I’m getting ready to teach the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I want to focus on happiness. I could use the Diogenes conversation right before introducing the novel to get the kids thinking about the meaning of happiness. …
I am teaching analysis of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous essay “Self-Reliance,” and I want to focus on the theme of success by looking at the many sentences in the essay which explore this theme in relation to the individual. At …
In teaching a unit on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I want to focus on the theme of self-motivation, as so many of the novel’s characters are motivated by different things, some harder to figure out than others; …
One of the greatest moments in American literature occurs in Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, when Huck makes the decision to help Jim escape slavery, even though it goes against everything he has been taught. The theme …
When teaching Arthur MIller’s The Crucible I would keep the John Adams conversation regarding power in my back pocket. As Miller craftily shows how quickly power can go awry when it is in the wrong hands. I could use John …
The short story “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs is a suspense story that pairs perfectly with the Franklin Delano Roosevelt conversation about fear. The theme of fear of the unknown shows that people in scary situations may act rashly, …
The ending of Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery“ is shocking. I would use the conversation with John Adams about Power to lead students in a discussion of the story and how some people in society exert their power over …
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is a perfect novel to use to study happiness. The main character spends a great deal of the novel in unhappy situations. After a study of the novel, I would use the …
In the novel Lord of the Flies, the theme of self-discipline is evident when the stranded boys attempt to recreate the disciplined society that they grew up in on the island. Mid-way through a study of the novel I would …
The theme of self-expression is very evident in the Walt Whitman poem “I Hear America Singing.” After a class reading and an analysis of the multiple expressions presented in the poem, I would connect to the Confucius conversation about how …
Emily Dickinson’s poem “There’s a Certain Slant of Light” describes the effect of light in “winter afternoons” as a subtle, invisible “affliction,” something imperceptible yet real; something not unlike solitude. Franz Kafka states, “Isolation is a way to know ourselves.” …
The young adult novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen pairs perfectly with the Friedrich Nietzsche conversation on perseverance. This survival story lends itself to a post-reading discussion on not giving up in the face of adversity, and how people of different …
