Teaching Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird from Multiple Critical Perspectives

by Marie Y. Smith, Harper Lee

The adage says that there are two sides to every story, but as most contemporary literature teachers can attest, there are many sides to every story-or at least many ways of looking at a story. Prestwick House's Multiple Perspectives Lesson Guides provide the high school teacher with everything she needs to guide her students through the study of the titles she teaches from a variety of critical viewpoints. Every Multiple Perspectives Lesson Guide provides a general introduction to the work (plot summary, introductions to key characters, brief discussions of social and historical background); clear and concise explanations of three critical theories (including feminism, Marxism, Freudianism, new historicism, and formalism); and reading, writing, and discussion activities designed to help students probe the familiar text in new and deeper ways. Teachers who want to take their teaching of literature beyond the tired plot pyramid and want their students to experience the books they love more than reader-response alone will let them, will find Prestwick House Multiple Perspectives Lessons Guides to be an invigorating addition to their course syllabus.

47 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Marie Y. Smith produces Advanced Placement Teaching Units and Multiple Perspectives Lesson Guides for Prestwick House.

Reviews

[Rachel Mayes Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This teaching guide gives helpful overviews of various schools of criticism, offers essential questions, and suggests potential activities. The potential activities are deeply inane--RAFT after RAFT that provides little meaningful academic benefit, but the essential questions are worthwhile.