John Steinbeck, one of America's most noted authors and a Nobel laureate in 1962, gave voice to the plight of many different characters in his novels. The Grapes of Wrath, his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, told of the terrible obstacles faced by the migrant workers who left the Dust Bowl and traveled west searching for work in California.
Steinbeck's works reflect the issues and ills of the time period in which he lived. The Grapes of Wrath, for example, deals with a group of migrant farm workers who moved from field to field. Often, these workers lived in squalid conditions and were paid poor wages. They were forced to purchase their supplies from a company store and then work to pay off their debt, many times without ever seeing a penny of their wages. Present students with information about the Dust Bowl and the flight of many farm workers west to California.
Ask students, "If Steinbeck were to write today about the ills of society, what topics or subjects might he find to address?" Brainstorm with the class a list of possible topics. Have groups of students each research a topic of their choosing and prepare an annotated bibliography of fiction and nonfiction texts that address the topic. The bibliographies can later be used as a school library resource.
The National Steinbeck Center is a museum in Salinas, California where Steinbeck was born. This site has information about his life and changing exhibits relating to his work and the time period during which he lived.
Nobelprize.org presents a brief biography of Steinbeck, along with the Nobel presentation speech and a short film of the event.
NPR provides this resource, which includes an audio report on the story behind the creation of The Grapes of Wrath.
This PBS website offers information about the American Experience film Surviving the Dust Bowl. There are also links to a teacher's guide, a timeline of events, a map, and related resources.
This article discusses Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath within its historical context of the Dust Bowl.
Erma Bombeck was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1927. Soon after the birth of her first daughter, she began writing a newspaper column called "At Wit's End," which was quickly picked up by newspapers across the country. Bombeck's largely autobiographical accounts of the "battles" between men and women and between children and parents, told with gentle yet sarcastic humor, became part of America's reading throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Bombeck died in 1996.
Many students have difficulty identifying or appreciating allusive or satirical humor. Using the following lines from Bombeck's newspaper column, ask students to identify not what they think is funny, but what someone else might find funny.
- Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase.
- There are two kinds of women who will spring big bucks for a make-up mirror that magnifies their faces. The first are young models who need to cover every eyelash, shadow their cheekbones, define their lips, and sculpt their faces. The second group are women who, without their glasses, cannot find their faces.
- I just clipped two articles from a current magazine. One is a diet guaranteed to drop five pounds off my body in a weekend. The other is a recipe for a 6-minute pecan pie.
- Most children's first words are "Mama" or "Daddy." My kid's first words were, "Do I have to use my own money?"
High school students can rewrite the passages to make them funny for a different audience.
This University of Dayton website is dedicated to Bombeck's life and work. The site includes several of her columns, as well as video clips from the short-lived sitcom called Maggie, which Bombeck developed.
This page features a biography and an interview with Bombeck from 1991. In the interview, she discusses her writing process, as well as influences on her life.
Just as Bombeck did in her syndicated newspaper column, Mark Twain used irony and sarcasm to tell his humorous stories. This PBS resource explores Twain's use of humor.
Rachel Carson, born on May 27, 1907, loved nature and had a lifelong desire to protect the environment. She was aware of the dangers of DDT and other chemicals and tried to educate the public through articles, pamphlets, and books. Her book Silent Spring warned about the poisons that were everywhere and heightened environmental awareness in people throughout the world.
Introduce your students to Rachel Carson by having a discussion about how chemicals can affect the environment. Show students a picture of a bald eagle and ask them if they have ever heard of DDT. DDT was a pesticide responsible for the decline of eagles in North America from more than half a million in 1872 to only 417 breeding pairs in 1973. At this point, either read a book about Rachel Carson to your class or have them find information about her on the websites listed below. After learning about Rachel Carson, invite students to choose one of these follow-up activities:
- Visit the Ecology Hall of Fame. Write an acrostic poem about one of the environmentalists or use the Bio-Cube interactive to summarize the person's biography.
- Explore the Environmental Movement Timeline. Research and add more recent events to this timeline with the ReadWriteThink Interactive Timeline.
- After researching environmental issues, write a Diamante Poem exploring a before-and-after vision of a particular habitat.
This website is "devoted to the life and legacy of Rachel Carson." It includes her biography, many primary documents, and excellent links.
After learning how DDT affected the eagle population, read about the U.S. laws that now protect eagles. Information about the recovery of bald eagles is also provided on this U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service site.
Learn about the decline of eagles and their recovery on this PBS Nature website. Visitors can view beautiful photographs and meet various members of the eagle family.
This page provides context and excerpts from Silent Spring. Rachel Carson's classic text has been called one of the most important works of the 20th century.
William Shakespeare is the most widely taught playwright in the English language. By 1588, Shakespeare had left his wife and children to live in London as an actor. During the next ten years, he became a successful playwright, performing for the royal court and building a new theater called the Globe. He retired to Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616, where he died soon after. Since that time, few young students of English literature have not heard the line, "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?"
Students at every grade level can be involved in activities to celebrate Shakespeare's birth.
Elementary students can begin learning about the rhyming structure of a sonnet by using one of the Websites below. They can also begin practicing with the number of syllables in a line.
Introduce middle school students who enjoy insulting one another to the Shakespearean Insult Kit, which includes a selection of Shakespearean invectives. They will gain confidence with the language as well as blow off some steam.
Demonstrate to high school students that Shakespeare always remains relevant through modern updates and reworkings. Select a short scene for your students to read from Othello (e.g., the scene where Iago first tells Othello that his wife might be unfaithful) and then watch the recent adaptation of that scene from the movie O, in which the main character is a basketball star. You can do the same with the sleepwalking scene from Macbeth, and have students watch its updated version in Men of Respect, a modern-dress gangster movie. On a lighter note, The Taming of the Shrew was updated in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You, in which the final party scene is similar, but modernized for a contemporary-and female-audience.
This award-winning website for younger students was created by elementary students at Crichton Park School in Nova Scotia. It contains a collection of materials related to Shakespeare, including resources for teachers.
This site is both an annotated guide to Shakespeare resources available on the Internet and a collection of original resources, including a comprehensive timeline of Shakespeare's life and work.
The Academy of American Poets provides this Shakespeare exhibit. Included are selected writings, biographical information, and links to related resources.
This website for the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works contains authoritative articles on his life and work, as well as continually updated links to other related resources.
Ezra Jack Keats wrote and illustrated more than 85 children's books. His beautifully written and illustrated story, The Snowy Day, won a Caldecott medal in 1963. Peter, an African American child who is the hero of The Snowy Day, is the main character of seven other books by Keats.
Although Ezra Jack Keats had no formal training in art, his illustrations won many awards. As you read his books to your class, point out that his illustrations are a combination of painting and collage. In celebration of his birthday, invite your students to be authors and illustrators. Have them write their own stories that include some characters from Keats' books. The stories can be done individually or in groups. Ask students to bring in scraps of materials to create their collages.
Have students practice using collage techniques with the Collage Machine at the National Gallery of Art. Step through the pictures available in the tool to show the options for adding images to collages that go beyond color blocks. Look at the ways to manipulate the images (reducing or enlarging their size, flipping and layering images and so on) in order to demonstrate options students can explore in original collages.
The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation provides this resource, perfect for an author study on Keats. Students of all ages will enjoy reading his biography with photographs and hyperlinks. The page on tips and resources offers suggestions on using Keats' books to enhance literacy.
This online exhibit is provided by the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. Visitors will find proofs for 37 books written and/or illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats, his personal papers, fan mail, and more! There is a link to Keats Across the Curriculum which includes activities and Internet resources for many of his books.
The Snowy Day is possibly one of Keats' best-known and beloved stories. This Teaching Heart webpage is filled with suggestions for teaching this children's literature classic.
Introduce a snowy day center with a three-step project.
Samuel Pepys was born in London on February 23, 1633. Though he was an important government official, Pepys is primarily known for the detailed diary that he maintained for 10 years. Much of what we know today about day-to-day life in 17th century London comes from his diary. In it, Pepys describes with great detail and compassion the Great Fire of London, the plague that beset Europe, and the coronation of Charles II.
One of the most interesting aspects of Pepys' diary is that we can read about the details of this person's life and then make assumptions about life in general for the people of that time period.
Ask students to write diary entries that recap everything they did the day before. They should write about what they ate, the clothes they wore, activities they did, and so on, making their diary entries as detailed and descriptive as possible. Then, have each student switch diary entries with another student, who will read the entry as if he or she were living a hundred years from now. Direct students to underline words and phrases that describe what life must have been like for teenagers in the year 2013.
As a class, brainstorm a list of defining characteristics of life in the early 21st century, and ask students to write paragraphs that summarize these details.
Older students can read a section of Pepys' diary and write paragraphs to summarize life in the 17th century.
This site contains a biography of Pepys, numerous pictures of him, and excerpts from his diary.
This site from National Public Radio offers a series of "radio diaries," in which people of various backgrounds document events of their lives. Students can listen to several of the broadcasts and access information about how to create their own radio diaries.
This site contains hundreds of excellent resources associated with Anne Frank, one of the most famous and widely taught diarists.
Like many holidays, Valentine's Day arose from a confluence of Christian and pagan themes. Originally it was the occasion of a pagan Roman rite called the Lupercalia, on which young men and women were matched by drawing lots. In the fifth century, the Church changed the emphasis of the festival by making it the commemoration of a Christian priest named Valentine, martyred on this day in 289. Nevertheless, the day's association with romantic love persisted.
This would be a great day for students to practice their skills in using poetic devices. Have students find examples of each type of figurative language below, and then write an original example using each device, each time employing the word love:
- Simile: Love is like an ocean rolling over me.
- Metaphor: Love is a tree with many branches.
- Personification: Love whispers in your ear.
- Rhyme: Love sure can stink/Anyone in it might be a fink.
- Alliteration: Love lightly leaps.
When they have finished, students can illustrate their examples, share them with the class, and post them around the room.
This ReadWriteThink interactive tool allows students to create poems about selected themes. For Valentine's Day, they can select a heart from the Celebrations theme.
This page includes definitions of several types of figurative language, including idioms, onomatopoeia, and alliteration.
This resource, from the Library of Congress, explores possible origins of Valentine's Day traditions. Related Library of Congress resources, such as music and photographs, are included.
This interactive resource focuses on idioms and accompanies the ReadWriteThink lesson plan Figurative Language: Teaching Idioms.
Considered Scotland's national bard, Robert Burns was born to poor tenant farmers in 1759. The author of "Auld Lang Syne," Burns became famous after he published his first volume of poetry, written in the Ayrshire dialect of Lowland Scots. When he died at age 37, 10,000 people turned out for the funeral of their beloved "Rabbie" Burns. Every year on this day, many Scots celebrate his honor with a ritual dinner of haggis and scotch whisky.
In addition to being a poet, Robert Burns collected traditional Scottish ballads. To celebrate his birthday, introduce students to the ballad form. Share elements of the ballad with students. Ballads are a part of oral tradition. They celebrate a desirable attribute, tell a story, or herald a significant event, and they often contain a refrain. The metrical and rhyming structure of ballads can take many forms. Here is one type of ballad stanza, which follows a strict formula:
The second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme.
Line one has 8 beats
Line two has 6 beats
Line three has 8 beats
Read some examples of traditional Scottish ballads to familiarize yourself with their basic characteristics.
Next, have students brainstorm two lists: one should include qualities they admire in people they know, and the other should contain significant events that have happened recently. Have students choose one item from either list as a subject for a ballad. A good way to start is for students to try writing the refrain first and then try writing a stanza, adhering to the formula above. You may want to have students read-or perform-their ballads aloud.
Getting ready for your own Burns Night celebration? This BBC website includes biographical background material, poetry text, and audio (useful to demonstrate accurate pronunciation of Scots). Even more importantly, the site includes step-by-step details on hosting a traditional Robert Burns supper, including links to recipes for haggis, the traditional Scottish dish made from sheep stomachs, lamb livers, and oatmeal.
This website offers information about the National Trust for Scotland site established at Burns' Scottish birthplace.
This Poets.org webpage offers a biography of Burns and links to a selection of his poetry.
Today is the first day of the New Year on the Chinese lunar calendar. Each year of the calendar's 12-year cycle is represented by an animal. According to the Chinese zodiac, people born during a given year share traits with that animal. 2024 is the Year of the Dragon. Those born in the Year of the Dragon are known to be vigorous, ambitious, and honest.
Introduce students to the Chinese New Year by having them explore the Chinese zodiac. Begin the activity by having each student write five to eight adjectives or phrases that describe his or her personality traits. These should not be physical characteristics like hair color or height, but qualities such as "a good sense of humor," "honest," or "a risk-taker."
Then, have students look at the Chinese zodiac to find a description of the attibutes people would have if they were born in the same year they were. For younger students, try the Chinese Calendar, and for older students, try Chinese Horoscopes.
Once students have read their animal's attributes, have them explain how the animal does or does not seem to represent them. They should use specific examples from their own experiences to support what they say. For example, if the zodiac says that they have difficulty with authority, students should write about a time when they resisted (or did not resist) an authority figure.
Next, students can look through the other animal signs to see which one best represents them and write a persuasive piece describing why that sign fits them best.
This site offers information about the tradition and customs associated with Chinese New Year celebrations. Related links provide information on the Chinese zodiac and a Chinese New Year quiz.
This Farmer's Almanac resource offers printable posters, worksheets, puzzles, and cards to help students learn about the traditions of the Chinese New Year.
This quest resource provides kid-friendly information on the background and traditions of Chinese New Year. It includes information on activities leading up to and immediately following the New Year's Day.
This activity from National Geographic allows students to find their birth year animals and their related characteristics.
Jacob Grimm was born in Hanau, Germany, on January 4, 1785. With his brother Wilhelm, he began collecting traditional German folk tales, publishing their first volume, Children and Household Tales, in 1812. While many of these stories are still well known today-"Cinderella" and "Little Red Riding Hood" among them-their long-critiqued violence and frankness have been toned down over the years in more familiar versions. After a long career as an academic and librarian, Jacob died in 1863.
Students are always fascinated to learn that the fairy tales associated with the Brothers Grimm to which they have been exposed most of their lives are not, in fact, the original Grimm versions; they have most likely only read or seen softened or "Disney-fied" versions. This activity has students encounter the original versions, so it may not be appropriate for younger students.
Have a student tell the story of Cinderella, starting from after the Ball. Then, have students read the end of the original version of the story and use the ReadWriteThink Venn Diagram interactive to compare and contrast this version with the more familiar retelling they heard from their classmate. Encourage students to discuss why certain changes might have been made and what the effects of those changes are on readers.
Next, print out a copy of a lesser-known Grimm story (see Web Links below) for students to read. Ask students to rewrite this story for an audience of elementary school children. Students should be able to explain what changes they made and the intended effects of those changes. Alternatively, students can use the Fractured Fairy Tales interactive to write alternative versions of fairy tales.
This National Geographic site invites students to read and hear stories in their original, unsoftened forms. Students can choose from a menu of options to guide them through the tales.
This Ohio University website includes audio versions of three Grimm tales.
This site explores how tales have changed over time. The collection includes texts and images from a dozen English versions of the Cinderella story, with similar collections on "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" as well.