NCTE - Secondary Lessons

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Id, Ego, and Superego in Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat
Children’s literature provides a great introduction to literary analysis in this lesson, which uses The Cat in the Hat as a primer to teach students how to analyze a literary work using the literary tools of plot, theme, characterization, and psychoanalytical criticism.

Literary Scrapbooks Online: An Electronic Reader-Response Project
Students create computer-based scrapbooks, using PowerPoint or a similar program, to extend their understanding of the concepts and ideas represented in a piece of literature. Using teacher-selected Web sites, students search for “scraps” of information that they feel are important to the selected topic then publish their findings in personal scrapbooks. When presenting their scrapbook to the class, students explain why each “scrap” of information is important to the understanding of the topic.

Exploring Satire with The Simpsons
In this lesson plan, students identify the techniques of satire (exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, and parody) through an analysis of visual examples of the television show, The Simpsons, and from the show’s Web site. The lesson includes extensions that focus on writing analysis of a complete episode of the cartoon and writing an original satirical piece.

Exploring Satire with Shrek
The movie Shrek, which satirizes fairy tale traditions, serves as an introduction to the satirical techniques of exaggeration, incongruity, reversal, and parody. Students brainstorm fairy tale characteristics, identify the satirical techniques used to present them in the movie, then create their own satirical versions of fairy tales.

Copyright Infringement or Not? The Debate Over Downloading Music
Students discuss their own experiences and conduct further research on the controversial topic of sharing music and other audio content on the Internet in this lesson plan. Based on their research, students take a stand on the controversy and develop persuasive arguments on their position that they present in a class debate on the subject of downloading.

Naming in a Digital World: Creating a Safe Persona on the Internet
To introduce the connotations attached to names, this lesson begins by asking students to explore the origin of their first, middle, and last names. After considering the ways that people in various situations react to names, explore naming conventions in digital and non-digital settings then choose and explain specific names and profiles to represent themselves online.

Argument, Persuasion, or Propaganda? Analyzing World War II Posters
In this lesson plan, students analyze World War II posters to explore how argument, persuasion, and propaganda differ. The lesson begins with a full-class exploration of the famous “I WANT YOU FOR U.S. ARMY” poster, featuring a determined Uncle Sam, and progresses to a more detailed analysis of a specific World War II poster chosen from an online collection.

Weaving the Multigenre Web
Students analyze the elements of a novel in many different genres and then hyperlink these pieces together on student-constructed Web sites. This is a lesson which can be used with either a whole class novel, individual novels, partner books, or small group literature circles.

Freedom of Speech and Automatic Language: Examining the Pledge of Allegiance
Most students in American classrooms know the words to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance. The words are a kind of automatic language. We say them easily—perhaps every day, but we may not think in detail about what we are saying. This lesson plan asks students to explore this rote learning and their own right to freedom of speech by examining the Pledge of Allegiance from a historical and personal perspective and in relationship to fictional situations in novels they have read.

Paying Attention to Technology: Writing Technology Autobiographies
In this lesson plan, students brainstorm lists of their interactions with technology, map these interactions graphically, and then compose narratives of their most significant interactions with technology. By writing these technology autobiographies, students explore what their stories reveal about why we use the technologies we do when we do.

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