Literature Lesson Plans

Teacher's Pet Publications

• Lesson Plan
• Puzzle Pack
• About Teacher's Pet Publications

Lesson Plan

• Written by educators for educators.
• The most content-rich literature lesson plans anywhere. Guaranteed.

eNotes is pleased to offer Teacher's Pet Publication LitPlans, the most complete literature lesson plans available to teachers and educators everywhere. Since 1989, these lesson plans have undergone extensive development based on the experience and feedback of teachers all over the world. We have more than 115 lesson plans available for download on the most widely-read books and plays. Best of all, new guides are being developed all the time.

An overview of material in each Lesson Plan:

The introductory lesson introduces students to the work, sometimes through a group activity. Following the introductory activity, students are given an explanation of how the activity relates to the work they are about to read. Following the transition, students are given the materials they will be using during the unit. At the end of the lesson, students begin the pre-reading work for the first reading assignment.

The reading assignments are approximately 30 pages each; some are a little shorter while others are a little longer. Students have approximately 15 minutes of pre-reading work to do prior to each reading assignment. This pre-reading work involves reviewing the study questions for the assignment and doing some vocabulary work for 8 to 10 vocabulary words they will encounter in their reading.

The study guide questions are fact-based questions; students can find the answers to these questions right in the text. These questions come in two formats: short answer or multiple choice. The best use of these materials is probably to use the short answer version of the questions as study guides for students (since answers will be more complete), and to use the multiple-choice version for occasional quizzes. It might be a good idea to make transparencies of your answer keys for the overhead projector.

The vocabulary work is intended to enrich students' vocabularies as well as to aid in the students' understanding of the work. Prior to each reading assignment, students will complete a two-part worksheet for approximately 8 to 10 vocabulary words in the upcoming reading assignment. Part I focuses on students' use of general knowledge and contextual clues by giving the sentence in which the word appears in the text. Students are then to write down what they think the words mean based on the words' usage. Part II gives students dictionary definitions of the words and has them match the words to the correct definitions based on the words' contextual usage. Students should then have an understanding of the words when they meet them in the text.

After each reading assignment, students will go back and formulate answers for the study guide questions. Discussion of these questions serves as a review of the most important events and ideas presented in the reading assignments.

After students complete extra discussion questions, there is a vocabulary review lesson which pulls together all of the separate vocabulary lists for the reading assignments and gives students a review of all of the words they have studied.

Following the reading of the work, two lessons are devoted to the extra discussion questions/writing assignments. These questions focus on interpretation, critical analysis and personal response, employing a variety of thinking skills and adding to the students' understanding of the work. These questions are done as a group activity. Using the information they have acquired so far through individual work and class discussions, students get together to further examine the text and to brainstorm ideas relating to the themes of the work.

The group activity is followed by a reports and discussion session in which the groups share their ideas about the work with the entire class; thus, the entire class gets exposed to many different ideas regarding the themes and events of the work.

There are three writing assignments in each unit, each with the purpose of informing, persuading, or having students express personal opinions. The first assignment is to inform. Taking the Unit plan for 1984 as an example, students will first write a diary entry about the real events in one day of their or a persona's life. Students will model this entry after the diary entry of the main character, Winston Smith. The second writing assignment is to persuade. Students will write from the point of view of Winston Smith and try to convince the proles to rebel. The third writing assignment is to express a personal opinion. Students will write a letter to George Orwell telling him how they think the world today is doing in relation to the themes in 1984.

In addition, there is a nonfiction reading assignment in each Unit Plan. Students are required to read a piece of nonfiction related in some way to the work. After reading their nonfiction pieces, students will fill out a worksheet on which they answer questions regarding facts, interpretation, criticism, and personal opinions. During one class period, students make oral presentations about the nonfiction pieces they have read. This not only exposes all students to a wealth of information, it also gives students the opportunity to practice public speaking.

The review lesson pulls together all of the aspects of the unit. The teacher is given four or five choices of activities or games to use which all serve the same basic function of reviewing all of the information presented in the unit.

The unit test comes in two formats: all multiple choice - matching - true/false or with a mixture of matching, short answer, and composition. As a convenience, two different tests for each format have been included.

There are additional support materials included with each unit. The unit and vocabulary resource materials sections include suggestions for an in-class library, crossword and word search puzzles related to the work, and extra vocabulary worksheets. There is a list of bulletin board ideas which gives the teacher suggestions for bulletin boards to go along with this unit. In addition, there is a list of extra class activities the teacher could choose from to enhance the unit or as a substitution for an exercise the teacher might feel is inappropriate for his/her class. Answer keys are located directly after the reproducible student materials throughout each unit. The student materials may be reproduced for use in the teacher's classroom without infringement of copyrights. No other portion of each unit, however, may be reproduced without the written consent of eNotes.com LLC and Teacher's Pet Publications, Inc.

Puzzle Pack

eNotes offers Puzzle Packs to each Literature Lesson Plan in conjunction with Teacher's Pet Publications. If you already own the LitPlan for a title, the Puzzle Pack will refresh your Unit Resource Materials and Vocabulary Resource Materials sections plus give you additional materials you can substitute into the tests. If you do not already have a complete LitPlan, the Puzzle Pack will give you some supplemental materials to use with your own plan. There are two main groups of materials: one set for unit words (such as characters' names, symbols, places, etc.) and one set for vocabulary words associated with the book.

WORD LIST

There is a word list for both the unit words and the vocabulary words. These lists show you which words are being used in the materials and the clues or definitions being used for those words. You may want to give students a word list with clues/definitions to help them, or you may want students to only have a word list (without clues/definitions) if you want them to work a little harder. Both are available for duplication. The word lists can also be your "calling key" for the bingo games.

FILL IN THE BLANK AND MATCHING

There are 4 each of the fill in the blank and matching worksheets for both the unit and vocabulary words. These pages can be used either as extra worksheets for students or as objective parts of a unit test. They can be done individually if students need extra help or as a whole class activity to review the material covered.

MAGIC SQUARES

The magic squares not only reinforce the material covered but also work on reasoning and math skills. Many teachers have told us that their students really enjoy doing these!

WORD SEARCH PUZZLES

The word search words go in all directions, as indicated on your answer keys. Two of the word search puzzles have the clues listed rather than the words. This makes the puzzle a little more difficult, but it reinforces the material better. Two word search puzzles have words only for students who find the clue puzzles too difficult.

CROSSWORD PUZZLES

Both unit and vocabulary word sections have 4 crossword puzzles.

BINGO CARDS

There are 32 individual bingo cards for the unit words and 32 individual bingo cards for the vocabulary words. You can use your word list as a "call list," calling the words at random and marking them off of your list as you go, or you could use the flash cards by cutting them apart and drawing the words at random from a hat (or box or whatever). To make a better review, you might ask for the definition and spelling of each wordas you call it out or you could call out the definitions and have students tell you the words they need to look for on the puzzle.

JUGGLE LETTERS

The vocabulary juggle letter game is intended to help students learn the spellings of the words. One sheet has the definitions listed on it as an extra help for students who need it or to reinforce the definitions if you choose to do so.

FLASH CARDS

We've included a set of vocabulary flash cards you can duplicate, cut, and fold for your students. Some teachers make a few sets for general use by the class; others make a set for each student. Some teachers duplicate them for each student and have the students cut & fold their own. You can cut out just the words and put them in a hat, have each student pick out one word and write the definition and a sentence for that word. Students then swap words and papers, with the next student adding a sentence of his own under the last one. You can have students swap as many times as you like. Each time the student will read the sentences written prior to his own and then add a sentence. You can cut out the words and definitions separately and play "I Have; Who Has?" Each student in the room draws a word and definition. The first student says, "I have (the name of the word). Who has the definition?" The student with the definition reads it then says, "I have (the name of the vocabulary word she has). Who has the definition?" The round continues until all words and definitions have been given.

About Teacher's Pet Publications

Founded in 1989 by teaching veteran Mary Collins, Teacher’s Pet Publications publishes lesson plans and resource materials for over 135 titles, all available on eNotes, with more being added each year. Teacher’s Pet Publications is dedicated to improving the effectiveness of the literature teaching process and to supporting English/Language Arts teachers. Our literature lesson plans and resource materials improve the quality of education by allowing teachers who use them to focus their energy on applying materials rather than spending precious time on the tedious process of creating lesson plans and materials. Teacher's Pet LitPlans and Puzzle Packs are an invaluable tool in the educator’s toolbox.