Literature - Middle School & High School
 Collected
Reading Lists - Lure reluctant readers with this collection of topic-specific
reading lists! |
|
| English (and other non-American) Literature - Content, lesson ideas, teacher guides | American Literature - Content, lesson ideas, teacher guides |
Listed below are resources on specific authors frequently
found in middle and high school curricula, as well as listings for complete
texts. In most cases, there is no single definitive site for each author, and
many of these sites are maintained by dedicated amateurs. We have included sites
based on the suitability of their content for teachers planning K-12 instruction.
Many of these sites also provide links to additional locations featuring the
same author.
Full Texts - Project Bartleby - This important site was begun in 1993 through Columbia University. Although no longer associated with the university, the site still offers access to significant literary, historical and reference works. Named for Melville’s character-- Bartleby the careful copyist-- the site provides texts of accurate and loyal editions, free public access, careful selection, and state of the art presentation.
Full Texts - Project Gutenberg - Begun in 1971, this "historic" site furnishes e- texts of significance and merit. The evolution and history of the Official and Original Project Web site provided makes interesting reading. The Gutenberg Projects attempts to make important texts accessible to as many readers as possible.
Online English Language and Literature Resouces - Middle School and High School - This site from the library at the University of Toronto offers asignificant collection of electronic literature texts including journals and bibliographies.
A&E Online Mystery Database - Grades 9-12 - Source: A&E - Find your favorite mystery writer, character, novel, TV show or movie here. Teachers note: sometimes a good Whodunit can convince reluctant reader to turn those pages... A good resource at this site!
American Verse Project – Grades 9-12 - Source: University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative and University of Michigan Press - This site is an electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1920. Simple searches help locate poetic texts from Bronson Alcott to Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Contains extensive and useful bibliographies. Students should use the "Simple Search" option when looking for poetry on a specific subject or by author.
Ask the Young Adult Author – Grades 6-8 - Source: Internet Public Library - Find biographies, photos and responses to frequently asked questions from young adult authors such as Robert Cormier, Lois Lowry and Charlotte Zolotow.
Banned Books! Grades 6-12 - This site lists fifty of the most frequently banned books. Some entries include explanations for the banning. A good resource for teachers, or for starting a discussion with older students.
BDD Books for Young People: Teacher’s Resource Center - Target: Elementary and Middle School teachers - Lots of interesting materials here! Teacher’s resources are organized by many categories-- alphabetical, thematic, and award winners. An especially interesting listing is one for reluctant readers. Links to Children’s Book Council, American Library, Children’s Literature Web and others make this a good stop to shop.
Beyond the Core - Teachers - The National Council of Teachers of English has created this listing of books for middle and high school students who want to explore literature that goes beyond the basic curriculum taught in many schools. While some of these texts may be commonplace in some schools, the collection itself could be a useful resource for teachers looking for something new for their students. Each listing includes a synopsis of the book, and many have links to additional resources.
Bibliomania - Grades 9-12 - This site offers excellent reference material for high school students. Information ranges from author biographies to historical perspectives on literature.
BibleGateway - This site provides the text of the Bible in five different translations. A search feature allows students to locate specific words and phrases in any of the texts.
Chicago Manual of Style FAQ - Grades 9-12 - An ongoing collection of grammatical esoterica, primarily questions submitted by writers, editors, and academics. There's a chance you'll find useful commentary here, but only by coincidence. Teachers could make a lesson from the intensity of the arguments over grammatical issues. The site is hosted by the University of Chicago Press.
Concordance of Great Books - Grades 6-12 and Teachers - Here's a rich resource for finding occurrances of a particular word in hundreds of public-domain texts. Select the word and text, and the site shows you where that word appears in the text. Useful for lesson and test designs.
Drama Teacher's Resource Room - Teachers, all grades - This site is interesting both for its breadth - everything from a stage terms glossary to pointers on how to rehearse a new play - and also its depth. There's enough here for someone for whom drama is a full-time assignment, but the content is sufficiently approachable that a novice can also find it useful. Did you end up directing the senior play?? Start here....
Encyclopedia Mythica - Grade 9-12 - An encyclopedia of myths and folklore from a vast array of cultures. Genealogy table, images, articles and other links are available.
The English Server Drama Collection, edited by Geoffrey Sauer. Grade 9-12 - This site from Carnegie Mellon University provides an extensive manuscript collection of plays, screenplays, criticisms, and links to other sites related to the theater (i.e., American Drama Institute; Shaw Festival). Classic and contemporary works are represented, and aspiring playwrights may submit their work for review by the editors for possible publication. Works by Ibsen, Shakespeare, Moliere, and Gay are among the many classics represented. This site would be a useful resource for high school level students and teachers involved in an AP Drama/Theater course.
Favorite Authors - Grades 9-12 - This "labor of love" site maintained by "Flamingo" contains basic information and useful links to a diverse group of writers--Maya Angelou, Richard Bach, Leo F. Buscagalia and Antoine De Saint-Exupery. The section on The Little Prince author De Saint-Exupery is the most extensive and most helpful.
The Favorite Poem Project - Grades 6-12 - U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky has supervised development of this site which offers a collection of "Americans saying the poems they love." The site lets users listen to the recordings over the Internet, and serves as a barometer of the poetry that inspires us.
Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts - Grades: 3-12 - Source: University of Pittsburgh Synopsis: Includes translations of many Germanic-rooted myths, legends and stories. The texts are categorized. Also gives many additional links to other tales and legends. Excellent source for comparison studies of specific tales such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.
Internet Poetry Archive - Grades 9-12 - The University of North Carolina Press and the North Carolina Arts Council developed this poetry resource. It offers information and links on modern poets including such authors as Phillip Levine, Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky and Margaret Walker.
Multicultural Book Reviews - Teachers - This site offers arich resource for K-12 educators: short reviews and ratings of multicultural literary selections. Book subjects are categorized according to ethnic groups.
NovelGuide - Grades 9-12 - Here's one every language arts teacher should know about - for several reasons. NovelGuide offers plot summaries, character profiles, and discussion on dozens of novels that are standard high school and undergraduate fare. These resources could be a real assist for lesson planning, but they're also useful for writing that paper that got started too late. Depending on circumstances, you might think twice before letting your students know about this one.
Olde Sayings - Grades 4-12 - Here's a collection of explanations for many of the phases that have come into common English use. The explanations range from authoritative to folklore, but the process itself is a great illustration of how colloquialisms develop.
Reading Rants - Grades 6-12 - Here's a set of reading lists on thoroughly unconventional topics that should interest many teens. Compiled by a librarian who works with teens, these lists go beyond the traditional young adult fare to introduce good reading on contemporary topics like rock bands, science fiction, etc. The site could be useful for any teacher who has a "reluctant reader."
A Teacher’s Guide to Folklife Resources for K-12 Classrooms - A comprehensive guide developed by the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Appropriate for teachers/media specialists/librarians - This is an excellent resource guide for any teacher/ librarian planning a unit of folklife. It is a copy of a publication available free from the Library of Congress. There is a wealth of information and addresses for planning purposes. State Folklife Centers are also included in the list of addresses.
Shiki Internet Haiku Salon - A Japanese resource for creation and study of the Japanese Haiku poetry form. The site includes examples, resources, and related cultural information.
Legends - Teachers & AP Students - This site offers a collection of resources dealing with an assortment of English, Celtic, Norse, and other legends. It provides brief descriptions of each of these families of legends, then offers links to additional sites containing more specific information. This would be a great resource for teachers who want to develop folk tale and folk literature units. It provides both depth within particular families of legends and themes which are common across several different legends.
Mecury Radio Theatre Collection - Grades 6-12 - Remember War of the Worlds? Did you know that the Mercury Radio Theatre also produced dramatizations of stories like Julius Caesar, Tale of Two Cities, and many other classics. This site has them in audio files that you can either download or play as streaming audio. A wonderful source of period interpretations, you can use this site in literature study or to learn more about the history of radio in America.
The Middle English Collection at the Electronic Text Center - AP English - Source: The University of Virginia - This site contains publicly accessible texts in Middle English of significant works such as Everyman, the York Plays, The Alliterative Morte Arthur and the works of Chaucer. Useful for advanced literature students.
The Mississippi Writers' Page - Grades 7-12 - Created by the University of Mississippi, this page offers articles, biographies, and discussion of the works of dozens of Mississippi-born writers. It's an impressive list! If you're planning a sortie into 20th century American literature, this site is a must for planning purposes.
Modern American Poetry - Teachers, Grades 9-12 - This site from the University of Illinois offers biographical and critical information on several dozen modern American poets. It could be useful for teachers seeking something new and different to inspire a class, or for student research work. A thorough preview is probably in order before suggesting this site for use by students.
The Moonlit Road - Grades 6-12 - This is a monthly collection of stories and folk tales from the Old South, most of which are just a bit "scary." Each of the three or four monthly stories is taken from a particular southern regional tradition. The stories can be read and downloaded, or students may listen to them using the Real Audio player plug-in, which is available from the TeachersFirst Toolbox. Since it changes frequently, teachers should preview this material before turning their students loose. This site could supplement a study of folk tales or the history of the south in the U.S.
Indigenous People’s Literature - Grades 7-12 - An interesting site featuring a variety of poems, prayers, songs and images of indigenous peoples. The term indigenous refers to many examples of native peoples-- including those of Hawaii, Taiwan, American Indian and Celtic areas.
Poetry – Grades 6-12 – From the Department of English, Carnegie Mellon University - This is useful source for hypertexts of a significant collection of poems from Angelou to Wordsworth. Includes an interesting "Essays and Humor" section; don’t miss "Freud-on-Seuss."
The Poets' Corner - Grades 6-12 - This privately developed site offers an alphabetical anthology of major (and some not-so-major) poets and their works. The site is searchable by author, and offers several additional features, including a "poem of the day." Great source for those times when you need to "pull a poem out of thin air."
Poetry Collection from eMule - Grades 6-12 - Here's an on-line, full text collection of poetry from dozens of authors. Search by author or title and retrieve the entire text, ready to use. Very handy for language arts teachers who cannot find a particular poem in the anthology they're using.
Short Stories - East of the Web - Grades 9-12 - While not developed for juvenile audiences, this British site offers several elements of interest to motivated young writers. There is a library of current short stories, along with background information on some authors. There is also a link which allows users to submit stories. Teachers will want to review the content on this one before suggesting it to their students.
Scottish Literature - Grades 9-12 - This British site offers detailed biographical and bibliographical information on Scottish authors up to the present. Created by an author, it provides information that would be useful for report research and for establishing context for any of the works described.
Teaching and Learning with Interactive Fiction - Grades 6-12 - This site is intended to help teachers make use of interactive fiction - web-based stories in which the student make decisions on the part of one or more characters. The site contains significant detail, but suffers from awkward organization. Worth a look if you have groups of students doing writing assignments on-line.
Victorian Web Overview - Target: Senior High - This site is a Victorian treasure-trove! This is a great resource for the politics, economics, religion, philosophies, literature, arts, sciences and technologies of the times. The "Victorian Web Search Engine" scouts out specifics such as info on The Crystal Palace and the Arts and Crafts Movement. Queen Victoria would be amused! Source: George P. Landow, Professor of English and Art History Brown University.
| Literary Almanac - Literary events on this date in history. Great discussion starter! | |
| English (and other non-American) Literature - Content, lesson ideas, teacher guides | American Literature - Content, lesson ideas, teacher guides |
Middle School
Lessons - High School Lessons
Copyright
© 2001 by the Network for Instructional TV, Inc.
All rights reserved.
