Mathew Brady photo of Abraham Lincoln reading with his son Tad. Courtesy of American Memory (Library of Congress).

• Aesop and Ananse: Animal Fables and Trickster Tales
• The Beauty of Anglo-Saxon Poetry: A Prelude to Beowulf
• Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Biographers
• Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Narrator
• Fables and Trickster Tales Around the World
• Fairy Tales Around the World
• Helpful Animals and Compassionate Humans in Folklore
• Jack London's The Call of the Wild: “Nature Faker”?
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• The Poet's Voice: Langston Hughes and You
• A Trip to Wonderland: The Nursery 'Alice'

• Academy of American Poets
• African Studies WWW
• American Memory Project (Library of Congress)
• American Studies at the University of Virginia
• ArchNet
• Asia Source
• Center for the Liberal Arts
• Harlem 1900-1940: An African-American Community
• Internet Medieval Sourcebook
• Internet Public Library
• Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies
• Learner.Org
• Mark Twain in His Times
• Victorian Web

Summertime Reading and Learning

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—as long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
—Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

EDSITEment lesson plans and resources are wonderful enhancements to your summer reading. Most lesson plans, regardless of grade level, can be adapted as guides for discussion, either with your children or among members of a reading group. Parents can also use lesson plans and EDSITEment reviewed websites to help their children prepare for the next year's reading assignments.

Using EDSITEment lessons Aesop and Ananse: Animal Fables and Trickster Tales and Fables and Trickster Tales Around the World, you can teach younger students about the larger context of fables and trickster tales as they read Aesop’s Fables. Read Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with your child and use EDSITEment lesson plans A Trip to Wonderland: The Nursery 'Alice' and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Nonsense Poetry and Whimsy to encourage them to create their own art and poetry.

Students in 4th through 6th grades can learn important concepts of poetic voice in the poetry of Langston Hughes, an influential 20th century writer. By using EDSITEment lesson The Poet's Voice: Langston Hughes and You, students not only learn about poetic voice, but begin to develop their own through a series of journal writing exercises. If the summer leads your students or children to dream about fantasy worlds, EDSITEment has a large assortment of lessons dealing with fairy tales and folklore, including Fairy Tales Around the World, Cinderella Folk Tales: Variations in Character, and Helpful Animals and Compassionate Humans in Folklore. A more complete list of 4th-6th grade summer reading lessons is available below.

Older students interested in fantastic escapes and journeys can learn about Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or Jack London’s Call of the Wild. High school students can learn more about The Beauty of Anglo-Saxon Poetry before reading the exploits of Beowulf. Subsidize scary campfire stories by reading short stories by Edgar Allan Poe and then learning about his life and narrative voice in the two EDSITEment lessons Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Biographers and Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Narrator.

These are only a few of the many EDSITEment lesson plans that complement the NEH Summertime Favorites reading list. Keep reading below for a full list of EDSITEment lessons currently available that intersect with the NEH reading list or scan the entire list of lesson plans that EDSITEment offers.

Links to Lesson Plans, by grade:

Grades K-3

Grades 4-6

Grades 7-8

Grades 9-12