansberry.
See also
Quest for the American Dream in A Raisin
in the Sun.
The Endless Steppe by Esther
Hautzig
A unit plan for grade 6-8 using this book to tell
the story how East European
refugees and deportees lived in Russia
during World War II. Also, read a synopsis,
reviews, and a brief author biography from
Amazon.com.
Hawthorne: Author and Narrator
A high school lesson plan for The Scarlet Letter.
Click here
for information on Hawthorne.
The Scarlet Letter
A secondary unit.
Click here
for another unit
in pdf format.
Joseph Heller's Catch
22
This teaching guide from the Discovery Channel
School is meant to be used in conjunction
with their program, but it contains
study questions and activities that can
be adapted to a variety of situations.
Click
here
for information on Heller.
See also
Internet
Resources: Joseph Heller Catch-22.
Earnest Hemingway,
A Farewell to Arms , and the
Internet Connection
An 11th-grade lesson plan.
Click here
for Hemingway information.
The Old Man and the Sea
A CyberGuide with activities for grades 6-8.
Discovering Hemingway and
Myself
An elaborate high school unit.
The Outsiders
The link above will take you to a
Score CyberGuide
for this novel by S.E Hinton.
See also
Journalism Reporting for
the Outsiders
(a high school lesson plan)
and The
Outsiders: Teens & Life Choices
(a WebQuest)
Click here
for information on S.E.
Hinton .
Farewell to Manzanar for
8th-Grade English
A unit based on Jeane Wakatsuki Houston and James
D. Houston's historical
narrative. See also
Japanese-American Internet Curriculum,
Letters from the Japanese-American Internment,
and
Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself.
Les Miserables
A secondary unit on Victor Hugo's classic novel.
See also Victor
Hugo Central.
Brave New World (Huxley)
Teacher Cyber Guide
A CyberGuide for grades 7-12.
Click
here
for a comprehensive page
on this novel and its author. See
Aldous Huxley @ Web English
teacher for other lesson plans and teaching
resources.
I
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
An elaborate lesson plan for grades 6-8 exploring
Washington Irving's
classic
novel and why it still
captures the imagination of readers
today.
J
Dubliners
by James Joyce
Information and teaching activities for grade
12. See also
IQ Infinity: The Unknown James
Joyce.
K
Fiction of Franz Kafka
A 12th-grade or college lesson plan using the
Synectics II Model to analyze the
themes of Kafka's writings.
Helen Keller (Famous Person)
There are many lesson plans and units about
Helen Keller
available on the Internet,
including this one for middle-grade
students titled Famous Person:
Helen Keller, which uses Keller's book,
The Story of My Life .
Helen Keller: In a World of Darkness
and
Helen Keller: A Life of Triumph
(which are meant to be used
together) are two other lessons
using this book. For an interesting
lesson plan on Braille meant to be
used in a unit on Helen Keller, see
Bits of Braille.
For a secondary thematic
unit using Gibson's The Miracle
Worker and other plays,
see
Inspirational Voices Unit.
See also
Miracle Worker Learning Guide.