Literary Analysis Teacher Resources

This Virginia Commonwealth University site discusses the language and rhetoric used in Walden, accompanied by questions about how to interpret it.

This Virginia Commonwealth University site contains study notes that explain the text to each chapter of Thoreau's "Walden."

Learn to analyze Shakespearean comedies, tragedies, and sonnets. First use examples provided in a slideshow of A Midsummer Night's Dream to understand the process and topics included in an analysis of a comedy. Then learn to use three...

A brief explanation of the tasks involved in doing a close reading in preparation for writing. This writer breaks the process into three steps which involve annotating the text, looking for patterns, and asking questions of the text.

This lesson plan will introduce students to the concept of allegory by using George Orwell's widely read novella, Animal Farm. Through this novel, students will learn what an allegory is, the rhetorical components of an allegory, and...

This guide is written for college students, but should be very useful for upper level high school students as well. The writer first describes fourteen steps to take in doing a close reading, then provides six pieces of advice on how to...

In this lesson plan, students will consider "Jack London's The Call of the Wild: "Nature Faker"?." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.

The New Arts Library offers a very extensive outline featuring all major incidents in the play. Includes references to the poem.

This PDF lesson plan is for learners to write a 5-7 page essay which uses research to support their stance on a topic. For this essay, the students will argue whether they believe the character of the Governess, from Henry James' The...

A series of 8 instructional videos, each about 60 minutes in length, designed to model effective reading habits through envisionment building. Topics include Responding As Readers, Envisioning, Stepping In, Moving Through, Rethinking,...

In this lesson, you will learn to write clear, cohesive transitions by using transitional phrases and varying syntax. [9:19]

Students will learn how to compare and contrast passages from different time periods. Analyzing the similarities and differences of in the way authors show a historical time, place, or a character gives the reader a broader understanding...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Learn to analyze prose by understanding connotation and denotation, identifying metaphors and similes, looking for repetition, and finding imagery in a text.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Learn the basics of how to write about literature by asking subjective and objective questions; use tone, diction, and syntax; identify plot elements, and...

Complex analysis of many facets of "desire" in "Paradise Lost." Includes comparisons to Spenser's "The Faierie Queen."

New Arts Library offers a rewritten version of Milton's summary of "Paradise Lost." Features less complicated, more modern language.