ALEX Lesson Plan Resources

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ALEX Lesson Plans  
Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: How will you face DEATH?
Description: This lesson can be tied to "Story of an Hour" through theme and connection to death. This lesson allows students time to think about the inevitability of death, life itself, and the survival extinct. The story is "The Law of Life" by Jack London. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: The President's Great Idea
Description: In remembering President Kennedy's death, his quote, "A man may die. nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on," has become the theme for this year's celebration.  Banners with the end of that quote are hanging on street corners all over Boston, Massachusetts.  The JFK Library has a number of good resources reflecting on Kennedy's life.  This lesson may will address rhetorical strategies he used in his inaugural address in 1961.  This reading can come to life and address some good writing. This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: Jump at 'de Sun!  Let's become Zoraheads!
Description: Students will learn about Zora Neale Hurston as the beginning of a unit on Their Eyes were Watching God. Using the essay "How it Feels to be Colored Me," students will discuss the use of metaphors in correlation to Hurston's life. Students will also construct a poem using metaphors pertaining to their own lives.  This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Subject: English Language Arts (11 - 12), or Social Studies (11), or Technology Education (9 - 12)
Title: Civil Rights Movement Photo Story Timeline
Description: In this lesson students will be able to explain various events that took place during the Civil Rights Movement. The students will be divided into groups of 5. Each student within the group will receive an individual role of spokesperson, graphic designer, technical director or reporter. The groups will develop a Photo story timeline on four events that took place during the Civil Rights Movement using Microsoft Photo Story 3. This program will allow the students to create incredible multimedia video presentations using still images combined with text, narration and music. Each group will present their Photo Story presentation to the class and the students in the audience will complete an audience input guide.

Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: Personification with "Grass" by Carl Sandburg
Description: Students will be reading the poem "Grass" and identify the main idea and supporting details with a partner.  Students will then write a poem using personification.

Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: Character Web with Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Hurston
Description: Students will read "The Inside Search," from Dust Tracks on a Road with a partner creating a character web.

Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: Propaganda Fun
Description: Students will learn various propaganda techniques and create commercials in cooperative learning groups.

Subject: Arts Education (9 - 12), or English Language Arts (11), or Technology Education (9 - 12)
Title: Literary Graffiti with poetry
Description: Students will read and analyze a poem by creating Literary Graffiti in cooperative learning groups.

Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: FDR's War Message to Congress - Fact or Opinion
Description: Students will read FDR's War Message to Congress with a partner recording important details as fact or opinion.

Subject: English Language Arts (11), or Science (9 - 12)
Title: A Worn Path by Eudora Welty
Description: Students will read A Worn Path by Eudora Welty recording important events with a partner and then create a bio-poem on Pheonix.

Subject: English Language Arts (11)
Title: Character Metaphors - The Great Gatsby
Description: The students will explore characters by creating metaphors with pictures.  Using a gingerbread styled template and pictures collected from magazines, clip art, or other sources, the students will paste pictures which represent specific qualities of a character.  Students should explain how each picture is a metaphor for a character, and why the picture is pasted in the that particular area of the body.

Subject: English Language Arts (11), or Social Studies (11)
Title: The Bombing of Hiroshima - Fact or Opinion
Description: Students will read "A Noiseless Flash" from Hiroshima, written by John Hersey with a partner and record facts (objective reporting) and opinions (subjective reporting) as given in the reading selection.

Subject: English Language Arts (11), or Technology Education (9 - 12)
Title: Harlem Renaissance Authors and the Impact on the 21st Century
Description: As part of a study of the Harlem Renaissance, students will do research on a Harlem Renaissance author. Individually, students will use websites to gain information about the author and the author's impact in literature and society. Students will relate writings from the author to issues found in the 21st century. Students will then create a photostory of the author to be shared with the class.

Subject: English Language Arts (11), or Technology Education (9 - 12)
Title: Depression or Oppression: "The Yellow Wallpaper" by C.P. Gilman
Description: In this lesson students research women's issues in the early 20th century and the attitude toward and treatment of mental illnesses then and now. The research complements the reading of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Research provides the basis for a persuasive essay.

Subject: English Language Arts (9 - 12)
Title: Out of the Night That Covers Me, by Pat Cunningham Devoto
Description: Through the novel Out of the Night That Covers Me, students will explore the impact of racial segregation, family heritage, and the historical significance of pre-civil rights Alabama. This unit of study is recommended for students in 9th - 12th grade. It can be used in English or in History classes.

Thinkfinity Lesson Plans  
Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Chaucer's Wife of Bath      Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson from EDSITEment introduces students to one of the most admired characterizations in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath. Students read Chaucer's description of the Wife in the General Prologue to consider how he represents her, both as the poet of The Canterbury Tales and as a character in his own poem, then read the Wife of Bath's Prologue, where he has her speak for herself, to gain additional perspective on her character. Next, students investigate some of the literary sources that Chaucer drew upon as he created this portrait of a woman with her own ideas about matrimony, and examine evidence about marriage in the Middle Ages and the role that women played in medieval society. Finally, students read the Wife of Bath's Tale and explore the alternative readings of the tale in relation to the character of the Wife of Bath.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Exploring the Power of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Words through Diamante Poetry      Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore the ways that powerful and passionate words communicate the concepts of freedom, justice, discrimination, and the American Dream in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s '' I Have a Dream'' speech.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: I've Got the Literacy Blues      Add Bookmark
Description: Students will be singing the blues in this lesson in which they identify themes from '' The Gift of the Magi'' and write and present blues poetry based on those themes.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Langston Hughes was born in 1902.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students examine the poem '' Dreams'' and identify metaphors in each sentence. Groups of students then compose poems with metaphors for dreams.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 7,8,9,10,11,12


Subject: Arts,Language Arts
Title: Shakespeare's ''Othello'' and the Power of Language      Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson, from EDSITEment, contains seven activities for students to explore the linguistic ingenuity of Iago's rhetoric in Shakespeare's tragedy Othello. The activities involve a close study of key scenes, using worksheets to focus on the use of language to reveal character, motive, and theme. The final activity allows students to compose their own persuasive writing inspired by Iago's wordplay or a literary essay analyzing Iago's speeches.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Arts,Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Learning the Blues      Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson, from EDSITEment, introduces students to the blues, one of the most distinctive and influential elements of African-American musical tradition. Students take a virtual field trip to Memphis, Tennessee, one of the prominent centers of blues activities, and explore the history of the blues in the work of W. C. Handy and a variety of country blues singers whose music preserves the folk origins of this unique American art form.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Arts,Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Folklore in Zora Neale Hurston's ''Their Eyes Were Watching God''      Add Bookmark
Description: Students explore the way African-American author Zora Neale Hurston makes use of closely observed black folk life in her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Students read the novel, research Hurston's own life and ethnography, listen to her WPA recordings of folksongs and folktales, and compare transcribed folk narrative texts with the novel itself.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Author Joel Chandler Harris was born in 1848.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students study how regional dialect is written phonetically by reading a segment of Harris' story, as well as two others, and compare them using the Interactive Venn Diagram.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Varying Views of America      Add Bookmark
Description: Students work together to analyze three poems about America with varying points of view.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Style: Defining and Exploring an Author's Stylistic Choices      Add Bookmark
Description: Students find examples of specific stylistic devices in sample literary passages then search for additional examples and explore the reasons for the stylistic choices that the author has made.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Style: Translating Stylistic Choices from Hawthorne to Hemingway and Back Again      Add Bookmark
Description: After exploring the styles of two authors, students translate passages from one author into the style of another. They then translate fables into the style of one of the authors.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Letters from Emily Dickinson: ''Will You Be My Preceptor?''      Add Bookmark
Description: In this unit of three lessons, from EDSITEment, students explore Emily Dickinson's poetry as well as her letters to Thomas Wentworth Higginson and her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson. They work individually and in groups to reflect on Dickinson's views and the process by which she writes; assume the role of a critic/correspondent and analyze Dickinson's poetry, specifically noting the effectiveness of her persona; and, finally, emulate her writing style while, at the same time, synthesizing what they've learned about poetic voice in a poetry-writing exercise.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God was published in 1937.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students brainstorm the kinds of stories they know and where these stories come from. Students return to these questions as they begin reading Hurston's novel.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Mark Twain and American Humor      Add Bookmark
Description: In lesson, one of a multi-part unit from EDSITEment, students analyze the use of literary conventions and devices to develop character and point of view in Mark Twain's The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. They investigate the purposes and significance of literary humor and examine Mark Twain's storytelling style in relation to that of other American humorists.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Practical Criticism      Add Bookmark
Description: The goals of this lesson, from EDSITEment, are to analyze the verbal devices through which poems make meaning, to compare one's personal interpretation of a poem with the personal interpretations of others, and to develop standards of literary judgment.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Tales of the Supernatural      Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, from EDSITEment, students explore the origins and development of gothic literature. The goals of this lesson are to explore the origins and development of a literary genre, to investigate how shared imaginative concerns link the members of a literary period, to examine the evolution of a literary tradition, and to compare works of literature from different eras.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Exploring Arthurian Legend      Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson from EDSITEment, students examine the historical origins of the Arthurian legend. Students gain insight into the use of literature as historical evidence. Through the references and links in this lesson, students can track the growth of a legend like that of King Arthur, from its emergence in the Medieval Ages to its arrival on the silver screen.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Today is World Poetry Day.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students read and respond to Billy Collins' poem '' Introduction to Poetry.'' Students then write about a favorite poem and imagine the perfect way to read it.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Discovering Poetic Form and Structure Using Concrete Poems      Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson uses concrete poems to explore the connection between a poem's layout and its meaning. While appropriate any time of year, the lesson is especially topical near Columbus Day.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: A Case for Reading-Examining Challenged and Banned Books      Add Bookmark
Description: This ReadWriteThink-reviewed website, provided by Plainfield Community School Corporation, contains a WebQuest that explores the issues of censorship pertaining to the occult content of the popular Harry Potter novels. Students can take on the roles of concerned citizens, public librarians, school librarians, and fans of Harry Potter and decide whether the books should be banned from the public library.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Black Poetry Day is celebrated.      Add Bookmark
Description: Books and webpages are gathered that focus on the work of African American poets and students explore the resources and find a poem to contribute to a poetry reading.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12


Subject: Arts,Language Arts
Title: 'You Kiss by the Book'': Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet      Add Bookmark
Description: This lesson, from EDSITEment, complements study of plot and characterization in Romeo and Juliet by focusing on Shakespeare's use of lyric forms and conventions to spotlight moments in the drama and thereby heighten the impact of the action on the stage. Students examine the first meeting between Romeo and Juliet as an enactment of figurative language in a context of competing poetic styles, explore the use of poetic forms to impart perspective in later episodes of the play, and gain experience in close reading and the interpretation of verse structure and imagery.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Humorist Erma Bombeck was born in 1927.      Add Bookmark
Description: Using lines from Bombeck's newspaper column, students identify allusive or satirical humor. Older students can rewrite the passages for a different audience.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Renaissance Humanism in Hamlet and The Birth of Venus       Add Bookmark
Description: After reading Shakespeare's Hamlet, students identify, analyze, and explain how elements in Botticelli's painting Birth of Venus and examples from the play illustrate the philosophy of Renaissance Humanism.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts,Social Studies
Title: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's ''The Yellow Wall-paper'' -- Writing Women      Add Bookmark
Description: In this lesson, one of a multi-part unit from EDSITEment, students study the setting, narrative style, symbolism, and characterization in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, The Yellow Wall-paper. Students also learn about the economic conditions and social roles of 19th-century middle-class women.
Thinkfinity Partner: EDSITEment
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: You re the Top! Pop Culture Then and Now      Add Bookmark
Description: Students analyze the lyrics to Cole Porter's You re the Top! and then update them to include current tops in pop culture.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Happily Ever After? Exploring Character, Conflict, and Plot in Dramatic Tragedy      Add Bookmark
Description: By exploring the decisions points in a tragedy, students consider how the plot of the story can change if the key characters make a different choice at the turning point.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12


Subject: Language Arts
Title: Poet Robert Frost was born in 1874.      Add Bookmark
Description: Students celebrate Frost's birthday by exploring his innovation in the sonnet form by studying poems and presenting them to the class.
Thinkfinity Partner: ReadWriteThink
Grade Span: 9,10,11,12