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2001. One definition of madness is "mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it." But Emily Dickinson wrote Much madness is divinest Sense- To a discerning Eye- Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a "discerning Eye." Select a novel or play in which a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of the "madness" to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

2001. One definition of madness is "mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it." But Emily Dickinson wrote Much madness is divinest Sense- To a discerning Eye- Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a "discerning Eye." Select a novel or play in which a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of the "madness" to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

The New York Times' collection of resources for teaching F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby.

This blog post would be fun to turn into a writing assignment: Have minor characters in a novel your students are studying discuss the other minor characters in the manner of Mr. Palmer.

Interactive website for studying the Nancy Farmer novel "The House Of The Scorpion". Including assignments for unit study.

Hope this can be of service.

Hope this can be of service.

 I believe "iFake Text" is a great example of  a simple tool that can allow your students to show what they know in a unique or novel way by emulating a text message conversation on an iPhone. Tammy Worcester

Activities for studying social control and power through films and graphic novels.

"Studio 360 explores F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and finds out how this compact novel became the great American story of our age. Novelist Jonathan Franzen tells Kurt Andersen why he still reads it every year or two, and writer Patricia Hampl explains why its lightness is deceptive. We'll drive around the tony Long Island suburbs where Gatsby was set, and we'll hear from Andrew Lauren about his film G, which sets Gatsby among the hip-hop moguls. And Azar Nafisi describes the power of teaching the book to university students in Tehran. Readings come courtesy of Scott Shepherd, an actor who sometimes performs the entire book from memory."

"Parents need to think carefully when choosing names for their children." Interesting link for the novel Don't Call me Ishmael by Michael Bauer

Jane Austen's novels, one chapter at a time, via podcast.

Joyce Carol Oates's thoughts on Emily Brontë's classic novel Wuthering Heightsl

"Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet on Facebook? With social networking the hot topic of the day, a computer science grad student, his advisor and a literature professor teamed up to analyze social interactions in 19th century British novels."

I think there is a lot to be said for this approach. I wish that more folks contributed to the database. Thanks for posting this, Emily.

A website that has a compilation of well written sentences/ excerpts from novels and short stories that could be used as mentor texts in a language arts/ English classroom.