Allegories are similar to metaphors: in both the author uses one subject to represent another, seemingly unrelated, subject. However, unlike metaphors, which are generally short and contained within a few lines, an allegory extends its representation over the course of an entire story, novel, or poem. This lesson plan will introduce students to the concept of allegory by using George Orwell’s widely read novella, Animal Farm, which is available on Project Gutenberg.

This is a lesson plan is meant to assist in teaching and assessing students' ability to identify character development, types, and changes. This resource can be modified to fit a novel unit study, short stories, or plays. The resource is intended to be used as a digital element in an in-person class but can be modified to fit other class types and modalities.Cover image: Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

Students will learn the potential costs and benefits of social media, digital consumption, and our relationship with technology as a society in the three-week lesson. This inquiry based unit of study will answer the following questions:

Essential Question: How can we use science fiction’s ability to predict the future to help humanity?

Supportive Questions 1: What predictions of future development has science fiction accurately made in the past? This can include technology, privacy, medicine, social justice, political, environmental, education, and economic.

Supportive Question 2: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are positive for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to make these predictions reality?

Supportive Question 3: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are negative for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to stop these negative outcomes?

(Thumbnail is a screenshot of the OER Commons lesson page, taken 7/26/2022 by Christina Nelson.)

This lesson plan is designed to go along with a classroom reading of Hamlet for high school students (grades 9-12). This lesson is designed to help students with their close reading skills and help them to create a deeper understanding of what is going on in one of Hamlet's soliloquies in the play. The lesson can be adapted for any of the soliloquies found in Hamlet (along with other Shakespearean plays). This lesson plan allows students to come outside of the difficulty of Shakespearean language and create meaning through connecting the words to artwork. It would be appropriate as an individual assignment, as well as an assignment for partners or small groups. 

This is a lesson plan designed to be a culminating project after a novel study.  It includes student voice and choice, and is designed around using iPads to create a project. Image 

This lesson focuses on reading comprehension for 9th-10 grade students. The students will identify the main idea and key details. Grades 9-10Learning Domain: Reading for Informational TextStandard: By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently. Image Citation : Carmine, Mathias Del. (n.d.). cubist great painter face portrait painting. Adobe Stock. Adobe. Retrieved November 8, 2023, from https://stock.adobe.com/search?k=pablo+picasso&search_type=usertyped&asset_id=130077836.

Check out what the Globe looks like (and looked like) with this virtual tour.

In this student-facing activity, students will explore various TED videos as examples of digital short stories. After watching a video, students will complete a questionnaire and participate in a class discussion.  (Public speaking image - free to reuse - from Pixabay.com)  Resource Author: Matthew Winters, adapted by Katie Blunt