LEARN NC

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

English III

Goal 5: The learner will interpret and evaluate representative texts to deepen understanding of literature of the United States.

Objective 5.02. Analyze the relationships among United States authors and their works by:
- making and supporting valid responses about the text through references to other works and authors.
-comparing texts to show similarities or differences in themes, characters, or ideas.

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

Literature-based newspaper: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Students will create an Eatonville newspaper depicting the characters and events in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)
By Jennifer Swartz.
Justice for all?: To Kill a Mockingbird and A Time to Kill
Following a study of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, students will view the courtroom scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird and A Time to Kill and determine factors which influenced the verdicts in each trial.
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and English Language Development)
By Becky Ackert and Deborah Belknap.
Jonathan Edwards and the art of persuasion
In this lesson, students will study the elements of persuasive writing in Jonathan Edward's “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” according to the following criteria: speaker, audience, occasion, and means of persuasion, and then analyze a contemporary piece of writing, such as an advertisement, for similar elements.
Format: lesson plan (grade 11–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)
By Dave Guiley.

Resources on the web

What did they say? Dialect in The Color Purple
This lesson, taught in conjunction with Alice Walker's The Color Purple, encourages appreciation of dialects by exploring their meaning and origins. Students experience a variety of dialects and participate in small-group settings. (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)
Provided by: IRA/NCTE
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
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Literary Humor
Nathaniel Hawthorne' stories are more often associated with dark examinations of complex systems of morality than any sense of conventional comic humor. And yet Hawthorne's subtle satiric wit oftentimes offered equally piercing insights into the human psyche.... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)
Provided by: EDSITEment
Mark Twain and American humor
When Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" first appeared in 1865, it was hailed by James Russell Lowell, the Boston-based leader of the literary elite, as "the finest piece of humorous literature yet produced in America." This was... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)
Provided by: EDSITEment
A Harlem Renaissance retrospective: Connecting art, music, dance, and poetry
The Harlem Renaissance was a vibrant time that was characterized by innovations in art, literature, music, poetry, and dance. In this ReadWriteThink lesson, students conduct Internet research, work with an interactive Venn diagram tool, and create a museum... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)
Provided by: ReadWriteThink
Fractured Families in American Drama
The complicated dynamics of families have served as a continual source of examination for American playwrights. A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, and Long Day's Journey into Night, by Eugene O'Neill are two haunting and compelling masterpieces... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and Theater Arts Education)
Provided by: ArtsEdge
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Concluding the novel
In the final lesson in EDSITEment's unit "Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Form of a funeral," students discuss a variety of possible interpretations of the novel. They then compare the the themes of the novel with those of Faulkner's... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts)
Provided by: EDSITEment
Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the unreliable biographers
In this EDSITEment lesson, students become literary sleuths, attempting to separate biographical reality from myth. They also become careful critics, taking a stand on whether extra-literary materials such as biographies and letters should influence the... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)
Provided by: EDSITEment
Broken worlds
In this ARTSEDGE lesson, students explore the similarities and differences between Eugene O’Neill’s The Hairy Ape and Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Students will:... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and Theater Arts Education)
Provided by: ArtsEdge
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: ReadWriteThink
“Old Southwest” Humorists and George Washington Harris
George Washington Harris was an “authentic comic genius” (Wilson and Ferris) whose work influenced later writers such as Mark Twain and William Faulkner. Harris and other southwest humorists who wrote in the 1830s through the 1860s, though considered... (Learn more)
Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)
Provided by: EDSITEment