Free Printable American Literature Activities and Lessons

This article provides links and descriptions of  online sites offering free literature activities. There are free printable reading games and lesson plans. Use for author study, genre study, Reader's Workshop and Writer's Workshop. Explore the novel, dramatic play, short story, essay, narrative, speech, expository writing and poetry. Genres include fantasy, mystery, adventure, horror, allegory, fable, legend and epic. Lessons may be used by American literature teachers and home school parents. Resources will be helpful for special needs students, too.

Happychild comes to us from the UK and like so many of the British sites has a very multi-cultural flavor. I am an admitted 'brit-o-phile' and tend to regard more highly anything from GB.
Gradebook is a .org site and that to me is a symbol of quality, professionalism and generosity. Decades of quality teaching goes into the creation of these lessons, activities, games and learning tools. You'll find a plethora of lesson plans and not exclusively just American literature.

Free Printable City of Ember Lesson Activities

The "City of Ember" book series, by Jeanne DuPrau, (2003) is a science-fiction post-apocalyptic fantasy series loved by students and educators alike. Many elementary, intermediate and middle schools are incorporating City of Ember books into their classroom curriculum. With the release of a movie version students can read and study the books and follow up with the film version for comparison. Here are free printable City of Ember book activities, movie study guides and lesson plans.

The series chronologically is City of Ember, People of Sparks, Prophet of Yonwood and Diamond of Darkhold. Not all have been made into film so there are movie study guides only for City of Ember. But there are book activities for all books. Here are free printable lesson plans for teaching the City of Ember book series. Lesson Planet is a pay site with some free book activities to print. Here arefree printable City of Ember lesson plans. Scholastic also charges for many of their printables. But here is a City of Ember book discussion guide to print free. Here are more free printable City of Ember lesson plans for teachers of middle school and homeschool parents. The movie study guides are really helpful for preparing book activities.

This free printable lesson plans kit includes story maps, worksheets, book activities, character webs, comprehension questions, movie study guides, vocabulary, grammar, symbolism, cause and effect, analysis and application questions, synthesis and evaluation questions, book activities, games, reading response rubrics, charts, quizzes and more. The City of Ember books are a dystopian series that tells of a people that has suffered depletion. They've gone underground, to re-emerge at a given time in the future. City of Ember is Orwellian science fiction, reminiscent of 1984, Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. Use book activities and movie study guides for units on science fiction.