Lesson Plans

523 Result(s)
Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 3: Societal Schisms and Divisions

Students examine the novel’s societal setting, which is also fraught with division. Crime and Punishment is more than just a demonstration of the idea that crime does not pay, it is a vivid depiction of societal injustice. For example, Dostoyevsky’s mid-nineteenth century Russia offered women narrowly circumscribed roles, most often resulting in their dependence on men and/or a life of poverty. The negative effects of several other societal divisions raise additional questions.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 2: Man and Superman

Students examine the theory Man vs. Superman as it is revealed in several scenes within the novel and tackle the larger questions it bring up: Are humans really divided into two distinct categories, the ordinary and the extraordinary? Is this division a figment created by an overactive intellect? What did Dostoevsky think? Then they learn the theory differs radically from Dostoyevsky’s fictional reality—and reader’s—uncover yet another split in the world of the novel, one between intellect and emotion/instinct.

Grade Range
9-12
Man in the Middle: Thomas Day and the Free Black Experience

Thomas Day (1801–ca. 1861) was a successful free black furniture maker and businessman who stood “in the middle” of competing forces in nineteenth-century America: between black and white, slave and free, North and South, and Africa and America.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 2: The Metamorphoses and Modern Poetry: A Comparison of Mythic Characters

Students compare two versions of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Ovid’s version in (Bk X: 1–85) tells the story primarily from an androcentric point of view through the character, Orpheus. In the version expressed by 20th –century a poet H.D. offers the story from a woman’s point of view and articulates the emotions of a broken-hearted, and downright angry, Eurydice.

Grade Range
6-12
Lesson 3: Theme Analysis in A Christmas Carol

In this lesson, part of a unit on Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, students focus on stave 5 as they identify and articulate themes that permeate the story.

Grade Range
6-8
Lesson 2: Scrooge as He is Revealed during the Ghostly Experiences

In this lesson, part of a unit on Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," students examine Scrooge’s experiences with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future and discover how Dickens used both direct and indirect characterization to create a protagonist who is more than just a stereotype.

Grade Range
6-12
Lesson 1: Language Analysis Based on Stave 1

In this lesson, part of a unit on Charles Dickens', "A Christmas Carol," students focus on the first stave of the novel as they identify the meanings of words and phrases that may be unfamiliar to them. This activity facilitates close examination of and immersion in the text and leads to an understanding of Scrooge before his ghostly experiences.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 3: García Márquez’s Nobel Prize Speech: “The Solitude of Latin America”

In this triumph of magical realism, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" chronicles a century of the remarkable Buendía family’s history in the fictional Colombian town of Macondo. The three lessons presented here explore the fantastic elements of this imaginary world, the real history that lies behind them, and García Márquez’s own philosophical musings on writing about Latin America.