This interactive tool allows students to create Venn Diagrams that contain three overlapping circles. Students identify and record concepts that can be placed in one of the three circles or in the overlapping areas, allowing them to organize their information logically. Students may view and edit their draft diagrams, then print the finished diagrams for reference. In some cases, the Venn diagram tool has been customized to complement a specific lesson or activity.

Visit this interactive tool at: http://interactives.mped.org/venn28.aspx.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

A Harlem Renaissance Retrospective: Connecting Art, Music, Dance, and Poetry (9-12)
The Harlem Renaissance was a vibrant time that was characterized by innovations in art, literature, music, poetry, and dance. In this lesson, students work in collaborative groups to conduct Internet research and create a museum exhibit that highlights the work of selected artists, musicians, and poets of the Harlem Renaissance.

Analyzing Character Development in Three Short Stories About Women (9-12)
While reading about women who break from their traditional roles, students use comprehension tools to analyze similarities and differences among characters in three different short stories. This lesson fosters critical thinking and discussions about the influence of society’s expectations on a writer’s character development.

Fighting Injustice by Studying Lessons of the Past (6-8)
This lesson engages students in a study of social injustice using the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, and the Japanese–American Internment during World War II. Students debate and discuss their responses to assigned readings.

Heroes Are Made of This: Studying the Character of Heroes (9-12)
Using a variety of individual and group activities, students will analyze the complex ways in which authors use characterization to present and explore heroism and the heroic.

Id, Ego, and Superego in Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat (9-12)
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 Parodies: Exploring a Writer’s Style through Imitation (9-12)
The popular saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” coined by Charles Caleb Colton, is the basis for this lesson, which asks students to analyze the features of a poet’s work then create their own poems based on the original model. By exploring sample poems and their parodies, students focus on the language and style of the original writer, all in the process of playing with poetry.

Making Connections to Myth and Folktale: The Many Ways to Rainy Mountain (9-12)
Following the model of N. Scott Momaday’s The Way To Rainy Mountain, students write three-voice narratives based on Kiowa folktale, an interview with Elder, and personal connection to themes in Momaday’s book or a theme that arises in the folktale or interview. Momaday’s model for remembering and personal involvement in folktales, mythologies, and tales of personal heritage is presented as a key to connecting on a personal level with the stories of one’s past.

Narrative Structure and Perspectives in Toni Morrison's Beloved (9-12)
Using Toni Morrison’s Beloved as a model text of a work with multiple narrative perspectives, students use a visualizing activity and close reading to consider ways in which subjective values shape contradictory representations of a fictional world.

Persuasive Techniques in Advertising (9-12)
This lesson provides an introduction to persuasive techniques used in advertising: pathos, logos, and ethos.  Students will analyze advertising in a variety of sources and explore the concepts of demographics, marketing for a specific audience, and dynamic advertising.  The lesson will culminate in the production of commercials intended for a specific demographic.

Varying Views of America (9-12)
Employing collaborative groups and graphic organizers, students analyze three poems: Walt Whitman's “I Hear America Singing,” Langston Hughes' “I, Too, Sing America,” and Maya Angelou's “On the Pulse of the Morning.” Through this analysis, they determine the influence of perspective on individual’s tone and point of view toward the same or a similar experience.