This lesson remixes an original lesson created by Govind Lingam entitled "Teach Design: Mood Board." In this movement-inclusive lesson, students will conduct an art-based anticipatory activity that introduces them to the close-reading process with a special emphasis on mood and imagery. They will then transition to a close-reading of a small passage from Jekyll & Hyde in order to demonstrate how our understanding of a passage changes with each new read as well as to gain a clearer understanding of how specific details function in a larger narrative.

This activity is intended as an introduction to close-reading using visual media. In this lesson, students will review and then closely "read" the painting, "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt in order to understand the process of close-reading and its impact on our understanding of texts. Once students have learned how to conduct close-reading of a visual text, they reflect on how they might transfer this skill to the written word.
This activity also includes optional extension activities that incorporate poetry into the lesson.

This activity is intended as an introduction to close-reading using visual media. In this lesson, students will review and then closely "read" the painting, "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt in order to understand the process of close-reading and its impact on our understanding of texts. Once students have learned how to conduct close-reading of a visual text, they reflect on how they might transfer this skill to the written word.
This activity also includes optional extension activities that incorporate poetry into the lesson.

Once students have learned how to conduct close-reading of a visual text, they reflect on how they might transfer this skill to the written word.

Once students have learned how to conduct close-reading of a visual text, they reflect on how they might transfer this skill to the written word.

In this unit students dive into the world of Greek mythology. Over the course of the unit students will read the classic myths of Pandora, Arachne, and Echo and Narcissus. In reading the myths, students will gain a deeper understanding of the gods and mortals in ancient Greece and how the ancient Greeks used mythology as a way to make sense of and interpret the world around them. Students will also continue the thematic exploration from previous units about how a person's beliefs, ethics, or values influence that person's behavior.

Over the course of the unit, students will read multiple versions of the classic myths. The primary focus of this unit is on close reading and analyzing the differences among the versions and critically analyzing an author's choice of genre. In doing so, students will be challenged to think about how the structural elements of different genres, particularly prose, drama, and verse, allow a reader to better understand a story or text. Students will also explore how the point of view in which a story is written, either third-person point of view or first-person point of view, changes the way a story is told and the depth of information that a reader knows. Another focus of this unit is determining the central theme of the myths. Because the stories in this unit are shorter than the novels students have read so far, this unit offers students practice in finding the theme of a shorter text and explaining how the author uses evidence to develop the theme.

This exercise teaches students to understand the organizational structure of problem/solution essays by having them write "what it says" and "what it does" statements about a text. Asking students to write these statements about a text will enable students to read the text closely and will ensure that they understand the structure of a problem/solution text.

This is an instructional strategy that has students work in small groups to construct a "honeycomb" that analyzes a text's structure. Students are given a set of ten honeycomb cards connected to their text and then must work together to assemble the honeycomb by ensuring that all connecting cards can be logically connected through careful analysis of the text. If they cannot successfully argue the connection between literary elements, they must reorganize the honeycomb until all the pieces work together seamlessly. This is a learning strategy that works well during a text unit (as opposed to before or after the unit) and is designed to help students understand the intentionality of a text's structure. It can be paired with any text, but I have provided a sample card set for "Frankenstein" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" in this resource.

This is an instructional strategy that has students work in small groups to construct a "honeycomb" that analyzes a text's structure. Students are given a set of ten honeycomb cards connected to their text and then must work together to assemble the honeycomb by ensuring that all connecting cards can be logically connected through careful analysis of the text. If they cannot successfully argue the connection between literary elements, they must reorganize the honeycomb until all the pieces work together seamlessly. This is a learning strategy that works well during a text unit (as opposed to before or after the unit) and is designed to help students understand the intentionality of a text's structure. It can be paired with any text, but I have provided a sample card set for "Frankenstein" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" in this resource.

This is an instructional strategy that has students work in small groups to construct a "honeycomb" that analyzes a text's structure. Students are given a set of ten honeycomb cards connected to their text and then must work together to assemble the honeycomb by ensuring that all connecting cards can be logically connected through careful analysis of the text. If they cannot successfully argue the connection between literary elements, they must reorganize the honeycomb until all the pieces work together seamlessly. This is a learning strategy that works well during a text unit (as opposed to before or after the unit) and is designed to help students understand the intentionality of a text's structure. It can be paired with any text, but I have provided a sample card set for "Frankenstein" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" in this resource.

This activity is inspired by by "The Pocket Instructor, Literature: 101 Exercises for the College Classroom" edited by Diana Fuss and William A. Gleason. In this lesson, students listen to multiple readings of Elizabeth Bishop's, "One Art." As a whole class, we conduct a line-by-line analysis of the poem in order to introduce and understand poetry analysis skills. The lesson culminates with a whole-class and individual reflection. An optional written analysis extension task is also provided.

In this lesson, students work in groups of 3-4 students to analyze their paired novella in order to deepen their understanding of the text. Each student takes on a specific role - leader, skeptic, or scribe in order to form an assertion, support that assertion with evidence, and refine their assertion in order to craft a clear, specific argument. In addition to providing a collaborative, multi-modal analysis experience, this lesson also incorporates movement and reflection and is easily adaptable to any paired text or close-reading skill.

This lesson remixes an original lesson plan entitled "The Poetry of Emily Dickinson" by Melissa Strong: Melissa Strong. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America .

In this lesson, activities 1 and 2 from the original source are combined so that students emulate the writing style of Dickinson to write their own original poetry based on modern issues concerning women. An extension activity asks students to transfer their understanding of how literary elements shape meaning to different poets who each have a distinct style.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

As-is, this resource focuses on literary elements, compare/contrast, cause-and-effect, literary arguments, and rhetoric/persuasion using Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera" as the paired text. However, this resource is easily adaptable to suit any text and/or instructional focus.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

As-is, this resource focuses on literary elements, compare/contrast, cause-and-effect, literary arguments, and rhetoric/persuasion using Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera" as the paired text. However, this resource is easily adaptable to suit any text and/or instructional focus.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

This resource is designed as an end-of-unit choice assessment board for students. Although students are permitted to select from a variety of response options, the teacher can still control what each option includes, thus ensuring that the responses students generate meet the unit objectives.

This lesson uses Panic at the Disco's song, "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" to explore specific literary elements: metaphor, inversion, irony, and tone in order to consider how these devices help shape meaning. Students will work in pairs to employ close-reading skills for specific analytical tasks. They will reflect on their learning continuously throughout the lesson. The lesson will culminate with a brief analytical paragraph that asks them to consider how the figurative devices employed by the songwriters shapes meaning. Finally, they will reflect on the process of close-reading to consider how this process informed their understanding of the text and how they can transfer this skill to other analytical tasks.