Lesson Plans and Resources for Adolescent
and Young Adult Literature

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.

Learn about weight loss, diet pills, and whether Phentermine, Phendimetrazine, or Adipex is the best diet pill for you.

Confused about web hosting? Let the experts at WebHostingBreak make your choice easy!

Index: Multiple Works/Movements/Genres; Resources for Adolescent Literature; Short Stories; Specific Authors/Works (Alphabetical 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); English/Shakespearean Lit.; Mysteries; Drama, Mythology, and Poetry; Rubrics for the Language Arts; Return to Educational Resources and Lesson Plans; Go to the NCTE Home Page

Try these great offers:
Get your Diapers and Wipes now.
Grab your authentic game-day football jersey… free
Win $100,000 on Celebrity Squares! Start playing now!
Do you know your IQ? Take our short quiz to find out!
Free Burberry™ Purse—own this season’s a-list accessory! 1
Vote now for your chance to get a $50 SUBWAY® Gift Card!
Find Great free stuff for teachers, students, and homeschoolers

Chocoholics, get $50 worth of Snickers® Candy! Sign-up today.
Want a new gaming console? Vote in our Video Game Survey now
Parents, don’t miss $500 worth of diapers and wipes. Sign-up now!
Like pizza? Vote in our survey for your chance to get $500 in gift cards!
Like Olive Garden®? Register now and get $100 towards your next meal!
Join Freefly's and get FREE samples from top name brands! Sign-up today.
Basketball Survey: Vote now and get a $100 Visa® Gift Card and Jersey!
Get $50 towards a case of your favorite low-calorie beverage! Sign-up now.
Presidential Survey: Vote now for your chance to get $100 Visa® Gift Card!
Get the Laptop of your choice, plus a $250 Best Buy® Gift Card! Learn more.
Soda junkies, do you prefer Coke™ or Pepsi™? Answer now for your chance to get a $500 Visa™ Gift Card!

Add your tattoos to backgrounds and place them on your MySpace, Facebook, or othewr social profile page - My Web Tattoo

Research shows several diet products stand out for their appetite suppression and energy boost, including phentermine (prescription only and illegal to buy online) and phentramin-d (non-prescription and legal to buy online). Learn about phentermine, compare weight-loss products, and save money.


Didn't find it here? try a Google search:
Google

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.

Teachers@Random
Teachers guides for many popular novels. The
site is searchable by author, title, theme, grade level, or time period.

Web English Teacher - Young Adult Fiction

An alphabetical index (by author) of lesson plans and resources as well as a list of "special collections." See also their literature pages for even more author resources.

Teaching Literature: Fiction and Non-Fiction
About 20 lesson plans from The English Teacher.

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.  

Flowers for Algernon
A lesson plan for grades 7-9 on Daniel Keyes' famous novel.

What If: The Seed of a Story
A middle school lesson plan on the short stories of Stephen King.  

W. P. Kinsella
A resource page with information and links to other sites about Shoeless Joe and Kinsella.

John Knowles
A "novel guide" that includes a summary, theme openers, teaching activities, and research assignments for A Separate Peace .

L
Madeline L' Engle
A teacher resource file with lesson plans, biographies, and resources. Click here for the L'Engle WWW Resource File. See also The Fiction of Madeleine L'Engle.  

To Kill a Mockingbird
A high school unit on this classic work by Harper Lee. Click on the colored text for a "Student Survival Guide," or go to To Kill a Mockingbird : Then and Now, a new resource from Thinkquest.

Maycomb News Today
A 10th-grade lesson in which students write a newspaper article about people or events in To Kill a Mockingbird . See also  Teaching Prejudice: A Film Presentation and Discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird.  

Main Street (Sinclair Lewis)
A teacher's guide in pdf format with an overview, discussion questions, vocabulary, quotations for discussion, and activities for each chapter. Also, take a look at Lit Plans: Sinclair Lewis and the Sinclair Lewis Society.  

After the Blue (Russel Like)
This site offers a synopsis as well as vocabulary and discussion questions.

Jack London's Call of the Wild: "Nature Faker?
A lesson plan from EDSITEment.
See also Jack London Homework Help for links to articles, study guides, and writing guides, and Evaluating the Call of the Wild.

A Night to Remember (Walter Lord)
A 9th-grade lesson plan using Walter Lord's book about the Titanic.

The Giver - Teacher CyberGuide
 See also Random House Teacher's Guide for the Giver and The Giver (middle-grade lesson plan).

Number the Stars
An intermediate-grade lesson plan on this book by Lois Lowery.   

M
Walkabout (James Vance Marshall)
An 8th-grade unit using this novel about two children stranded in the Australian interior and the Aborigine who helps them survive. Click here for another middle school lesson plan for this book.

Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
Teaching activities and discussion questions. For further information, see Vocabulary for Moby Dick, The Life and Works of Herman Melville and The Web of Meaning in Moby Dick.  

Arthur Miller, The Crucible and McCarthyism
A lesson plan for grades 10-12. See also Dramatizing History in Arthur Miller's The Crucible , The Salem Witch Trials and Hunting for Witches.  

The Bluest Eye
A lesson plan on Tony Morrison's book from a unit titled " A View of Three Cultures through the Eyes of Three Contemporary Women Writers."  
See also 
WebQuest for The Bluest Eye .

N
A Guide to Teaching About Freedom Struggles
A teacher's guide with discussion questions, activities, and author information for No Turning Back: A Novel of South Africa by Beverley Naidoo and Escape from Slavery: Five Journeys to Freedom by Doreen Rappaport. 

O
Decoding the Dystopian Characteristics of Macintosh's "1984" Commercial
A high school lesson planthat can be used to introduce George Orwell's 1984. See also Study Questions for 1984 and 1984: How Much fact in Fiction?  

Animal Farm
An teacher's guide from Penguin for this book by George Orwell. See also Teacher CyberGuide, Animal Farm: The Complete Project, Animal Farm Unit (pdf format), and Looking Into The Mirror.

P
Cry, the Beloved Country (Alan Paton)
Five Internet-based activities for this book by Alan Paton.  

Gary Paulson
A short biography and lesson plans for a number of  Paulson's works. If you are interested in finding teaching ideas for Woodsong, go to the Woodsong Unit Plan and Woodsong Literature Unit.

Brian's Winter
A teacher's guide from Random House

Fiction Elements in Hatchet
A lesson plan for gtrades 6-12 from Education World. See also Hatchet Study Guides and Lesson Plans for Teachers, Score Teacher CyberGuide: Hatchet, or go to Paulson's Official Site.

The Last Safe Place on Earth (Richard Peck)
A teacher's guide from Random House for this book dealing with censorship, hypocrisy, and responsibility.  Go to Richard Peck @ Web English Teacher to find lesson plans and reources for Peck's works.

The Ghost Belonged to Me
A review and teaching activities for this novel by Richard Peck.

A Day No Pigs Would Die (Robert Newton Peck)
A teacher CyberGuide for this book by Robert Peck.  

Edgar Allan Poe: An Author Unit
A Score CyberGuide unit for high school students. See also Poe Lightly for another unit. For information on Poe, visit A Poe Webliography.  

Tales of Edgar Allen Poe

A  high school lesson plan in which students
identify the feelings/emotions revealed in one of Poe's works and create an original piece that portrays these emotions. For additional lesson plans see The Life and Works of Edgar Allen Poe, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Biographers, and Edgar Allan Poe Teacher Page.

Q
Daniel Quinn
A resource for teachers using Quinn's Ishmael.   

R
Ayn Rand
Links to lesson plans and other resources for Anthem and The Fountainhead. See also Video Lesson Plan: The Fountainhead and Ayn Rand's Anthem @ Web English Teacher. For extensive information on Rand, go to The Ayn Rand Institute.  

The Westing Game
A 5th-grade WebQuest for Ellen Raskin's novel.  See also  The Westing Game: Student Study Guide and Reading and Writing a Mystery.

Wilson Rawls
A Teacher CyberGuide for Where the Red Fern Grows with middle-grade lessons and activities. Click here for an author profile.

Carolyn Reeder
Teacher's notes with activities and discussion questions for Carolyn Reeder's novel, Foster's War.

S
Louis Sachar
A Teacher Resource Page with links to lesson plans and sites with information about the author. Click here for a 3-week reciprocal teaching unit on this novel for grades 6-12. See also  Holes Activity Guide, Holes by Louis Sachar, and 
Holes by Louis Sachar - Teacher Pages

The Catcher Controversy
A high school lesson plan on this novel and the controversy surrounding its use in schools. See also Catcher in the Rye Study Guide and Web English Teacher: J. D. Salinger and Catcher in the Rye.

William Shakespeare
Click above to go to lesson plans and resources for the study of Shakespeare in the English Literature section of this page.

Tales of the Supernatural
A 12th-grade lesson plan for Mary Shelly's Frankenstein

Upton Sinclair
Information for teaching about Sinclair and The Jungle. For additional lesson ideas, see also Life in the Jungle, American Writers: Upton Sinclair Video Lesson, and The Power of Fiction.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder
A CyberGuide with lessons for the middle grades on The Egypt Game. Click here for a another Teacher's Guide for this book with instructional ideas and information about the author.

Baseball In April & Living Up The Street
A Score CyberGuide unit on these works by Gary Soto for grades 6-8. Also , see Gary Soto: A Teacher Resource File.  

Wringer
A Reader's Guide  for this book by Jerry Spinelli.

Steinbeck: Biography As A Tool In Teaching Reading And Writing Skills
A high school literature unit featuring lessons on The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. See also Teaching John Steinbeck.

Penguin Teacher's Guide for Cannery Row
See also Cannary Row Photo Essay.  

The Grapes of Wrath: Scrapbooks and Artifacts
An excellent lesson plan from the Library of Congress. For other lesson plans see Woody Guthrie and The Grapes of Wrath, Creating Dramatic Monologues from The Grapes of Wrath , The Great Depression and the Arts, Grapes of Wrath Study Site, and John Steinbeck @ Web English Teacher.

Teacher CyberGuide for Of Mice and Men
Lesson activities and links for the secondary level. See also Character Education in Of Mice and Men , Of Mice and Men: Cast the Roles and Penguin Teacher's Guide for Of Mice and Men.

The Pearl
A secondary-level lesson plan that requires students to use the Internet. See also  The Pearl Unit, Lesson Plans for The Pearl and Introduction to The Pearl.         

The Red Pony
A Penguin teacher's guide.  See also John Steinbeck@Web English Teacher.

Treasure Island
A unit on Stevenson's famous novel. See also Vocabulary from Treasure Island. For information about Stevenson, click here.

T
Mildred Taylor
A teacher's study guide for Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor complete with 4 lesson plans and information about Taylor.

J. R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
An extensive unit from Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute for this classic work by J. R. R. Tolkien. See also  Literature: The Hobbit for middle school activities and Ideas for Teachers from the Tolkien Society.

Mark Twain and American Humor
A high school lesson plan in which students consider the significance of humor through a study of Mark Twain's "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Click here to go to an excellent site for information on Twain and his works.

Censorship and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
This unit provides resources for 11th-grade students in American Literature classes to explore the controversy that continues to swirl around the teaching and reading of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Huck Finn - Controversy Through the Years
A lesson plan for grade 10. See also Critical Ways of Seeing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Context.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: A Teaching Unit for 5th or 6th Grades  
See also Mark Twain's Cave, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Study Guide, and
Tom Sawyer: Distance Learning Lesson Plan.

Tom Sawyer Home Page
An excellent resource. 

U
John Updike
A teachers guide with classroom issues and stategies, questions for discussion, and othr helpful information. Click here for information on Updike.

V
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)
A Teacher CyberGuide for grade 7. See also Lesson Tutor: Introducing Jules Verne.

Homecoming
A "novel guide" that includes a summary, theme openers, teaching activities, and research assignments for this book by Cynthia Voigt.

W
Writing with Alice Walker
Lesson ideas based on Walker's The Color Purple. For many other lesson plans for this book, go to Alice Walker Teacher Resource File. Also , take a look at Anniina's Alice Walker Page.  

H. G. Wells
A high school lesson plan on H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. See also Study Guide for H. G. Wells The War of the Worlds.  

The Time Machine (Wells)
A Learning Guide for use with the movie version of this novel.  See also Reading Lesson: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells - Excerpt.

Age of Innocence
A lesson plan for this novel by Edith Wharton.  

Our Town: Imagining Grover's Corners
A high school lesson plan for this classic play by Thornton Wilder.  

XYZ
The Pigman
An CyberGuide this book by Paul Zindel. See also Paul Zindel @ Web English Teacher and Pigman Study Guide.


Mysteries

Teaching Mysteries
Lesson plans and information from MysteryNet,com.  

What Is a Mystery?
A lesson plan for grade 4 and up from MysteryNet.com.

The Game is Afoot: A Study of Sherlock Holmes
A 5th-grade lesson plan from Core Knowledge in pdf format.

Challenging Children With Mystery Stories
A 5th-grade unit.

The Hound of the Baskervilles Teacher's Guide
A teacher's guide for this mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Mystery Unit Lesson Plan
A KWL lesson plan using The Westing Game

Gender, Race, and Milieu in Detective Fiction
A collection of units complete with lesson plans including It’s A Mystery To Me (using Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue and two other classic mysteries) and Detective Fiction: Focus On Critical Thinking (which uses The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery series).

Very Good Fare
A unit involving the reading, writing, and solving of mysteries.

It's a Mystery!
Five lesson plans for teaching about mysteries from Education World.

Everyone Loves a Mystery: A Genre Study
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 from Read/Write/Think.



English/Shakespearean Literature

The Luminarium
Wonderful site for English literature.

Exploring Arthurian Legend
A web-based lesson plan for grades 9-12.

The Hero in Mallory's Arthurian Legends
A 10th-grade lesson plan.

Beowulf
Teaching ideas from The English Teacher. See also Beowulf (12th-grade lesson plan),  The Beauty of Anglo Saxon Poetry: A Prelude to Beowulf (one more high school lesson plan), and Beowulf Spark Notes (an on-line study guide).

Alice in Wonderland
This lesson plan titled "Childhood through the Looking Glass" for grades 6-12 from The National Endowment for the Humanities' EDSITEment pages explores the vision of childhood created by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland . See also Alice in Wonderland, a lesson plan using The Discovery Channel's video; Senses, Spaces And Structure, an elaborate 7th-grade unit using Alice in Wonderland and two other works to explore space and architecture; and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a page containing the 1928 commentary on Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass .

Chaucer's Wife of Bath
A high school lesson plan from EDSITEment this character from  Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. For a comprehensive Chaucer page, go to Harvard University's Geoffrey Chaucer. For other lesson plans, see Using Visualization to Understand Chaucer, a secondary lesson plan, and Taking a Pilgrimage to Canterbury, another high school lesson plan. Click here for Canterbury Tales Study Materials from the Luminarium's Geoffrey Chaucer Page. For additional help understanding the language used in this work, go to A Basic Chaucer Glossary.

The Dickens House
A web-based activity for grades 6-9.

Beyond the Story: A Dickens of a Party
A lesson plan in which students attend a 19th Century party dressed as a character from Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

The Dickens Project
Resources and activities from USC for reading, studying, and teaching the novels of Charles  and his era.

Great Expectations Study Guide
Resource materials for high school and college students.

C.S. Lewis
The above link will take you to the definitive C.S. Lewis site. See also
Fantasy: A Study of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (a lesson plan for grades 7-8). Click here for the C.S. Lewis Teacher Resource Page

Teaching Shakespeare
New lesson plans each month as well as a lesson plan archive from the Folger Shakespeare Library.  

The Plays of William Shakespeare
An excellent guide to Shakespeare resources available on the Net, including lesson plans, teacher's guides, study guides, Sparknotes, study questions, literature summaries, and full text. 

Shakespeare: Teaching Resources from Social Studies School Service
No, they're not free, but if you're looking for a video or online activity, this is a good source.

Lesson Plans for Shakespearean Plays
A collection of lesson plans and resources from Shakespeare High.

Shakespeare's Plays: Lesson Plans and Resources
Another long list of lessons and resources, this one from About.com.

An Introduction to Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Era
A lesson plan adaptable to a variety of grade levels. 

Bill's Allusive Nature: An Introduction to Shakespeare
A high school lesson/assignment that could be used to introduce any Shakespearean play.

Appreciating the Bard's Art: Rewriting Shakespeare's Epitaph Using Iambic Pentameter
A high school lesson plan from The Teacher's reference Desk.

Reading Stories from Shakespeare
Another lesson plan from the Teacher's Reference Desk for grades 7-8.

Hamlet and the Elizabethan Revenge Ethic in Film and Text
A high school lesson plan from EDSITEmnet.  See also Hamlet Meets Chusingura: Traditions of the Revenge Tragedy. 

Comprehending Shakespeare: Hamlet's Soliloquy
A lesson plan for grade 12.

Julius Caesar
A 10th-grade unit.

Macbeth
A lesson plan for grades 6-12. See also Shakespeare's MacBeth: Fear and the "Dagger of the Mind."

Shakespeare's MacBeth: Fear and the Motives of Evil
An Internet-based lesson plan.

Introduction to Shakespeare
A lesson plan for grades 10 -12 introducing Shakespeare's A Mid Summer Night's Dream , the relevance of Shakespeare in modern society, and Elizabethan Drama.

Shakespeare's Othello and the Power of Language
A high school lesson plan from the NEH's EDSITEment.

Romeo and Juliet Timeline
A 9th-grade lesson plan from the Teacher's Reference Desk.

Friendship Cards from Romeo and Juliet
Another 9th-grade lesson plan. See also Romeo and Juliet - Alternative Endings.  

You Kiss by the Book: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
An Internet-based secondary lesson plan.

Integrating Shakespeare & the Internet
A 9th-grade interdisciplinary unit on Elizabethan England and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for English, art, and computer classes.

The Tempest
An Internet-based high school unit.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Forget your book at school? No problem. This site has all of Shakespeare's works online!

Tales of the Supernatural
A 12th-grade lesson plan for Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. See also Prepare Me for the Horror: The Feminist Way for another 12th-grade lesson plan.

Return to Educational Resources and Lesson Plans

Background for this page is available at The Assorted Backgrounds .

E-mail me if you would like help in locating the resources you need. Also, please
let me know if you find a link on this site that no longer functions. My name is
Edmund J. Sass, Ed.D.
You can reach me at
esass@csbsju.edu