Teaching Ideas for a Great Hamlet Unit Plan

When you think of Shakespeare’s classic play, you might not think it has much to do with the iPhone-wielding students in your class, but I’ve found that students connect more than you’d expect to the young Dane and the struggles he faces. There are so many great questions to tackle: What happens to us when we die? Do the ends justify the means? Why do we put things off, especially when it matters most? Still, this play is not

How to Teach Act 2 of Romeo and Juliet: Activities, Questions, and a Quiz Your Students Won’t Hate

Act 2 of Romeo and Juliet contains what is arguably the most iconic scene in English literature. And yet, simply telling students that this moment matters doesn’t actually make them care about what they’re reading. This is also the point in the unit when students should be gaining confidence and independence with the text. And yet, shaking your beloved underlined copy of the book at them and saying, “you should get this by now!” isn’t exactly a winning strategy. The

No-Prep Quizzes for Acts 1-5 of Romeo and Juliet That Don’t Waste Students’ Time—or Yours (Answer Key Included)

Quizzes on Romeo and Juliet are one of those things I know I need to give—but I also kind of dread. I want to know if my students are understanding the play, to see if I need to change things up, to get some grades in my grade books, and yeah, to be honest, I want to catch that kid in the back of the room who said he was paying attention when I’m pretty sure he was not.

Romeo and Juliet Essential Questions: Best Paired Texts for Analyzing Violence, Revenge, and What It Means to be Cool

Romeo and Juliet can be a great play to teach because so many of the essential questions are still relevant today. What does it mean to be “cool,” and why is coolness often related to a transgression of the rules? Is violence ever justified? What are some of the misconceptions about gangs and people who belong to gangs? But that doesn’t mean that it’s always easy to get students to think about those questions on a deeper level. If your

A Two-Week Personal Narrative Unit for High School: Lesson Plans, Mentor Texts, and Writing Workshop

Teaching writing often feels less like following a logical order and more like making constant decisions about what to fix first. Should you get students to work on paragraphs when their sentences are weak? Why focus on elegant sentence writing when their stories have no point? And how can you talk about conclusions when they don’t even know how to write a first sentence? What finally helped me to stop spinning out on all the ways my students’ writing needed

How to Start Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 Activities

Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet is often students’ first experience with a Shakespeare play, and so it can be a make-it-or-break-it situation for many. Students will be deciding whether Shakespeare is something they can handle—and maybe even enjoy—or something they’ll need to just get through. There’s so much that they’ll love about this classic play, but it’s not always easy to convey those elements to a group of 21st-century teens. The trick is not to simplify things, but to

Teaching “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”: Analysis Questions, Discussion Ideas, and Lesson Plan Strategies

I’ve loved Oates’ most popular short story since I first read the line that Connie “wore a pullover jersey blouse that looked one way when she was at home and another way when she was away from home.” The 1960s culture, the teenage experience, the rising dread, a main character who makes a seemingly baffling choice—there is so much to appreciate in this classic story. And it’s also one that students love—the relatable teen angst, the love of pop music,

How to Teach “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Lesson Plans, Analysis Questions, and Assessment Ideas

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s masterpiece of a short story touches on so many different and fascinating themes, but it’s not exactly an easy story for most teens to get into. This tale of an imprisoned housewife who slowly goes insane as she becomes more and more obsessed with the wallpaper in her summer rental is confusing, seemingly random, and on the surface, plotless. As one contemporary of Gilman said, it’s “enough to drive anyone mad to read it.” Add to

Why You Need to Teach Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid

I first started teaching Annie John in the early 2000s, and it’s always been a surprise to me that it’s not more of a staple in high school English Classes. With themes of growing up and coming of age, it’s such a classic choice for teens, and yet it doesn’t focus on white boys and their problems, and so it’s refreshing and compelling. (Now that I think about it, maybe that’s the real reason why it isn’t taught more often….)

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