This lesson extends over several class periods. Students analyze the claim, grounds, warrants, qualifiers and counterclaims in three articles about the American Dream. Students conduct research and find two additional articles about the American Dream. Students then analyze the argument in those articles. Finally, students write their own argument essay about the current state of the American Dream.

This module on Colonial Literature explore the essential questions: 1) How does the literature in early Colonial America reflect the customs and beliefs of the Native Americans and Puritans? 2)What kind of literary styles did the earliest writers contribute to American Literature? and 3) How did history have an effect on the types of literature being written? There are audio and visual activities as well as readings.

Dime novels written by women were once enormously popular with their readers, but the genre has been neglected for most of its history by scholars, collectors, and libraries. The genre suffers from the double burden of being both popular and written for working-class women. This project hopes to overcome the history of oversight to both the form and its readers by providing information about the novels themselves, the authors, the readers, and nineteenth century public reaction.
This site is a source of information about women’s dime novels and includes primary sources on dime novels, biographies for lesser-known authors, lists of relevant archival collections and cover art.

Welcome to the CIRCLE OF STORIES lesson plans. These lessons will allow students to examine the complex and rich oral tradition of Native American storytelling, create their own stories to share, explore indigenous and Native American cultures and the issues which face them today, and research and explore their own cultural heritage by recording their unique family stories and heritage. These lessons are directed toward grades 6 through 12, for use in the following subject areas: language arts, theater, history, social studies, multicultural studies, technology, and life science.

Campaign for affordable textbooks. Web site contains a large catalogue of open textbooks.

Mark Twain Project Online applies innovative technology to more than four decades' worth of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project. It offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents.

This lesson will introduce students to postcolonial literature--the major players, unifying themes, and major debates surrounding the classification of this genre. It also contains links to readings, discussion questions, and a collaborative project aligned to multiple Common Core standards.

This booklet is a collection of opinions of nearly 50 important poets from 25 countries in 5 continents on the best ways to present poetry to secondary school pupils. It is mainly intended for use in teacher training programmes, to bring to methods of teaching poetry two important dimensions: the creative perspective of poets themselves, as well as the perspective of different cultures regarding the reading and writing of poetry.

This not-for-profit site is intended to make vocal music and lyrics of the of the early 19th century in the British Isles, Europe, Canada, the United States, and Australia more accessible. It includes contemporary music of the period and later settings (e.g., Brian Holmes's complete score for Death's Jest Book and Lori Lange's settings of Byron lyrics).

This OLogy activity offers kids a fun way to use their astronomical knowledge to create a comic-book travel guide that blends science and fiction. The activity begins by telling kids that the best science fiction writers play with scientific facts to make a story more exciting. It then challenges them to write a travel guide for their favorite destination in space that will convince their Earthling pals to visit. To help inspire and direct kids, the activity includes examples of science fiction writing, simple directions, and a six-panel travel guide shell that's partially illustrated and includes prompts to help kids complete each panel.

The VAVA is a collecion of royalty-free audio and video files for teachers to use in their own creative exercises. We have also developed a small number of sample exercises that utilize material from the VAVA. The LCTL Project encourages teachers of all LCTLs to cooperate in developing new VAVA exercises using audio or video materials. Individual exercises might be very simple listening practice, or they might be more complex, integrating sounds, video clips into reading, writing, speaking and listening activities for students.The VAVA currently contains audio for the following languages: Arabic (Tunisa), Chinese (Mainland and Taiwan), Hebrew, Norwegian, Polish.

This unit introduces children to a number of concepts related to water. First, students activate and build on prior knowledge as they explore various places where water is found (e.g., lakes, rivers, swimming pools). In the second lesson, students differentiate between water found naturally (e.g., a lake) and artificially (e.g., a swimming pool). The third lesson focuses on the uses of water and its importance for human life. Next, students learn about the various states (solid, liquid, gas) that water can be found in. In the final lesson, students learn what people can do to conserve water and care for this natural resource. Throughout the lessons, students are exposed to songs and books about water. The unit culminates with as assessment that asks pairs of students to create a nonfiction question-and-answer book about a specific representation of water. Description of the assessment task with an optional technological application is also included.