Immediately popular when published over a century and a half ago, the novel "Jane Eyre" has continued to find appreciative audiences ever since. This student casebook offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Charlotte Bronte's landmark novel. While the casebook gives literary analysis, it also contextualizes the novel in…

More than 100 years after being written, "Great Expectations" is still one of the most widely studied works of fiction. This casebook of historical documents, collateral readings and essays brings to life both Charles Dickens' masterpiece and the social issues surrounding his work. The interdisciplinary approach in the casebook offers…

In 1870, after the successful publication of "War and Peace," Leo Tolstoy began imagining a story about a high-born society woman, "Anna Karenina," who destroys her life by having an adulterous affair. By presenting his adulteress as a sympathetic character, Tolstoy aimed to expose injustices in such Russian institutions as…

Charles Dickens' novel, "A Tale of Two Cities," does not waste a word in telling a touching, suspenseful tale set against the background of one of the bloodiest events in history, the French Revolution. This casebook's collection of historical documents, collateral readings, and commentary will promote interdisciplinary study of the…

Three installments of "Classic of the Month," a regular feature of the National Council of Teachers of English publication, "Notes Plus," are presented in this compilation. Each installment of this feature is intended to provide teaching ideas related to a "classic" novel. The first article offers a variety of…

This teacher's guide for public television's 6-part adaptation of George Eliot's "Middlemarch" provides information that will enrich students' viewing of the series. The guide includes a wide range of activities to help students further explore the novel's universal themes. The guide suggests that students read the informational…

Many high school students are on a quest to find out who they really are. Using the theme of "Searching for Identity" in both "A Fine White Dust" and "Great Expectations" will help students identify their feelings. Cynthia Rylant's "A Fine White Dust" has easier language than "Great Expectations,"…

This teacher's guide for public television's 3-part adaptation of Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist" provides information that will help enrich students' viewing of the series, whether or not they read the novel. The guide includes a wide range of discussion and activity ideas; there is also a series Web site and a list of Web resources.…

This course seeks to provide high school students the opportunity to sharpen their critical thinking skills and use of language through acquaintance with some ideas of literary criticism. The course features Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," assuming that the students have just finished reading that American classic novel. The…

All people have to deal with feelings of loneliness, isolation, fear, and lack of acceptance, especially in the teenage years. Both of the novels "Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes" and "Frankenstein" deal with these issues. By 10th grade, students are really searching for who they are and what they want out of life. It is…

Lois Lowry's award-winning novel, "The Giver," chronicles the strength of Jonas, an adolescent boy of 12 who lives in a utopian society. In the Community everyone is equal, and there is only a gray routine of existence. But Jonas is singled out by "The Giver," a wise old man who teaches Jonas the range of human emotions, and…

Both the adolescent novel "The Giver" (Lois Lowry) and the classic work "Animal Farm" (George Orwell) deal with the idea of a controlling society. "The Giver" gives the reader an understanding of what it is like to live in a society where every move and every decision is basically made for you, but the people living…