English III

Resources on the web

The Great Depression and the 1990s

Students gain a better understanding of why the government takes care of its people and how the U.S. welfare state started. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provided by: Library of Congress/American Memory Project

Giving voice to history

In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students explore the period during World War II when U.S. government ordered more than 120,000 Japanese Americans to detainment camps. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 5 and 11 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provided by: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Geography and history in songs

Students look at some historical paintings on the Internet and describe the things the paintings reveal about the places depicted in the paintings. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 Visual Arts Education and English Language Arts)

Provided by: National Geographic

From Friedan forward—considering a feminist perspective

In this lesson that focuses on feminism, students are challenged to think about how opinions develop and change based on such things as age, experience, time, and place. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Families in Bondage

Uses letters written by African Americans in slavery and by free blacks to loved ones still in bondage to give students a glimpse into slavery and its effects on African American family life. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

Exploring audience and purpose with a single issue

In this lesson, students explore the rhetorical concept of audience and purpose by focusing on an issue that divided Americans in 1925—the debate of evolution versus creationism raised by the Scopes Monkey Trial. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Designing museum exhibits for “The Grapes of Wrath”: A multigenre project

In this lesson, students read The Grapes of Wrath and create multigenre projects that explore issues from the Depression era. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Cultural change

Students examine the arguments used to win the vote for American women and explore the cultural dimension of these arguments. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 10–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

Copyright infringement or not? The debate over downloading music

In this lesson, students investigate the controversial topic of downloading music from the Internet as part of a persuasive debate unit. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Broken worlds

This lesson, one of a multi-part unit from ARTSEDGE, provides a variety of options for conducting comparative analysis between two plays. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

A Biography Study: Using Role-Play to Explore Authors' Lives

In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students select American authors to research. They create timelines and biopoems about their authors and then collaborate in teams to design and present a panel presentation where they role-play their authors. The final project... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Audio listening practices: Exploring personal experiences with audio texts

In this lesson designed to develop students’ involvement with media literacy, students keep a daily diary that records how and when they listen to radio, music (e.g., songs on MP3 players, podcasting), and other streaming media or archived broadcasts. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Argument, persuasion, or propaganda? Analyzing World War II posters

In this lesson that can be used in both English and social studies classes, students analyze World War II posters to explore how argument, persuasion, and propaganda differ. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Analyzing the stylistic choices of political cartoonists

In this lesson, students learn terminology that describes comics and political (or editorial) cartoons and discuss how the cartoonists' choices influence the messages that they communicate. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9 and 11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Analyzing the purpose and meaning of political cartoons

In this lesson, students evaluate political cartoons for their meaning, message, and persuasiveness. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9 and 11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

“You're the Top!” Pop culture then and now

In an exploration of Cole Porter's song, “You're the Top!,” students write about present-day pop culture and learn about pop culture of the past. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE