While Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio depicts small-town America through the lens of the Lost Generation, filled with feelings of disillusionment, uncertainty and loss, student’s today can identify with the struggles of his small-town characters, especially George Willard. These students are …
Before reading the poem “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman, I would use Chief Joseph’s conversation about communication to discuss the concept of truth and the idea that simplicity and silence often lead to deeper understanding in …
Students learn about civil disobedience and social responsibility throughout their school years, and the life of Mahatma Gandhi is a great introduction to this topic. To begin this unit, I first read the informational text “How Salt Shook an Empire“ …
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; …
I am teaching poetry and the poem “Ode on Solitude” by Alexander Pope creates a wonderful opportunity to study the theme of isolation with students. This poem focuses on the upsides of loneliness and therefore raises interesting questions about what …
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 …
Copyright © 2025 Teach Different. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2023 Teach Different. All rights reserved.
