English III

Resources on the web

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 the power of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words through diamante poetry

In this lesson, students analyze the power of words while reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Exploring satire with The Simpsons

Using the images from the television show, The Simpsons, students explore the elements of satire—exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, and parody. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

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

Examining transcendentalism through popular culture

This lesson, presented by ReadWriteThink, examines the elements of transcendentalism and challenges students to find examples of the literary movement in popular culture. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 9 English Language Arts)

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

Edgar Allen Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the unreliable biographers

Students become literary sleuths, attempting to separate biographical reality from myth. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

Draft letters: Improving student writing through critical thinking

This lesson challenges students to think critically about their writing on a specific assignment before submitting their work to a reader. (Learn more)

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

Provided by: IRA/NCTE

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

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