LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

English I

Goal 1: The learner will express reflections and reactions to print and non-print text and personal experiences.

Objective 1.03. Demonstrate the ability to read, listen to and view a variety of increasingly complex print and non-print expressive texts appropriate to grade level and course literary focus, by:

  • selecting, monitoring, and modifying as necessary reading strategies appropriate to readers' purpose.
  • identifying and analyzing text components (such as organizational structures, story elements, organizational features) and evaluating their impact on the text.
  • providing textual evidence to support understanding of and reader's response to text.
  • demonstrating comprehension of main idea and supporting details.
  • summarizing key events and/or points from text.
  • making inferences, predicting, and drawing conclusions based on text.
  • identifying and analyzing personal, social, historical or cultural influences, contexts, or biases.
  • making connections between works, self and related topics.
  • analyzing and evaluating the effects of author's craft and style.
  • analyzing and evaluating the connections or relationships between and among ideas, concepts, characters and/or experiences.
  • identifying and analyzing elements of expressive environment found in text in light of purpose, audience, and context.

Additional related resources

We’re in the process of aligning our content for students to the Standard Course of Study. As we do, you’ll find it here.

General resources

Aligned lesson plans

Resources on the web

Writing about writing: An extended metaphor assignment
In this writing assignment, students have the opportunity to reflect on their writing process, and the teacher learns more about their habits and techniques as writers. Students use Richard Wilbur’s poem “The Writer” as an inspiration as they... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–10 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Word maps: Developing critical and analytical thinking about literary characters
Students use a word map strategy in this lesson that explores methods of characterization in O. Henry's “After Twenty Years”. Individually and in collaborative groups, students analyze the many aspects of a character's life, problems, situations,... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Weaving the multigenre web
Students analyze literature and create a multigenre project to be published on the Internet. After reviewing the elements of fiction, students meet in groups to select a novel they will read. Over the next few sessions, students discuss self-selected novels... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–10 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Using student-centered comprehension strategies with Elie Wiesel's "Night"
In this lesson, students independently read Elie Wiesel's Night and review the themes in small groups using the reciprocal teaching strategies and note-taking format. After an introduction to the reciprocal teaching strategies... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Teaching plot structure through short stories
In this lesson that introduces plot structure, students read short stories as a whole class, in small groups, and, finally, individually, analyzing the plot of three different short stories using an online graphic organizer to diagram the structures. After... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–11 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Style: Translating stylistic choices from Hawthorne to Hemingway and back again
This lesson that focuses on stylistic devices can be taught in conjunction with the literature of Nathanial Hawthorne or Ernest Hemingway. After the teacher discusses how Hawthorne's and Hemingway's styles are distinctive, students are encouraged to find... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–11 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Style: Defining and exploring an author's stylistic choices
This lesson, used in collaboration with Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, explores how authors use specific stylistic devices in novels. In small groups, students look for examples of stylistic devices in... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–10 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Star-crossed lovers online: Romeo and Juliet for a digital age
In this lesson that explores the literary elements of character, conflict, resolution, and setting in Romeo and Juliet, students analyze significant passages in a piece of fiction. After brainstorming about the many types... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–10 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
A significant influence: Describing an important teacher in your life
Students write a tribute to a teacher or mentor and then publish their piece in a class collection in this lesson that focuses on inspirational relationships. This activity provides many opportunities for collaborative group work and class discussion, and... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Short story fair: Responding to short stories in multiple media and genres
In this lesson, students explore short story as a genre of literature. Prior to the project, students read a short story, write about their connections to the story, and participate in a class discussion. The teacher then introduces or reviews literary... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Seuss and Silverstein: Posing questions, presenting points
In this lesson that introduces the difference between literal and critical questions, students work in small groups to select and read books or short stories by Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. Then, using the interactive Literary Elements Map, students... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Reader response in Hypertext: Making personal connections to literature
This multi-genre lesson that focuses on setting, plot, and metaphor, uses novels that contain a strong sense of place, focus on closeness of characters, and are metaphorical in character. In this lesson students will demonstrate their... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
The pros and cons of discussion
In this lesson, students have the opportunity to discuss the degree to which everyone is treated equally in society. Students study the concepts of satire and utopia while reading Kurt Vonnegut's “Harrison Bergeron”. This lesson offers a variety... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
The pros and cons of discussion
In this lesson, students have the opportunity to discuss the degree to which everyone is treated equally in society. Students study the concepts of satire and utopia while reading Kurt Vonnegut's “Harrison Bergeron”. This lesson offers a variety... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Preparing a character for a new job: Character analysis through job placement
In this lesson, students play the role of job counselors working at an employment agency in order to prepare their clients, who are literary characters, for interviews. Although this lesson uses The Glass Menagerie, there... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and Guidance)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Perspectives on the slave narrative
This lesson plan introduces students to one of the most widely-read genres of 19th-century American literature and an important influence within the African American literary tradition even today. The lesson focuses on The Narrative of William W.... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)
Provided by: EDSITEment
Paying attention to technology: Writing technology autobiographies
In this lesson from ReadWriteThink, students examine the proliferation of technologies that have become a part of their daily lives. In this activity, students brainstorm lists of their interactions with technology, map these interactions graphically, and... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Paying attention to technology: Exploring a fictional technology
This lesson challenges students to explore fictional technology and urges them to think more deeply about their own beliefs; students are also encouraged to pay attention to the ways that technology is described and used. Students complete a technology... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Outside in: Finding a character's heart through art
This activity, based on the art of Edward Hopper and fiction by Raymond Carver, allows students to explore the idea of alienation while tapping into their creative talents as they learn to create vivid characters through voice. In the introductory activity,... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, and Theater Arts Education)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Novel news: Broadcast coverage of character, conflict, resolution, and setting
Students explore standard literary elements of character, conflict, resolution, and setting in this lesson that explores news broadcasts. After students have read a book of their choice, they brainstorm things that develop a news program. Once students... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–10 English Language Arts)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink