IdeaLit Resources

This activity includes a table (fully editable as it is a Word Document) that has three poems thematically relating to Beowulf: "Grendel's Brother," "Thanatopsis," and "Ozymandias" on the left. The right column includes a series of close-reading/analysis questions aimed at helping AP students to hone their skills of poetry interpretation. The second section of the activity includes a prompt from a released AP Exam (poem included) and asks students to create a thesis statement only for the pro

Syntax is tough for AP English Language students (and all students, really) since grammar and usage skills are not always foundationally sound for our kids. In this lesson, students will learn a bit about what syntax is, how it operates, the impact it has on an author's message or work, and what they can do with their newfound knowledge. This is a downloadable .pdf that includes details about what syntax is (definitions of things such as declarative sentences, differences in sentence lengths, r

This fun game encourages students to use their competitive spirits and their interest in games to conduct a closer reading of Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street. The product includes 3 different (and editable) "BINGO cards," and one (editable) directions sheet. As students read the vignettes, they consider the themes, symbols, and motifs, literary devices, and the author's purpose and her argument. It was initially designed for 9th grade students, but is appropriate for all ages (and

This mini-lesson includes 10 discussion questions and a casually-phrased Q&A about why authors might include scenes of sex and/or violence in literature. With reference to the book, "How to Read Literature Like a Professor," this mini-lesson explores three texts (all available online for free): "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti "Janus" by Ann Beatty "Out, Out--" by Robert Frost While this lesson does not require knowledge specifically of other texts, there are reference

I often look online for true discussion questions for a novel. Most often, what I find are simple plot-recollection questions and low-level questions that don't require much thinking on the students' part. So, I decided that it was time to help my fellow educators out and compile a list of truly upper-level questions that can be used on tests or quizzes, during all types of class discussions, as warm-ups or exit tickets, or as essay or writing-response questions. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbi

I realized some time back that when I look online for "discussion questions" for a literary work, I often find VERY low-level questions about plot and characters. I find this frustrating. This is a set of over 25 questions (with space for written answers if you choose simply to print and hand this to students) allows students to think beyond the obvious. These are truly discussion questions where there are multiple possible answers and there is plenty of room for healthy disagreement, debate,

Included are two fully editable worksheet tables that include 18 total carefully selected passages from the novel and include spaces for students to respond to the passages' literary devices, word choices, themes and motifs and how those passages relate to the meaning of the work as a whole. Also included are tips for students on how to fill out the table and improve the sophistication of their close reading and analysis of literature with specific regard to the AP Exam.

Designed for use with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the high school freshman level (but editable to work with other sources if you prefer), this 7-page document walks students through how to select quotes, how to cite by act, scene and line number, how to use reasoning to determine one's goals for writing, how to create good body paragraphs, how to write good commentary (with visual "formulas" for struggling writers), and how to figure out what to "say" in an essay overall. Also embedded in

This handout is editable, but is ready-to-go for upper-level high school students who are looking to improve and perfect their writing. The focus is on literary or rhetorical analysis writing. It starts with basic tips such as how to use an author's name properly in an essay. Then, it moves on to information about how to take writing to the next level, making suggestions about word choice, types of oratory being used, and characterizing diction in a text. This guide was written for AP Englis

While students read Black Boy, Richard Wright's autobiography, they can use this guide to collect ideas, prepare remarks, practice rhetorical analysis and construct a complete essay. This was designed to be completed over multiple days with different steps due on different days. It is a fully customizable Word document and it utilizes clipart that is open-source and free to use. *Note: this presumes students already generally know how to complete some rhetorical analysis. It is based on an e

This FREE class activity pairs well with the Google Slideshow presentation here. This is a fairly quick, one-day activity that asks students to read an article online and evaluate what percentage of the article they believe is fact and what percentage is opinion. They read, write a paragraph-long reflection on their position, then as the teacher, you'd call on students to share their evaluations of the articles and discuss/defend their positions on how factual the articles are. The defense of

This product includes an editable chart and thinking questions that require students who are conducting Multiple Choice practice (for the AP exam or any other assessments) to defend their answer responses. Multiple Choice questions and answers are not included. This is a resource to be used with any Multiple Choice practice you may already be conducting. The focus here is for AP language as the students are required to consider argument, author's purpose and other elements normally assessed i

This FREE assignment will link your students to four online articles. Students will use one or more of those articles to craft a 3-sentence minimum paragraph using the formula provided in this lesson here. If you'd rather not purchase the lesson with which this pairs, you can still download this item for free and use it in another way. If you're already familiar with writing claims, utilizing data, and expressing warrants in argumentative debate writing, you won't need any other explanation t

Originally created to accompany the Google Slideshow here, this FREE class activity can be completed as quiet deskwork, as homework, or as a quick warm-up or exit ticket. You can spend more time on this by having students pair-share their answers, discuss as a class, or post and "discuss" in an online forum. Or, you can make it a quick pulse-check for learning that could take 15 minutes or less. If you so choose, this can be a standalone activity that is not associated with any of our other l