This list contains the Reading and Writing activities for our Grade 11 English Language Arts course.
| Type | Lesson | Reading Title | Author | Category | Subcategory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texts | Introduction to Early American Literature | from Of Plymouth Plantation: "Chapter IX: Safe Arrival at Cape Cod" | William Bradford | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | The Iroquois Constitution | The Iroquois Constitution | Dekanawidah | Nonfiction | Primary Source |
| Texts | The Iroquois Creation Myth: "The World on Turtle's Back" | "The World on the Turtle's Back" | Iroquois (Jennifer Young, reteller) | Fiction | Myth |
| Texts | Jonathan Edwards’s "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” | from "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" | Jonathan Edwards | Nonfiction | Sermon |
| Texts | Female Colonial Poetry | "To My Dear and Loving Husband" | Anne Bradstreet | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Female Colonial Poetry | "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty" | Phillis Wheatley | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Thomas Paine | from Common Sense | Thomas Paine | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Thomas Paine | from "The Crisis: Number 1" | Thomas Paine | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | The Declaration of Independence | The Declaration of Independence | Thomas Jefferson | Nonfiction | Primary Source |
| Texts | Introduction to Bright Romanticism and American Individualism | "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" | Walt Whitman | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Fireside Poets | "A Psalm of Life" | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Fireside Poets | "Auspex " | James Russell Lowell | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Ralph Waldo Emerson | from Nature | Ralph Waldo Emerson | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Ralph Waldo Emerson | from Society and Solitude | Ralph Waldo Emerson | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Henry David Thoreau - Walden | from Walden | Henry David Thoreau | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Henry David Thoreau - "Civil Disobedience" | from "Civil Disobedience" | Henry David Thoreau | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” | from "Song of Myself": Section 1 | Walt Whitman | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” | from "Song of Myself": Section 6 | Walt Whitman | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” | from "Song of Myself": Section 46 | Walt Whitman | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” | from "Song of Myself": Section 52 | Walt Whitman | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Emily Dickinson's Poetry | "Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church" | Emily Dickinson | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Emily Dickinson's Poetry | "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" | Emily Dickinson | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Introduction to Dark Romanticism: American Gothic | "The Fall of the House of Usher" | Edgar Allen Poe | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Suspense and Horror: Gothic Writing across Time | "Adventure of the Mysterious Picture" | Washington Irving | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Suspense and Horror: Gothic Writing across Time | "What's on the Other Side of the Door?" from Danse Macabre | Stephen King | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | The Scarlet Letter, Part 1 | from The Scarlet Letter: Chapters 1 and 2 | Nathanial Hawthorn | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | The Scarlet Letter, Part 2 | from The Scarlet Letter: Chapters 3 and 4 | Nathanial Hawthorn | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Symbols in Moby-Dick | from Moby-Dick: from "Ahab" | Herman Melville | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" | "Annabel Lee" | Edgar Allen Poe | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" | from "The Poetic Principle" | Edgar Allen Poe | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Dark Hauntings: “The Fall of the House of Usher” | "The Fall of the House of Usher" | Edgar Allen Poe | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Introduction to Literature of the Civil War, Regionalism, and Realism | from Life on the Mississippi | Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) | Nonfiction | Memoir/Essay |
| Texts | (from) "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" - Douglass | “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" | Frederick Douglas | Nonfiction | Speech |
| Texts | Abolition and Women’s Rights Movements, Part 2 | "Ain't I a Woman?" | Sojourner Truth | Nonfiction | Speech |
| Texts | An Inner Story of the Civil War | "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" | Ambrose Bierce | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | The Mississippi River Runaways | from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: from Chapters 22–23 | Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | American Indian Issues | "An Indian's Views of Indian Affairs" | Chief Joseph | Nonfiction | Speech |
| Texts | Reality and Cynicism in Poetry | "We Wear the Mask" | Paul Lawrence Dunbar | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Reality and Cynicism in Poetry | "A Man Said to the Universe" | Stephen Crane | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Introduction to Realistic Novel Study: The Awakening | "A New Biographical Approach" | Emily Toth | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Realist Novel Study, Part 1 | The Awakening | Kate Chopin | Fiction | Novel/Novella |
| Texts | Realist Novel Study, Part 2 | The Awakening | Kate Chopin | Fiction | Novel/Novella |
| Texts | Realist Novel Study, Part 3 | The Awakening | Kate Chopin | Fiction | Novel/Novella |
| Texts | Realist Novel Study, Part 4 | The Awakening | Kate Chopin | Fiction | Novel/Novella |
| Texts | Realist Novel Study, Part 5 | The Awakening | Kate Chopin | Fiction | Novel/Novella |
| Texts | Realist Novel Study, Part 6 | The Awakening | Kate Chopin | Fiction | Novel/Novella |
| Texts | Realist Novel Study, Part 7 | The Awakening | Kate Chopin | Fiction | Novel/Novella |
| Texts | introduction to Early Modern Literature | "In a Station at the Metro" | Ezra Pound | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Imagism: A New Order in Poetry | "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste" | Ezra Pound | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Imagism: A New Order in Poetry | "Oread" | H.D. | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Imagism: A New Order in Poetry | "This Is Just to Say" | William Carlos Williams | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Dramatic Monologue of the Modern Dilemma | "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" | T. S. Eliot | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Early Stream of Consciousness and Feminism in Fiction | "The Yellow Wallpaper" | Charlotte Perkins Gilman | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Early Stream of Consciousness and Feminism in Fiction | "Why I Wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper" | Charlotte Perkins Gilman | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Meta Poetry: Poetry About Poetry | "Ars Poetica" | Archibald MacLeish | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Meta Poetry: Poetry About Poetry | "Poetry" | Marianne Moore | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Robert Frost's Poetry | "Mending Wall" | Robert Frost | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Reflecting on World War I | "How We Entered World War I" | Barbara Tuchman | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Reflecting on World War I | War Message to Congress | Woodrow Wilson | Nonfiction | Speech |
| Texts | Introduction to Modern Drama Study | from The Feminine Mystique: Chapter 1: "The Problem That Has No Name" | Betty Friedan | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Trifles: The Rise of Modern Feminism on the Stage, Part 1 | Trifles | Susan Glaspell | Fiction | Drama |
| Texts | Trifles: The Rise of Modern Feminism on the Stage, Part 2 | Trifles | Susan Glaspell | Fiction | Drama |
| Texts | True Story Behind Trifles | from Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland | Patricia L. Bryan & Thomas Wolf | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | True Story Behind Trifles | "Prominent Farmer Robed and Killed," 12/3/1900 | Susan Glaspell | Nonfiction | News Article |
| Texts | True Story Behind Trifles | "Indicted Her for Murder," 1/17/1901 | Susan Glaspell | Nonfiction | News Article |
| Texts | True Story Behind Trifles | "Mrs. Hossack a Murderess," 4/11/1901 | Susan Glaspell | Nonfiction | News Article |
| Texts | True Story Behind Trifles | "Mrs. Hossack's Parting Plea" 4/19/1901 | Susan Glaspell | Nonfiction | News Article |
| Texts | King Arthur's Socks, Part 1 | King Arthur's Socks | Floyd Dell | Fiction | Drama |
| Texts | King Arthur's Socks, Part 2 | King Arthur's Socks | Floyd Dell | Fiction | Drama |
| Texts | Introduction to Late Modern and Postwar Literature | Nobel Prize Speech | William Faulkner | Nonfiction | Speech |
| Texts | Hemingway's World War I | from A Farewell to Arms: Chapter 9 | Ernest Hemingway | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Fitzgerald and the Roaring Twenties | The Great Gatsby from Chapter 1 | F. Scott Fitzgerald | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Depression and Hard Times | "Interview with E.Y. (Yip) Harburg" from Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression | Studs Terkel | Nonfiction | Interview |
| Texts | Japanese American Internment | Executive Order 9066 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt | Nonfiction | Primary Source |
| Texts | Japanese American Internment | "In Response to Executive Order 9066" | Dwight Okita | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Remembering and Reflecting on the Holocaust | from All Rivers Run to the Sea from "Darkness" | Elie Wiesel | Nonfiction | Memoir/Essay |
| Texts | Remembering and Reflecting on the Holocaust | from Maus I, A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History | Art Spiegelman | Nonfiction | Graphic Novel/Memoir |
| Texts | Southern Gothic | "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" | Flannery O'Connor | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement | from "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" | Langston Hughes | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Poetry of Langston Hughes | "Harlem" ["dream deferred"] | Langston Hughes | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Poetry of Langston Hughes | "The Weary Blues" | Langston Hughes | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Zora Neale Hurston's Strong Voice | from Their Eyes Were Watching God | Zora Neale Hurston | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Richard Wright's Struggles with Racism | from Black Boy (American Hunger) | Richard Wright | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | James Baldwin's Take on the Effects of Prejudice | from "Notes of a Native Son" | James Baldwin | Nonfiction | Memoir/Essay |
| Texts | Brown v. Board of Education | Brown v. Board of Education | Chief Justice Earl Warren | Nonfiction | Legal Document |
| Texts | Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Disobedience | "Letter from Birmingham Jail" | Martin Luther King, Jr. | Nonfiction | Letter |
| Texts | Introduction to Literature of Rebellion in the Twentieth Century | from On the Road | Jack Kerouac | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Individualism, Modern Capitalism, and Dystopian Visions | Anthem Chapters 11 and 12 | Ayn Rand | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Beat Poetry | "A Supermarket in California" | Allen Ginsberg | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Beat Movement Spontaneous Prose | from The Railroad Earth | Jack Kerouac | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Experiencing and Reliving Vietnam | "Ambush" | Tim O'Brien | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Experiencing and Reliving Vietnam | "Facing It" from Dien Cai Dau | Yusef Komunyakaa | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Vietnam Literary Journalism | from A Rumor of War from the Prologue | Philip Caputo | Nonfiction | Journalism/Memoir |
| Texts | Vietnam Literary Journalism | from "Khe Sanh" from Dispatches | Michael Herr | Nonfiction | Journalism |
| Texts | Critiques of American Society in Science Fiction | "Harrison Bergeron" | Kurt Vonnegut | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Introduction to Heritage and Multicultural American Identities: Contemporary Voices (1970–2000) | "Mericans" | Sandra Cisneros | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Contemporary American Indian Voices | "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" | Leslie Marmon Silko | Fiction | Short Story |
| Texts | Latin American Magic Realist Voices | "Dreaming in Cuban," from Ordinary Seductions First Generation | Cristina Garcia | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Latina Poetry as an Expression of Cultural Heritage | "Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica" | Judith Ortiz Cofer | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Latina Poetry as an Expression of Cultural Heritage | "Child of the Americas" | Aurora Levins Morales | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Exploring Cultural Identity through Language | "Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry" | Rudolfo Anaya | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Exploring Cultural Identity through Language | "Speaking Arabic" | Naomi Shihab Nye | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | Asian American Voices | "Mother Tongue" | Amy Tan | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | Anticipating the Future through Texts: Visions | Visions: “Choreographers of Matter, Life, and Intelligence”/“The Intelligent Planet”/“Machines That Think”/“Personal DNA Codes”/“Conquering Cancer—Fixing Our Genes" | Michio Kaku | Nonfiction | Science Writings/News |
| Texts | Introduction to Contemporary Literature of the Twenty-First Century | from The Namesake from Chapter 3, 1971 and from Chapter 5 | Jhumpa Lahiri | Fiction | Novel |
| Texts | Throughput" from Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of The All-American Meal | from Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of The All-American Meal from Section I: The American Way, from Chapter 3: Behind the Counter | Eric Schlosser | Nonfiction | Essay |
| Texts | The Poetry of Physics | "Man Listening to Disc" | Billy Collins | Fiction | Poetry |
| Texts | The Poetry of Physics | from Death by Black Hole, “Death by Black Hole" | Neil DeGrasse Tyson | Nonfiction | Science Writings/News |
| Texts | David Foster Wallace’s Postmodern Voices | from Infinite Jest from Chapter 1: "The Year of Glad" | David Foster Wallace | Nonfiction | Novel / Speech: Commencement Address |
| Texts | A Response to 9/11 by Jonathan Safran Foer | from Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | Jonathan Safran Foer | Nonfiction | Novel |
| Texts | A Nonfiction Account of Hurricane Katrina by Dave Eggers | from Zeitoun from Section I: • Sunday August 28, 2005 • Monday August 29 from Section II: • Tuesday August 30 • Wednesday August 31 • Thursday September 6 from Section IV: • Thursday September 6 continued from Section V: • Fall 2008 | Dave Eggers | Nonfiction | Memoir/Essay |
| Texts | Ordering the Chaos of the Contemporary World: An Introduction to Freakonomics | from Freakonomics from Chapter 1 | Steven Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner | Nonfiction | Essay/Economics |
| Projects | Research Workshop: Writing and Presenting the Argumentative Essay, Part 2 | Students will translate an argumentative essay into a multi-media presentation, planned for an audience | |||
| Projects | Research Workshop: Generating Research Questions and Evaluating Sources | Use your research question and the notes you took to write a short speech. Your one-paragraph speech should use the research you conducted to introduce a classroom discussion or debate about your narrowed-down topic. | |||
| Projects | Research Workshop: Generating Research Questions and Evaluating Sources | Visit these three sources, perform preliminary and secondary evaluations of them, and select which two sources are most relevant to your research question. Take notes on each source and use the information from each source to develop a works cited page. | |||
| Projects | Anticipating the Future through Texts: Visions | Students will watch a video and explore how the central idea of the video relate to the central idea of Visions | |||
| Projects | Interpreting a Source Text: A Production of Trifles | Students will listen to an audio version and watch a trailer for a recent movie version of Trifles to explore how the production in a variety of media formats. | |||
| Projects | Speaking and Listening: Evaluating a Speaker | Take shorthand notes as you listen critically to part of President Barack Obama’s inaugural address and then expand and clarify your shorthand notes to summarize the speaker’s main points. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Summary | Write a summary of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Include the central ideas and supporting details you identified. Organize your ideas logically. Write objectively and engagingly | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Personal Narrative | You and nine peers have been selected to apply for an important college scholarship. Only one student will be awarded the scholarship. You have been asked to write a brief essay to the scholarship committee in which you share an important event in your life that significantly changed you, your view about life, your life goals, and your character for the better. Apply narrative techniques, a solid prewriting strategy, and creative sentence patterns to share your story and stand apart from other applicants. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Compare-Contrast Essay | Imagine that you have been asked by your school counselor to choose a college recruiting poster to hang in your school. Consider the two posters carefully, noting how they are both similar and different. Click here to view the picture. Pay special attention to how the words and images are used to convey the marketing messages. Which poster would you choose to hang in your school? Why does the poster you chose appeal more effectively to students in your age group? Be sure to support your choice with specific references to the words, images, and layouts of the posters. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Argumentative Letter | Recently an influential auto safety group has called for states to increase the legal driving age from sixteen to seventeen or even eighteen in order to decrease teen traffic accidents and fatalities. In response to the auto safety group, your state government has crafted a bill to increase the driving age in your state to eighteen. Write a carefully worded five-paragraph email to persuade your state senator or state representative to either pass or turn down this bill. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Literary Analysis | Writing Through a Critical Lens: Insight Critical Lens: ""Every work of literature leads up to one great moment of insight, one instant in which the truth stands revealed."" - T. Melos Write a multi-paragraph essay in which you analyze one or more literary texts that you have read from the perspective of the critical lens. Be sure to interpret the statement with regards to the literature, as well as agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it. Support your position with specific details and references to literary devices (theme, characterization, setting, point of view) as found in the literature you have selected. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Exploring Argument | Your school is considering adopting a policy that requires all students to complete 100 hours of community service during their high school careers in order to graduate. The district has asked for student input at the next school board meeting as to whether or not they should adopt this policy. Research the topic, decide whether you are in favor of or against the new policy, and write a five-paragraph persuasive speech that you will deliver to the school board members and your principal. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Comparing Texts | American poets, novelists, and other writers often write about the topic of American identity. Read two texts, “Response to Executive Order 9066” by Dwight Okita, and “Mericans” by Sandra Cisneros. Determine a common theme that both authors establish about the topic of American identity. In a five-paragraph literary analysis essay, explain how each author develops the common theme. Compare and contrast how the authors develop this theme by referencing specific literary devices and techniques in your response. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Argumentative Essay | Internet Classrooms vs. Traditional Classrooms With advancements in technology, some students have chosen to complete their schoolwork through the Internet, rather than in traditional classrooms. Those who support a traditional classroom approach to learning argue that it provides more of an opportunity for students to interact with the teacher and other students. Those who feel that learning over the Internet is better argue that it allows students to learn anytime and anywhere they choose. Do you feel education is better provided in traditional classrooms or when offered over the Internet? Write an essay to be read by a classroom teacher in which you persuade the reader that either traditional classroom education or Internet-based learning is better. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Visual Media Analysis | Examine an advertising campaign created by the Center for Disease Control that promotes the influenza (flu) vaccination. Analyze the campaign to discover the target audience and the advertising techniques used. Then, evaluate the effectiveness of these advertising techniques. Write a five-paragraph essay in which you explain how the advertising campaign effectively promotes the influenza vaccination to a range of audiences. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Writing Workshop: Evaluating Sources That Support a Claim | Students will read two editorial selections on universal health care in the United States and write two to three paragraph mini-essay in which they examine the objectivity and the types of evidence used in both editorials as well as evaluate which editorial used more effective evidence in relation to the task. | |||
| Essay Prompts | Research Workshop: Writing and Presenting the Argumentative Essay, Part 1 | Genetically Modified Foods Read the passage about genetically modified foods. Considering the risks and benefits of this new technology, what do you think about the use of such foods? Write a well-developed essay in which you articulate a position on the use of genetically modified foods. Support your position with information from the passage or other research you have conducted. What are Genetically Modified Foods? The safety and availability of food continues to be one of the most pressing issues on the global agenda. In many countries, poor families struggle to find enough food to maintain their health and vitality; young people in these areas often do not receive the proper nutrition and vitamins from the foods they eat. In the United States, on the other hand, while food is abundant, many people are concerned by the pesticides that contaminate the food and the bacteria that foul meats on their way to our dinner tables. Some scientists and industry experts believe that genetically engineered foods could provide a much sought after solution to all of these problems. Often referred to as ""bio-engineering"" or ""genetic modification,"" the act of genetically engineering foods has itself become a very controversial issue debated in parliaments, grocery stores, and kitchens around the world. Genetic modification is the act of combining various genes from different organisms, so-called recombinant DNA technology, resulting in a brand new, modified organism. Scientists claim that these new organisms possess extremely beneficial traits which will ultimately benefit humanity. As this technology is perfected, genetically modified organisms are becoming more and more common, showing up in such products as medicines, vaccines, foods, and industrial materials. Still, genetic modification is particularly important to food manufacturers. Foods can now be created that are resistant to pests and viruses, or which contain higher amounts of important vitamins and minerals. The larger, more nutritious, and longer-lasting foods that are being engineered in laboratories will ultimately feed more people while having an extended shelf-life in markets across the world. Advocates of genetic modification also believe that plants and animals that have been genetically engineered will soon provide enhanced taste, leaner meats, and healthier eggs and milk. Though many scientists trumpet the benefits of genetic modification, there is a rising tide of critics who have serious concerns about its effectiveness and safety. Many farmers, citizens, and scientists believe that the companies researching genetic engineering have rushed to distribute various products with little concern for their possible long-term effects on humans. One of the major uncertainties is that the new genes or proteins introduced into the food supply might produce unforeseen toxins in animals, fruits and vegetables, and the environment. These new toxins could cause harm in the short or long term by producing diseases or mutations of which scientists have little knowledge. Food allergies related to the modified foods could even prove fatal to unsuspecting consumers. Other concerns include whether corporations and wealthier nations of the world will unfairly benefit from genetic engineering by making smaller, poorer countries dependent on these foods and technologies. Some countries have even gone so far as to outlaw the sale of genetically modified foods until they are better understood. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Introduction to Early American Literature | Why would someone who is studying the history or culture of this time period find this text interesting, important, or useful? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | The Iroquois Constitution | Summarize the central ideas of the Iroquois Constitution. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | The Iroquois Creation Myth: "The World on Turtle's Back" | Based on the passage you just read, what conclusion can you draw about the cultural values of the Iroquois? Write a paragraph. In it, provide support and cite evidence. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Jonathan Edwards’s "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” | Based on what you know about America in the 1700s, how would colonists react to Edwards’s sermon? Would they find it frightening, hopeful, or both? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Female Colonial Poetry | Write a paragraph in which you compare and contrast how the poets use topic, rhyme scheme, and figurative language to convey their themes. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Thomas Paine | Jefferson gives a long list of “Facts [to] be submitted to a candid world.” Give a short explanation of how this list helps Jefferson achieve his purpose of justifying a revolution | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Introduction to Bright Romanticism and American Individualism | What are the main themes of bright romanticism? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Ralph Waldo Emerson | Write a well-formed paragraph that summarizes the central ideas from the excerpt of Emerson’s essay Society and Solitude. Your paragraph should have at least four sentences and contain key details. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Ralph Waldo Emerson | Write a well-formed paragraph that summarizes the central ideas from the excerpt of Emerson’s essay Nature. Your paragraph should have at least four sentences and contain key details. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Henry David Thoreau - Walden | Consider the seasonal structure and compare Thoreau’s initial viewpoint from when he arrived at Walden in the summer to the viewpoint he described as he left in the spring. Explain whether or not his attitude toward his experiment changed. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Henry David Thoreau - "Civil Disobedience" | How did your prior knowledge help you better understand “Civil Disobedience”? Give specific examples, and include a quotation from the passage that your pre-reading thought process helped you understand | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” | How does Whitman’s decision to use free verse support his themes? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Introduction to Dark Romantic Literature: American Gothic | Compare dark romanticism and bright romanticism. What elements do they share? How do they differ? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Suspense and Horror: Gothic Writing across Time | Why do you think suspenseful stories continue to be popular today? Consider the effect of suspense on readers. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" | Explain how Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” is an example of the “Rhythmical Creation of Beauty.” | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Dark Hauntings: “The Fall of the House of Usher” | Think back to Poe’s single effect theory. What makes this story a memorable experience for the reader? Explain using specific examples from the story. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Abolition and Women's Rights Movements, Part 1 | Evaluate the reasoning Douglass uses in the passage you chose by determining whether the conclusion is valid or invalid. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Abolition and Women’s Rights Movements, Part 2 | How does Truth use her personal experiences to make a logical and emotional case for women’s rights? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | An Inner Story of the Civil War | How is Bierce’s theme “people cannot escape reality through romantic fantasy” developed throughout the story? Consider the predictions you made, the story structure, and the narration in your response. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | The Mississippi River Runaways | How is Twain effective at using humor? Cite evidence of humorous moments in the text. Also consider Twain’s intent and viewpoint in your response. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | American Indian Issues | Use the central ideas you identified to write a brief summary of Chief Joseph’s speech. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Introduction to Realistic Novel Study: The Awakening | Think about how critics of Chopin’s time reacted to The Awakening. Draw a conclusion about the values of nineteenth-century American society based on these responses. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Introduction to Realistic Novel Study: The Awakening | Which aspects of Kate Chopin’s life do you predict will appear in her fictional work The Awakening? Use what you’ve read in this lesson to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Realist Novel Study, Part 1 | What is the setting of The Awakening at the beginning of the novel? Explain how Chopin uses description, specifically word choice, to develop the setting. Use specific details or quotations from the text as support. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Realist Novel Study, Part 3 | Explain why this passage is considered realist: Most of the people at that early hour were still in bed and asleep. A few, who intended to go over to the Ch'ni're for mass, were moving about. The lovers, who had laid their plans the night before, were already strolling toward the wharf. The lady in black, with her Sunday prayer-book, velvet and gold-clasped, and her Sunday silver beads, was following them at no great distance. Old Monsieur Farival was up, and was more than half inclined to do anything that suggested itself. He put on his big straw hat, and taking his umbrella from the stand in the hall, followed the lady in black, never overtaking her. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Realist Novel Study, Part 4 | Select one of these themes and explain how it is developing in The Awakening. Provide text examples to support your explanation. Society and culture often pressure women to fit a certain image or fill a specific role. Being an outsider is an isolating experience. The search for self-identity sometimes conflicts with society. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Realist Novel Study, Part 6 | How does Edna’s character illustrate the theme that society pressures women to fill specific roles? Use examples and evidence from the text to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Realist Novel Study, Part 7 | Does your chosen theme apply to all people? Give real-life examples to support your claim. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Imagism: A New Order in Poetry | How does Williams create an image of pleasure triumphing over regret? Use what you know about imagism to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Meta Poetry: Poetry About Poetry | How does the form of “Poetry” support and develop the theme that poetry should communicate something authentic or real? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Robert Frost's Poetry | Describe the speaker’s attitude toward the wall in “Mending Wall.” How is this different from Frost’s attitude about structure in poetry | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Trifles: The Rise of Modern Feminism on the Stage, Part 1 | The women are often described through stage directions rather than through dialogue. How does this reinforce the role of women in Glaspell’s time? How does it go against the role of women? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Trifles: The Rise of Modern Feminism on the Stage, Part 2 | Explain how Glaspell uses irony to illustrate mistreatment of women in the early twentieth century. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Interpreting a Source Text: A Production of Trifles | Which medium had the best interpretation of the play? Use examples from both the audio recording and the trailer to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | King Arthur's Socks, Part 1 | Summarize the plot of part one of King Arthur’s Socks. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | King Arthur's Socks, Part 2 | Use the thesis, “The shortened time span of one-act plays allows King Arthur’s Socks to focus on a single issue in depth: women’s struggles with social expectations in the early 20th century” to write a short critique of the play. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Fitzgerald and the Roaring Twenties | Describe the plot of the first chapter of The Great Gatsby. In your description, include how the setting affects the plot. Use examples from the text to support your description. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Depression and Hard Times | How was Yip Harburg’s attitude about the Great Depression similar to or different from the attitudes of most people at the time? Use details from the interview to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Remembering and Reflecting on the Holocaust | Choose either Maus or All Rivers Run to the Sea. How do genre and point of view contribute to the power of Holocaust literature? Use evidence from your chosen text to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement | Summarize the historical and cultural forces that affected themes of twentieth-century African American literature. Use details from the texts to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Poetry of Langston Hughes | Compare and contrast the imagery, repetition, and rhythm used in both poems to convey theme. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Zora Neale Hurston's Strong Voice | What, if any, variations from the standard English pronunciation or accent do you hear in your regional dialect? Does your family share the dialect of the speakers from your region? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Richard Wright's Struggles with Racism | How does Wright use personal experiences to convey social and cultural influences in his autobiography? Cite specific evidence from the text to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | James Baldwin's Take on the Effects of Prejudice | Choose one of the examples of racial prejudice you highlighted as you read the excerpt. What does this example tell you about racial prejudice during this time period | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Brown v. Board of Education | Summarize the Supreme Court’s argument in Brown v. Board of Education and evaluate the reasoning. Use your background knowledge to explain why the Court overturned an earlier ruling. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Disobedience | Choose one effective allusion from King’s letter. Use details from the text to explain why it is effective | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Martin Luther King Jr. and Civil Disobedience | How effective is the argumentative structure that King uses to persuade his audience? Use details from the text to support your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Introduction to Literature of Rebellion in the Twentieth Century | Use ideas from these two passages to describe the attitude of US soldiers toward the communist guerillas they fought in Vietnam. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Individualism, Modern Capitalism, and Dystopian Visions | How does Rand develop the theme “Individuals who are free to think on their own can make the greatest discoveries”? Support your answer with evidence from the text. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Beat Poetry | The final line of the poem asks Whitman about the America he experienced one hundred years ago. What meaning does Ginsberg convey by ending the poem this way? | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Beat Movement Spontaneous Prose | Write spontaneous prose modeled on the selection. Use this image as prompt. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Experiencing and Reliving Vietnam | Use what you learned in this lesson to answer the following question. How do O’Brien and Komunyakaa use structure to write “true” war stories? Use evidence from the two texts in your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Vietnam Literary Journalism | How do Herr and Caputo combine observations and literary devices to tell a story? Use specific examples from both readings in your response. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Critiques of American Society in Science Fiction | Generate your own question that allows you to make a connection between the genre of “Harrison Bergeron” and a societal message. Consider using who, what, when, where, why, or how to ask a question. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Introduction to Heritage and Multicultural American Identities: Contemporary Voices (1970–2000) | What is your view of the effects of multicultural identity on American society? Use evidence from the lesson and the story “Mericans” to support your opinion. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Contemporary American Indian Voices | How does Silko use symbols, such as holy water, and literary devices to explain the cultural differences between the Catholic priest and the Pueblo in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds”? Include evidence from the story to support your response. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Contemporary American Indian Voices | The holy water in the story is symbolic. How does the meaning differ for the priest and Leon? Use examples from the text as you explain how both men view the holy water. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Latin American Magic Realist Voices | Using what you have learned from the interview and Dreaming in Cuban, explain the effect of the novel’s multi-narrative structure. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Latina Poetry as an Expression of Cultural Heritage | In a paragraph, explain how Ortiz Cofer and Levins Morales express cultural identity through poetry. Use specific examples from each poem in your answer. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Exploring Cultural Identity through Language | In a paragraph, compare and contrast the way Anaya and Nye use voice (including word choice, tone, and text structure) and rhetorical appeals to support their purposes. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | A Look at the Fast-Food Industry by Eric Schlosser | Choose one claim. Explain how Schlosser develops that claim by using specific types of evidence. Critique the argument by explaining which evidence effectively supports the claim. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | The Poetry of Physics | Use what you have learned in all three sources to briefly describe how humans see themselves compared to how a black hole might view humans. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | David Foster Wallace’s Postmodern Voices | Based on the chapter, what inference can you make about the narrator’s personality or experience? Explain the inference and provide several examples of textual support for your inference. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | A Response to 9/11 by Jonathan Safran Foer | Explain the ambiguity of the boldfaced text. "...but the bracelet was definitely the most beautiful, probably because it was the last, which made it the most precious." | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | A Nonfiction Account of Hurricane Katrina by Dave Eggers | Use the theme you just selected and write a paragraph in which you explain how Eggers uses sequence of events, conflicts, and the social and cultural context to develop that theme. Use specific details from the text to support your response. | |||
| Short-Response Prompts | Ordering the Chaos of the Contemporary World: An Introduction to Freakonomics | Explain how Levitt and Dubner’s argument effectively uses logical, concrete evidence to arrive at conclusions about morality. Address how well reasoning and evidence are used. |