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How to Use eNotes Resources in the Classroom: Tips for Teachers

Welcome to eNotes! We are delighted that you have become a part of our vibrant community. As a teacher, you know that time is your most valuable commodity. You want to offer your students the best learning experience possible, but meetings, grading, fund-raising, and other non-teaching-related issues frequently cut into your ability to thoroughly evaluate texts and prepare meaningful activities. Using eNotes in your classroom will help you to make the most of each classroom hour. The following information is designed as a quick reference guide to our most popular teaching resources: groups, documents, lesson plans, and study guides.

1) GROUPS
An eNotes group is a place where students and/or teachers can "meet" to talk about a work and share ideas. Whether you want to post assignments, create instant class-wide announcements, or engage your students in discussion, you'll find that eNotes groups are user friendly and effortless to manage. Perhaps best of all, they are provided at no charge to you or your students!

Getting Around
Click the Group tab [see Figure 1] to find questions and answers as well as discussion boards for each individual work.

Beneath the introductory text is a constantly updated list of recent questions, answers, and discussion board topics [see Figure 2].

Click any of the links to view the conversation or to add your own remarks.

Creating Groups
Creating a group at eNotes makes managing your students and their learning experience fun and easy. If you want to create a group for your American literature class, for example, first go to the Groups home page. Then click the Create a Group link [see Figure 3].

Now name your group (for example, "Mrs. Wheeler's American Lit 3369") and include a brief description of it. You can then decide to make your group public (anyone can view information or join at any time), private (group information is public but you have control over who joins), or closed (the group is totally controlled by you as the administrator; members must be invited, and only members can visit the group).

That's it! Now you can get started with your eNotes group. Here are some ways that teachers are already using theirs:

• Require discussion. Set up a group where students can participate in discussion forums that you design. For example, you might pose weekly topics such as "The Effects of Prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird." Groups are a particularly good way of drawing out reluctant speakers in your class.


• Have students create their own reading response journals. This allows students to reflect on the text in their own space. Journaling on a regular basis prepares students for in-class discussion and group activities.


• Post announcements. If there is a change that needs to be made, reminders issued, or anything else you need to easily tell your entire class, having a dedicated group will make your life, and your students’ lives, run more smoothly.

Official eNotes Groups
There are many active groups at eNotes that you might want to read or participate in. Hundreds of groups are designed exclusively for the purpose of sharing ideas and information with fellow teachers. We welcome you to browse through our postings and encourage you to become an active member of the eNotes community! Just a few suggestions to get you started:

• English Teachers Group


• eNotes Book Club Group


• Poetry Forum Group


• William Shakespeare Group

For even more groups at eNotes, browse the Groups home page.

Becoming an Editor
Can't get enough of eNotes groups? Consider joining us as an editor and get paid for doing what you love to do: talking about literature and helping students! To get started, read the guidelines and complete an application here.

2) Documents

The Document Exchange program at eNotes allows you to share materials you have created for use in your classroom. Have a great activity on Hamlet or an interesting lesson on To Kill a Mockingbird? Upload them here...for free!

Getting Around

Click the Groups button on the main navigation bar [Figure 4].

And then simply click the Document Exchange tab [Figure 5].

Using Document Exchange

To upload a new document, click the Add New Document button [Figure 6]. Any document you upload must be your original work (i.e., it must not be copyrighted by another source), and it must be in one of our supported file types: Microsoft Word 2007, Microsoft Word, PDF, Plain Text, or Rich Text.

To search or browse for material that other teachers have uploaded, use the search box also shown in Figure 6.

By setting up a private group [see Figure 3 above] devoted to your class requirements, you can use the group's Document Exchange feature to:

• Post assignments. No more, “I couldn’t find my syllabus!” Students can easily access assignments and other important class documents twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.


• Create an electronic drop box for take-home assignments, essays, or tests. Document Exchange offers a secure way for students to submit work. You can create a private group for each class or even each student.

3) LESSON PLANS
Preparing lesson plans is one of the most time-consuming tasks a teacher is required to do. If you would rather spend your energy implementing creative, thought-provoking ideas rather than doing administrative tasks, let eNotes help you. Whether you want thought-provoking discussion questions or ready-to-print tests and activities, everything you need to prepare for a class is included. Let's take a look at how to use eNotes lesson plans and what they have to offer you—a real teacher in a real classroom.

Getting Around
First, find the lesson plan materials available for a work by clicking the Lesson Plans tab [see Figure 7].

After you click on the tab, you'll arrive at a page that includes links [see Figure 8] to a number of lesson plan options available at eNotes.

Introductory Lesson
Lesson plans often begin with an activity that introduces students to a major theme of the text, typically with a game that makes the material accessible and relevant. For example, the introductory lesson for Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird offers a fun take on perspective. The teacher creates several abstract figures on the board and then invites the class to analyze the meaning of the illustrations. Inevitably, the class will suggest multiple interpretations of the drawings. Perspective is an integral theme to Lee's novel, and this exercise will encourage students to accept alternate points of view.

Reading Assignments
Tested in real time, reading assignment schedules will keep you and your class on track. Manageable page counts, as well as pre-reading and post-reading questions, help take the pressure off you in determining the "right" amount of material for your class, whether you teach in a traditional format or in block scheduling. A handy template is included to assist your scheduling needs.

Study Guide Questions
Be sure your students are keeping up with their assigned reading while freeing up time for yourself by making use of our fact-based questions.

Discussion Questions and Writing Assignments
A successful literature class often depends on student discussion, but sometimes it can be difficult to draw students into conversation. Tested in real classrooms, our discussion questions have been meticulously selected for their ability to engage your class. The writing assignments in eNotes lesson plans focus on critical thinking and personal response—skills that are desirable for both college entrance examinations and college writing.

Integration of Nonfiction Activities
Nonfiction activities help students understand that literature is not created in a vacuum. Creative and innovative ways to integrate historical, political, and philosophical approaches are included in every eNotes lesson plan.

Group Assignments
A successful literature course allows students to exchange and challenge ideas in a constructively critical environment. eNotes lesson plans provide suggestions for small-group work, class-wide discussion, and projects to stimulate both conversation and imagination while providing a sound basis for close-reading and relevant questioning.

Bulletin Board Ideas
Want to keep that big brown board interesting? Our bulletin board ideas can help you transform a ho-hum space into a showcase for your students' most creative ideas.

Quizzes and Tests
Lesson plans include tests for each unit with a variety of options: matching, multiple choice, short answer, and essay. Mix and match, or use them as is. Either way, you'll save time by having ready-made quizzes and tests at your disposal.

Puzzle Packs
Sometimes a crossword puzzle or matching game can be the perfect activity to get students to integrate crucial vocabulary words, concepts, and themes into their learning experience.

Advanced Placement Lesson Plans
Many works from eNotes include lesson plan offerings for the advanced student. Discussion questions, tests, and group projects challenge AP students to delve more deeply into the text and push their critical thinking skills in a way that helps them anticipate the rigors of college entrance examinations.

Response Journals
Asking students to keep a regular response journal can greatly enhance class discussion. Response journals help teachers "draw out" quiet students by asking them to contribute an idea that they have recorded in their journals. Our lesson plans provide relevant, reflective prompts for each unit lesson.

3) STUDY GUIDES
Written by scholars and teachers, eNotes study guides feature a comprehensive analysis of a work, including an introduction, plot summary, character analysis, discussion of themes, excerpts of published criticism, and much more. Many eNotes guides also contain essays and important quotations with commentary. Each guide is specifically designed to meet the needs of high school and undergraduate college students and their teachers.

Getting Around
Before you begin exploring all the educational material available at eNotes, be sure to look at the options available under the study guide navigation tab [see Figure 9] for the work you're teaching.

Each option represents a different resource that will be useful in the classroom. Some of the frequently visited sections include the following:

• The eNotes link will take you to our most comprehensive guide. An eNotes study guide contains introductory information about the work, biographical information about the author, a one-page summary of the work as a whole, detailed chapter summaries, quizzes, and much more.


• For some works, a QuickNotes link is available. Essentially a condensed study guide containing the main plot, themes, characters, literary techniques, and social issues in a work, a QuickNote guide also features topics for discussion and other information helpful in the classroom.


• The Salem on Literature link lists additional reference material available from a number of distinguished resources—Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, Magill Book Reviews, Masterplots, Cyclopedia of Literary Places, and many others. This material can be found online only at eNotes.


• If the eText of a work is available from eNotes, you will find a link for it on the bar as well. eTexts are complete books, plays, and poems in an electronic, searchable format.


• Select guides (including those for frequently taught works such as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet) also feature Video Study Guides, which cover essential information about a work in an easy-to-follow visual format. Look for more to be added in the future.


• The Related Resources link contains invaluable links to criticism, movie reviews, encyclopedias, biographies, quotations, and more.

Beneath the title of the study guide and the tabbing options on the introductory page, there are four more links that will expand your use of eNotes in the classroom [see Figure 10].

• The Printable Version link provides a clean, printer-friendly version of any page you wish to print.


• The Download PDF link gives you a portable, printable document of the entire study guide.


• The Cite This Page link provides an MLA-style citation for any study guide page.


• The Ask a Question link will take you or your students to our Question and Answer board for the specific work you are studying. Hundreds of eNotes editors and teachers provide answers and help guide students in the right direction.

Using Study Guides As Classroom Tools
Each section of our study guides is designed to encourage critical and creative thinking. Under the Navigate heading [see Figure 11] is a list of the available sections for the work you are teaching.

Every eNotes study guide offers a cogent discussion of relevant themes within a work. Themes can often be one of the most difficult aspects of analyzing literature for students, especially when there are numerous themes to consider. For example, To Kill a Mockingbird traces themes of prejudice and tolerance, guilt and innocence, courage and cowardice, and loss of innocence. Using the thematic breakdown, you might wish to assign small groups to investigate the manifestation of each theme.

More than just a list of characters, the character analysis in an eNotes study guide strives to illuminate not just the who but also the why of characters in a text. Use character analyses to broaden your class's perspective on the reasons why an author decides to have his or her characters behave as they do. Why does Atticus Finch willingly place his family in jeopardy in To Kill a Mockingbird? The answer is revealed in our character analysis.

The critical overviews in each study guide will assist you in understanding the reception of a work from a variety of scholarly and popular sources. Want to know how the New York Times reviewed the debut of To Kill a Mockingbird? Or how dissenters criticized the novel? Or how the novel is now regarded decades after its initial publication? It's all right here in one convenient location.

Below the Navigate heading under the right-hand column of the screen is a Related Topics heading [see Figure 12].

Here you will find information that can further develop your lectures and in-class activities.

• For example, clicking the Harper Lee link on the study guide for To Kill a Mockingbird takes you to an Author Topic page with a bio and five interesting facts about Lee. One such fact concerns Lee's friendship with Truman Capote: "A rough-and-tumble child, Harper Lee frequently defended her less rambunctious friend Truman Capote in the schoolyard. She later did the research for his acclaimed novel In Cold Blood." As a tie-in, you could ask your students to read In Cold Blood and look for instances of Lee's influence and voice in Capote's text.


• Useful How-to resources may also be located here. Consider printing out, for example, the document "How to Study for a Test on a Literary Work" for your students. As you know, studying for a literature test must be approached differently than studying for other types of examinations. This how-to resource provides tips on outlining the structure of a text, identifying the protagonist and antagonists, and tracing historical context.