After studying utopian literature, students design their own utopian society, publishing the explanation of their ideal world on a blog. As they blog about their utopia, students establish the habits, practices, and organizing social structures that citizens will follow in their utopian societies. They begin by brainstorming ideas about what a perfect society would be like and then, in groups, begin to plan their project. Next, they become familiar with the blogging process, including legal guidelines and the specific site they will be using. Over several class sessions, students work on their blogs comparing their work to a rubric. Finally, after students visit one another's blogs and provide constructive and supportive feedback, they reflect on their own work. The lesson plan includes alternative handouts for classrooms where computer or blog access is limited. In this alternative, students complete the same basic activities, but publish their work using a Flip Book.

In this lesson, high school students look critically at the literary work "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe and its 1961 film interpretation. They use prediction strategies to form and refine their opinions about the story line progression in each work. They read the short story, screen the film, discuss reactions to both works, and plan and write a persuasive essay analyzing the validity of the film interpretation. This lesson is ideally suited for students who have experience with persuasive writing, and it can be adapted to work with any literature-film pairing.

John Muir is known as the father of our National Parks. His boyhood was spent in Marquette County, Wisconsin where he found inspiration in the wilderness around him. In this Unit, students will learn about John Muir’s boyhood neighborhood and actively work to preserve it, connect with Muir’s many accomplishments, understand different environmental philosophies, and saunter in nature while observing and reflecting on the world around them. Students will Connect, Explore, and Engage through intentional time in nature, reflective writing, reading inspirational passages by Muir, and using technology to document changes over time.

When students write argumentative or persuasive essays, they often ignore the viewpoints of their opponents, the potential readers of their essays. In this minilesson, students respond to a hypothetical situation by writing about their position on the subject. After sharing their thoughts with the class, students consider the opposite point of view and write about arguments for that position. They then compare their position with that of their potential audience, looking for areas of overlap. They then revise their arguments, with the audience's point of view and areas of commonality in mind. Examining the opposing view allows students to better decide how to counter their opponent logically, perhaps finding common ground from which their arguments might grow. Thus, the activity becomes a lesson not only in choosing arguments but also in anticipating audience reaction and adapting to it.

What is scary, and why does it fascinate us? How do writers and storytellers scare us? This lesson plan invites students to answer these questions by exploring their own scary stories and scary short stories and books. The lesson culminates in a Fright Fair, where students share scary projects that they have created, including posters, multimedia projects, and creative writing.

In this module, students read, discuss, and analyze literary and informational texts, focusing on how authors use word choice and rhetoric to develop ideas, and advance their points of view and purposes. The texts in this module represent varied voices, experiences, and perspectives, but are united by their shared exploration of the effects of prejudice and oppression on identity construction. Each of the module texts is a complex work with multiple central ideas and claims that complement the central ideas and claims of other texts in the module. All four module texts offer rich opportunities to analyze authorial engagement with past and present struggles against oppression, as well as how an author’s rhetoric or word choices strengthen the power and persuasiveness of the text.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

In Module 11.3, students engage in an inquiry-based, iterative process for research. Building on work with evidence-based analysis in Modules 11.1 and 12.2, students explore topics that have multiple positions and perspectives by gathering and analyzing research based on vetted sources to establish a position of their own. Students first generate a written evidence-based perspective, which will serve as the early foundation of what will ultimately become a written research-based argument paper. The research-based argument paper synthesizes and articulates several claims using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence to support the claims. Students read and analyze sources to surface potential problem-based questions for research, and develop and strengthen their writing by revising and editing.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

In this module, students read, discuss, and analyze literary texts, focusing on the authors’ choices in developing and relating textual elements such as character development, point of view, and central ideas while also considering how a text’s structure conveys meaning and creates aesthetic impact. Additionally, students learn and practice narrative writing techniques as they examine the techniques of the authors whose stories students analyze in the module.|

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

Module 12.1 includes a shared focus on text analysis and narrative writing. Students read, discuss, and analyze two nonfiction personal narratives, focusing on how the authors use structure, style, and content to craft narratives that develop complex experiences, ideas, and descriptions of individuals. Throughout the module, students learn, practice, and apply narrative writing skills to produce a complete personal essay suitable for use in the college application process.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

In Module 12.3, students engage in an inquiry-based, iterative research process that serves as the basis of a culminating research-based argument paper. Building on work with evidence-based analysis in Modules 12.1 and 12.2, students use a seed text to surface and explore issues that lend themselves to multiple positions and perspectives. Module 12.3 fosters students’ independent learning by decreasing scaffolds in key research lessons as students gather and analyze research based on vetted sources to establish a position of their own. Students first generate a written evidence-based perspective, which serves as the early foundation of what will ultimately become their research-based argument paper.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

In this 12th grade module, students read, discuss, and analyze four literary texts, focusing on the development of interrelated central ideas within and across the texts. |The mains texts in this module include|A Streetcar Named Desire|by Tennessee Williams, “A Daily Joy to Be Alive” by Jimmy Santiago Baca, “The Overcoat” by Nikolai Gogol, and|The Namesake|by Jhumpa Lahiri. As students discuss these texts, they will analyze complex characters who struggle to define and shape their own identities. The characters’ struggles for identity revolve around various internal and external forces including: class, gender, politics, intersecting cultures, and family expectations.|

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

Students read a work of realistic fiction about bullying and gain understanding through writing, Readers Theatre, and discussion.

Using Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, students learn a simplified method of analyzing a literary work through psychoanalytical criticism. Students identify plot and theme, and then identify characters from the story with their psychological personalities (Id, Ego, and Superego). Students then develop an argument supporting the character identification. Finally, using explicit textual evidence, students write an analytical essay supporting their position.

This resource will help you begin the process of understanding literary theory and schools of criticism and how they are used in the academy.

This lesson is based on observations of the marketing department at Reinhart Food Service. As a unit for Sports Literature class, students will complete a simulation to market and present a product using advertising techniques, digital media, writing and speaking skills. In groups of three to four students, each team with choose a product or aspect of a sport to market. Some examples include a new sporting goods store, online vendor, food product like a protein powder, drink or granola bar, themed restaurant, sports equipment. (Or use your imagination!) The product may be a one-of-a-kind-invention or an improvement on or variation of a current product. Students will learn advertising techniques, discuss morals in advertising, and practice their desktop publishing skills.

Marketing teams will consider their target audience and how they want to reach that audience. They will create an advertising plan and present their products, print, radio and television advertisements to the class.

The cultural children's story project allows students to explore Native American culture through a new lens by authoring and illustrating children's stories that teach children between the ages of four and six a lesson or tale unique to Native cultural traditions. The exemplar stories are laminated, bound, and given as gifts to an area elementary school with a primarily Native student body. Student authors read the stories to the children, and the books become part of the children's classroom library. The children learn cultural traditions from a young age and see their mentors (often Native students as well) as role models and writers. The authors learn the skills to develop their stories from conception to publication to presentation.Cultural Children's Story Video Lesson

I include this assignment in my 11-12 Grade Native American Literature class. I usually introduce this unit after students have read the short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," by Sherman Alexie (Form his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven). The story (along with pieces of his other short stories) was the inspiration for the 1998 film Smoke Signals, one of the first authentic films to examine the humor, pain, loss and struggle of reservation life.After reading the story and watching the film, students write about what makes the film authentic and how forgiveness plays into the ability to move on.We then watch the documentary film Reel Injun (2009), chronicling the evolution of Native American portrayals in film. Next, students have the opportunity to discuss the attributes of authentic Native American depictions in film and what aspects of Native culture they would like to see in film.Finally, we finish the unit by looking at the impact of stereotypes in film, especially children's films, and students watch the Disney film Pocahantas (2005) through the lens of a movie critic and write a movie review based on the film, focusing on the authenticity of racial and cultural portrayals.Video Lesson: The Evolution of Native American Representations in Film

The Native American Veterans Tribute is a slideshow project in Native American Literature class that corresponds with the Veterans Day Assembly at our high school. Veterans who are invited to the assembly are served breakfast and watch the slideshow in the Commons. Our class slideshow is incorporated into the presentation that day. It allows students to recognize relatives or or other Native military veterans and pay tribute to them.

This activity guides students through analyzing the social media postings of five businesses based on a theme of the student's choice. After making their observations of good and bad business practices, students will create their own posts with pictures. 

Great supplemental resource to support teaching caption writing for teachers of journalism or advisors of yearbooks.