This product contains Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (found in the public domain) and 12 COMMON CORE multiple-choice questions for close reading along with a short answer written response question. I have provided the answers to the multiple-choice questions as well as a sample paragraph response to the prompt. The questions are critical thinking and analysis-type questions similar to that on the PARCC. This is a fantastic resource to prepare for the simulated research portion of PARCC as well as an excellent resource for targeting Common Core reading skills. Questions assess skills such as: Word meaning Summary Textual Evidence Rhetorical Devices Rhetorical Effects Text Purpose & Audience Be sure to check out Bespoke ELA online at: www.bespokeclassroom.com & follow our broadcasts on Periscope @bespoke_ela

Task: To analyze Shakespeare’s work in terms of Aristotle’s literary theories from Poetics Objectives: To develop criteria for analyzing literary elements To support analysis with textual evidence To use rhetorical skills for constructing and supporting oral and written arguments To construct an effective argument supported with logical reasoning and textual evidence To apply literary theories to other texts To close read a text for main ideas Common Core Standards: R1, 3, 6, 11/ W1, 2, 4, 10/ SL 1, 3, 4, 6/ L1-3 Instructions: Aristotle’s literary theories have helped to set the precedent for what determines “high quality” literature. Writers either follow his methods, or they rebel against them. While it is not known if Shakespeare read or studied Aristotle’s Poetics, it is a fascinating study to apply Aristotle’s theories to Shakespeare’s work in order to observe how Shakespeare innovated new concepts for drama. In this unit, students will: Complete the pre-reading strategy in order to define key terms found in Aristotle’s Poetics. Close read excerpts from Poetics and answer comprehension/discussion questions for each section. Note that students may answer the questions in terms of one, single Shakespearean tragedy but may reference any other plays they may have read. Map out the plot of at least one Shakespearean Tragedy and identify examples of key terms from Aristotle’s Poetics. Debate whether or not Shakespeare follows Aristotle’s literary theories. Synthesize their conclusions in a post-debate writeup. This unit contains SIX excerpts from Aristotle’s Poetics for students to close read. Each excerpt contains a few close reading/ discussion questions in order to both comprehend Aristotle’s main ideas as well as apply them to Shakespeare’s works. There are a few different ways to use these excerpts in your classes: 1. Have students read all six excerpts and discuss the questions included in each one. 2. Divide students into groups and assign each group 1-2 excerpts to close read. 3. Students can then present their findings to the class, and the whole class can discuss the application questions included. 4. Use the “Overview of Aristotle’s Poetics” handout included here and have students close read only a couple of the excerpts instead of all six. For the remaining activities, students can focus on a single Shakespearean tragedy of your choice, or allow students to use evidence from multiple plays as best fits your curriculum reading list, their reading experiences, and level of course difficulty. This is an excellent addition to any Shakespeare unit and will deepen the complexity of students' interaction with tragedy.

A central part of literary analysis involves analyzing the characters of a piece of literature. I have found that character analysis serves as an excellent means of increasing students' vocabulary. Here, I have compiled a list of adjectives (many of them SAT-level words) that can be used to describe a character. Students can select words from this list and use them to analyze and describe characters either in discussion or in writing. This list will help students to push beyond their current vocabulary by introducing them to new words that will not only help their analysis in class but simultaneously prepare them for the SAT! Words on this list have been categorized according to a common meaning, which will help students take risks in identifying potential new words and taking risks with new vocabulary. Note-- This is an excellent tool for English Language Learners as well!

These Beowulf journal prompts contain writing tasks for all three levels of writing. They are excellent to use as warm-up/ bell-ringer tasks at the beginning of class periods or as more developed writing assignments. They also lend themselves to small group and/or whole class discussions. This listing is included in my MEGA BEOWULF BUNDLE with 25 lessons and activities plus answer keys! You can find the ENTIRE BUNDLE in our store, sold separately.

This is a rubric for a Literary Analysis that breaks down the points into 10 specific skills, including introduction/ conclusion paragraphs, thesis, topic sentences, textual evidence, analysis, style, organization, grammar, MLA, and following directions. I have assigned point values to each of the skills (which you can change according to your students' needs). This rubric is very comprehensive and provides explicit feedback for revision purposes without your having to write substantial notes throughout the essay-- all you need to do is circle away. This is an excellent rubric that you can adapt for your classroom purposes. Side note: As a rule in my classroom, I approach writing as an ongoing process. That means that after students turn in the "final draft," I allow my students to revise/ rewrite and resubmit the essay for a maximum of half the points back to 100. That means, if their initial score was a 70, for example, they can revise/rewrite and resubmit for a MAXIMUM score of an 85. I know this sounds very tedious; however, I give out explicit directions for resubmission, and any deviation from those directions disqualifies the essay for resubmission. Mainly, I require that students turn in the original essay with original rubric and the new, revised copy with all new changes highlighted. This way, I can simply check to see if they revised/ rewrote sections that needed further attention. In this way, my grading philosophy entails that I grade for quality on the first submission and effort on the second revision. It is in this way that I can communicate to my students that writing is a skill and an art that takes practice and that I do not expect perfection (because who's perfect?); instead, I expect effort, and I expect growth. Give it a try and see what happens!

Lesson Plan Enduring Understandings To make connections between Shakespeare's style and modern music To use figurative language to communiate a theme To experiment with Shakespeare's language and English sonnet form To understand how the parts of an English sonnet are organized to create a central message To understand how tone shift impacts the thematic message in poetry To create an original English sonnet around a central theme Common Core Skills R1-6, 9, 11/ W 1-2/ 4-5 (6), 10-11/ SL 1, 4/ L 1-6 Procedure This activity assumes that students have prior knowledge and experience with Shakespearean sonnets. Students will first need to have a basic understanding of English sonnet form and Shakespeare's language. I would recommend this activity at the end of a Shakespearean sonnet unit. The pop sonnet began as an internet sensation and went on to become a popular book. The author had the idea to "Shakespearify" modern pop songs and morph them into sonnets. The result? A whole new level of depth for (mostly) simple songs with simple themes. Shakespeare would have been proud because this was Shakespeare's process-- to take simple ideas such as love and give them more complexity and sophistication. In this activity, students will explore pop sonnets via the (now famous) pop sonnet blog where it all started. They will then set out to select their very own pop songs to morph into Shakespearean sonnets. Students may choose to do this activity in pairs-- depending upon the level of the class. After crafting their own pop sonnets, students will then answer a series of questions that takes them through explaining and analyzing their original poems. Consider having students publish their pop sonnets online (via individual or class blogs) along with the original song lyrics and their analyses. Another fun and interactive way for students to share their pop sonnets is to have a read aloud in which the class tries to guess the title of the original song that inspired the sonnet. Differentiation Crafting a Shakespearean sonnet can be quite tricky due to the rhyme scheme and meter. Consider having students try one or the other, not both. Another option would be to give students an assortment of pop sonnets from the blog and have them analyze one of those in lieu of writing their own sonnets.

As English teachers, we ask our students to edit and revise their peers' essays. However, students do not always know how to give constructive feedback. It's important that students are able to give constructive feedback about targeted writing skills while also maintaining the dignity of the writer. This product contains a handout with five tips for writing effective comments during peer revision and coaches students on how to go about giving thoughtful, quality feedback on academic essays in a supportive and encouraging manner. Then, there are "Comment Cards" that are divided according to targeted writing skills that give students a menu of options for giving positive comments and constructive criticism. Students are given models for writing criticism in a way that gives student an editing and revision task instead of simply marking something as incorrect. Writing criticisms as actionable items gives students a clear direction for editing and revising the essay. The Comment Cards are clustered according to the following targeted writing skills: Thesis Statement Introduction Paragraph Conclusion Paragraph Topic/ Concluding Sentences Body Paragraphs Organization Grammar & Punctuation Style & Word Choice Credibility MLA Format Following Directions Evidence Commentary & Analysis Students are also allowed to add their own comments to these cards in order to give themselves a bank of high-quality comment options. The Comment Cards are presented in two formats. The first format presents the comments clustered with their "sister" skills such as evidence and commentary. Following these pairings, each individual targeted writing skill is printed on a page of its own. You can decide how you want to give them to students as part of your writing workshop. These comments can also be used by teachers to give students feedback when they turn in essays. They can be easily converted into a checklist to accompany the essay rubric.

In this set of debate activities by Bespoke ELA, students will participate in a series of debates in response to "yes/no" questions about Shakespeare's play Macbeth. There are 10 debate questions in all. Students will collect evidence to support both sides of the argument and then debate a side with their peers in order to practice constructing logical arguments supported by textual evidence. Each debate chart is followed by an argumentative writing assignment as a culmination of the class debate. The teacher page included gives some suggestions for how to run a debate in your classroom, and I have also included my Debate Guide & Rubric for scoring your students' participation. These debate activities are excellent starter activities for an essay on Macbeth. Use them to facilitate the writing process and/or have students create "oral argument" presentations in which they share their interpretations with the class.

This lesson contains a step-by-step guide for how to write a thesis statement for the literary analysis essay. It is a part of our Mega Lit. Analysis Essay Bundle, sold separately. The most important part of the writing process is crafting the thesis statement because it is the "road map" or "blueprint" for the entire essay. Because this one, single sentence is so important, I have crafted six mini-lessons to insure that your students will have focused, argumentative thesis statements specifically for the literary analysis essay. While the literary analysis essay is a type of persuasive or argumentative essay, it is important that students craft a thesis statement that is specific to the purpose of literary analysis. In this regard, lessons on persuasive or argumentative thesis statements may not be appropriate to teaching students how to write this kind of essay that is a cornerstone of the ELA classroom. This mini-lesson pack takes students through the process of learning the parts of a literary analysis thesis statement and how to craft them by creating thematic claims. By following this guide, students will be well on their way to creating effective "road maps" to write the literary analysis essay.

This mini-lesson teaches students how to craft the topic and concluding sentences of body paragraphs-- specifically for the literary analysis essay-- by using key words and phrases that connect to the thesis statement. You can find this mini-lesson as part of our Literary Analysis Mega Bundle. Bundle and save!

This is an excellent, jigsaw-type, collaborative activity to use as an introduction to the epic poem Beowulf. Essentially, students break into groups to look at only the Prologue and Parts 1 and 2 of the epic poem. Each group takes on the part of an anthropologist/archaeologist "digging" back into the past to learn about the world of the Anglo-Saxons. Each group receives a different set of questions about Anglo-Saxon culture to respond to by seeking out answers from the Beowulf text. Students then report their findings/ discoveries about Anglo-Saxon culture to the class. This is an excellent way to get students involved in active inquiry into a text. I typically do this activity BEFORE I give them any notes at all on Anglo-Saxon culture because I want them to see what they can discover on their own first. This activity is easily followed with a writing assignment in which students describe their findings using textual evidence. Included here are questions for 8 different groups per class (of course, in reality, you may have more groups per class, so you can simply repeat some of the questions amongst groups-- it's perfectly fine to see how two different groups approach the same questions because they will undoubtedly make different observations). Great way to get into the Beowulf story! This item is part of my MEGA BEOWULF BUNDLE that includes 25 lessons and activities with answer keys! You can find the ENTIRE bundle in our store, sold separately. Bundle and SAVE! Positive feedback is appreciated for FREEBIES :)

Given all of the tragic events that have happened in our world and continue to happen in our world, I have compiled a reading list of 75 texts for grades 6-12 about DIVERSITY, RACISM, INCLUSION, TOLERANCE, and MULTICULTURAL AWARENESS. I truly believe that it is crucial to our world that we diversify our students' reading experiences beyond the standard cannon because it's only when we are able to have experiences with people different from us that we can begin to understand those differences and not fear them. I spent many hours researching the texts on this list. The list contains poems, speeches, plays, novels, and essays that address issues such as bullying, racism, LGBTQ, learning differences, and cultural identity (African American, Asian American, Mexican American, and many others). Each text is hyperlinked on the list to Amazon and/or a website where you can either find the text or read about it. Please note that some texts are more suitable for 6th-7th grades while others are only suitable for 12th grade. Please vet these texts according to the grade you teach and appropriateness for your school community and student body. The great thing I discovered by creating this list was that it was DIFFICULT keeping the list down to just 75 texts. There are SO MANY awesome texts out there about these issues, which is a great problem to have. Now, we just need to get them into our classrooms. This document also contains a list of web resources where you can find even MORE READING LISTS and lesson plans for teaching on the importance diversity. I truly hope that you are able to use this product this year in your classroom. And I'd love to hear feedback of any texts that I absolutely MUST ADD to the list. I am always looking for ways to expand reading lists for my students and can't wait to integrate some of these pieces this year. I feel that as teachers we are the harbingers for creating peace in our world, and we bear the responsibility of showing our students that we are all part of the "human family." It is only through education that the violence can end.

This listing is for a characterization activity entitled "Stargram" in which students analyze how a character's name reveals character traits. This mini-lesson is part of the Mega Characterization Bundle of over 15 characterization mini-lessons that get your students working with all literary devices and techniques. You can find it listed separately in our store. Bundle and save over $15.00! For this mini-lesson: "Stargram" Task To characterize a character from a text using textual evidence Objectives To develop criteria for analyzing character To assess comprehension of character development across a text To select appropriate academic vocabulary for literary analysis To support analysis with textual evidence To communicate points effectively with small groups and large groups Common Core Standards R1, 3, 6, 11/ W1, 2, 4, 10/ SL 1, 4, 6/ L1-3 Instructions For this activity, students will first fill out the “Stargram” chart for a specific character—either of their own choosing, or assigned by you (you could even assign student groups to specific characters). Students will then list five adjectives on the “Stargram” to describe the selected character. This is an excellent opportunity for students to use the “Characterization Adjectives List” (sold separately) in order to expand their vocabulary. Be sure to make dictionaries available as well. For each of the selected adjectives, students will find a quotation to support it from the text and add the quotations to the “Stargram.” After completing the “Stargram” Activity, you can have students complete any of the follow-up activities that are included: the “Stargram” Discussion, “Stargram” Analytical Paragraph, or the “Stargram” Class Debate. These follow-up activities provide opportunities for students to synthesize their findings from the “Stargram” Activity and to practice both oral and written communication.

This listing is for a characterization activity in which students analyze how a character's weaknesses impact the story as a whole. This mini-lesson is part of the Mega Characterization Bundle of over 15 characterization mini-lessons that get your students working with all literary devices and techniques. You can find it listed separately in our store. Bundle and save over $15.00! Task To analyze how a character’s weaknesses impact the story Objectives To develop criteria for analyzing character To assess comprehension of character development across a text To support analysis with textual evidence To assess how character traits affect literary elements To apply understanding of character to a new writing situation Common Core Standards R1-3, 6, 10, 11/ W1-4, 10-11/ SL 1, 4, 6/ L1-3 Instructions Characters often experience downfall as a result of a weakness, or inherent flaw. Oftentimes, this flaw is pride or hubris; nonetheless, the protagonist makes mistakes and faces conflicts as a result of this overweening weakness. This series of activities asks students to analyze how a character’s weakness affects literary elements such as characterization, plot, and conflict and to consider how the consequences of a character’s actions determine whether or not a protagonist accomplishes his/her goal in the story. The lead activity included here asks students to exploit a protagonist’s weakness by sensationalizing it in a tabloid article. This activity will get students thinking about the negative aspects of a character and how they cause issues for him/her in the story. The “follow-up” activities include a tabloid article swap in which students respond to each other’s interpretation of the protagonist’s weakness, an exploratory exercise that asks students to analyze the cause/ effect relationship of character weakness and mistakes, and finally a shaping sheet for a synthesis paragraph in which students analyze the protagonist based upon his/her weakness. Essentially, the goal of this series of activities is to “assassinate” the character of a protagonist. Note that you may or may not want to use the paragraph shaping sheet with your students. It is typically effective with students that struggle with writing in general. You may want to simply have your students respond to the prompt by writing/ typing their own paragraph to submit instead of using the shaping sheet. But use your own discretion according to the needs of your students.

This listing is for a characterization activity entitled "Relationship Rectangle" in which students analyze how a character's relationships work to develop character traits. This mini-lesson is part of the Mega Characterization Bundle of over 15 characterization mini-lessons that get your students working with all literary devices and techniques. You can find it listed separately in our store. Bundle and save over $15.00! For this mini-lesson: "Relationship Rectangle" Task To analyze how character relationships contribute to character development Objectives To develop criteria for analyzing character To assess comprehension of character development across a text To select appropriate academic vocabulary for literary analysis To support analysis with textual evidence To communicate and defend an argument through class discussion Common Core Standards R1, 3, 6, 11/ W1, 2, 4, 10-11/ SL 1, 4, 6/ L1-3 Instructions For this activity, students will consider how the protagonist’s relationships in a story develop characterization. The “Relationship Rectangle” asks students to focus on the protagonist’s key relationships, including the protagonist’s most important relationship, most difficult relationship, the relationship that provides the protagonist with the most help and support, and finally the antagonist that acts against the protagonist throughout the story. Student’s selections for these relationships may vary, but students are asked to support their relationship selections with textual evidence and then discuss their findings with a group. Through this discussion, students will begin to agree/ disagree with each other’s relationship selections as a means of synthesizing how relationships in a story serve to characterize the protagonist. Students are then asked to develop an analytical paragraph that asks them to analyze how one particular relationship constructs the characterization of the protagonist. I have provided a shaping sheet for this analytical paragraph; however, you may wish to use it only for differentiation, with all of your students, or not at all (depending upon your students’ skill levels and needs).

This listing is for a characterization activity entitled "Subtext Submarine" in which students analyze how subtext reveals character traits. This mini-lesson is part of the Mega Characterization Bundle of over 15 characterization mini-lessons that get your students working with all literary devices and techniques. You can find it listed separately in our store. Bundle and save over $15.00! For this mini-lesson: Task To assess how subtext reveals character traits Objectives To develop criteria for analyzing character To assess comprehension of character development across a text To support analysis with textual evidence To use inference to analyze character To present findings to the class in an effective, organized, and compelling way To work effectively with others to produce a product Common Core Standards R1-4, 6, 10, 11/ W1, 2, 4, 10-11/ SL 1, 4, 6/ L1-6 Instructions Subtext is a difficult skill for students to comprehend because it requires students to look beyond what they see and to use their inference skills to draw conclusions about character. For this reason, I have developed the metaphor of the submarine to help students visualize this concept. In the “Subtext Submarine” activities that follow, students are introduced to the concept of subtext and then asked to apply that concept to character analysis. The Lead Activity contains an introduction to subtext using the metaphor of a submarine—the idea being that text exists on the surface (above the water), and subtext exists below the surface (under the water). Students are then asked to analyze a series of silly conversations for subtext and then to create their own. They will not only enjoy analyzing the silly conversations (“Ten Ways to Say NO!”) but also inventing their own (“Ten Ways to Say YES!”). The follow-up activities ask students to find examples of subtext in a piece of literature and explain how the subtext reveals character traits. Students can refer back to the list of Characterization Adjectives at the beginning of this packet in order to select appropriate academic vocabulary as they assign character traits to each example of subtext. Finally, students will then create a skit in which they use subtext to reveal character in order to synthesize their understanding of the concept. Once students have a grasp of the concept of subtext, they will enjoy working with it and using it to analyze character.

This listing is for a characterization activity entitled "Motivation Machine" in which students analyze how a character's motivations reveal character traits. This mini-lesson is part of the Mega Characterization Bundle of over 15 characterization mini-lessons that get your students working with all literary devices and techniques. You can find it listed separately in our store. Bundle and save over $15.00! For this mini-lesson: "Motivation Machine" Task To analyze the relationship between character motivation and plot Objectives To develop criteria for analyzing character To assess comprehension of character development across a text To support analysis with textual evidence Common Core Standards R1-3, 6, 11/ W1-4, 10-11/ L1-3 Instructions In this set of activities, students will look at the relationship between character motivation and plot in order to observe how the protagonist’s desires create or drive the plot of the story. The “Motivation Machine” lead activity asks students to consider plot points that are organized according to character decisions. The questions on the “Motivation Machine” Activity follow the typical character motivation pattern as follows: 1. The character has a problem—wants something but cannot get it. 2. The character worsens the problem by making a mistake. 3. The character has to deal with the worsened problem and faces obstacles. 4. The character either solves the problem and gets what he/she wants or does not. After students complete the “Motivation Machine” activity, they can then complete the three follow-up activities: “Motivation Machine” Silent Swap “Motivation Machine” Consequences Chart “Motivation Machine” Analytical Paragraph In the Silent Swap, students swap the “Motivation Machine” activity three times and answer reflection questions independently in order to compare/contrast other students’ character analysis with their own. In the “Motivation Machine” Consequences Chart, students consider the cause/ effect relationship of a character’s motivation. In the Analytical Paragraph, students synthesize their findings into a writing task that responds to the question: “How does the protagonist’s motivation affect the plot of the story?” This activity will enable students to grasp how the protagonist creates the action of a story according to what he/she wants.

This listing is for a characterization activity entitled "Personality Profiles" in which students analyze character by creating various social media profiles. This mini-lesson is part of the Mega Characterization Bundle of over 15 characterization mini-lessons that get your students working with all literary devices and techniques. You can find it listed separately in our store. Bundle and save over $15.00! For this mini-lesson: "Personality Profiles" Task To create social media pages from the perspective of a literary character in order to explore character traits Objectives To develop criteria for analyzing character To assess comprehension of character development across a text To select appropriate academic vocabulary for literary analysis To support analysis with textual evidence To apply modern-day culture and technology to character analysis Common Core Standards R1, 3, 6, 11/ W1-4, 10-11/ SL 1, 4, 6/ L1-3 Instructions One of the best ways for students to get “into” a character’s mind is to envision how a character would use social media. This always captures students’ attention because they themselves use social media in their everyday lives. The activities that follow can be used either as simple activities or as more involved project presentations. Depending upon your school’s technology (and whether or not these social media sites are blocked), you might even be able to have students design real accounts for a character and then share them with the class. You could even give the following handouts to groups as brainstorming and planning tools to use in class to brainstorm ideas for creating social media pages outside of class. This is particularly useful for me because we do not have computers at my school for students to use, so I have them plan out their social media pages in class and then assign students to create the “real” pages outside of class. They then bring in “screen shots” of each page to share with their peers and submit for a grade (due to the fact that all social media sites are blocked at my school). However, if your school has computers and these sites are not blocked, groups could even present their social media to the class and explain the rationale behind their posts, photos, comments, etc. The following handouts include forms modeled after such social media sites as: Twitter Facebook Instagram While these handouts are not exact replicas of these social media sites, they do capture the essence of how they are laid out, and students will understand how to fill them out based upon their own use of social media. A reflection guide follows each social media activity that asks students to explain their rationales behind the character’s posts/ pics/ page.

This product contains 26 pages of items to support a unit on nonfiction, or informational texts. You will find graphic organizers to assess the three more common text structures: descriptive, cause/effect, and compare/contrast. These graphic organizers are accompanied by writing tasks that are great tools to use for beginning an essay analyzing a nonfiction text. You will also find question stems to use for your nonfiction unit that include questions about text features, text structures, and rhetorical devices & appeals. These question stems are excellent tools for targeting Common Core skills and for preparing for standardized tests. In addition, there are two graphic organizers for addressing the 5W's of a nonfiction text as well as comparing/contrasting nonfiction texts. Overall, this is an excellent resource to enrich your next nonfiction unit!

This activity has students making connections between Shakespeare's play Macbeth and the real world through the topic of corruption. In this scavenger hunt activity, students are to locate three Real World Macbeth figures who became corrupt as a result of their ambition. Students are then to write paragraphs that explain their connections using textual evidence from the play and from nonfiction articles. Included in this product you will find: The Scavenger Hunt Assignment Page with Common Core Standards & Objectives Real World Macbeth Comparison Chart Scavenger Hunt Rubric This is an excellent way to connect literature to the real world while targeting Common Core Standards.