Instructional Guides Resources for Teachers

Mr. Jost's Internet Classroom, Short Stories Index

8th Grade ELA

32+ stories: Ransom of Red Chief, Treasure of Lemon Brown, Medicine Bag, Raymond's Run, Lottery, Pedestrian, Fog Horn, Dragon, Veldt, There Will Come Soft Rains, more.

JerryWBrown.com, full uploads directory listing

AP Lit teacher archive

Auto-generated directory listing exposes the full file inventory at /wp-content/uploads/.

Florida DOE 2002–2003 Literature Adoption catalog

Florida Department of Education

Complete list of every Holt and Pearson worktext approved for adoption. Useful for ISBN hunting.

NYC SED ELA recommended reading list

New York State Education Department

Bibliography of grade-level appropriate fiction and nonfiction.

Evidence review with full graded bibliography

Ironmanned case for TTRPG pedagogy with the academic-content multiplier hypothesis, every citation preserved and graded by evidence strength.

CommonLit: Thank You Ma’am full module (text + guided reading + assessment + paired texts)

CommonLit

Free with educator account. Full text with guided reading questions, assessment questions, discussion questions, paired text recommendations, parent guide. Text tools include dictionary, read-aloud, translator, highlighter…

Varsity Tutors: Thank You M’am exemplar lesson (7th grade, text-dependent questions, evidentiary writing)

Varsity Tutors / englishteacher.org

Designed as exemplar lesson for 7th grade. Includes text-dependent questions with evidence-based answers, academic vocabulary, culminating writing task with writing prompt and structure, model response, and additional learning activities…

Study.com: Thank You Ma’am lesson plan (theme identification + thank-you note writing)

Study.com / Kristen (Ed.D.)

Post-reading lesson. Opens with discussion about whether stealing is ever acceptable. Students identify theme/central idea and write a thank-you note to one of the characters. Aligned to CCSS RL.9-10.2 (determine theme, analyze development). Free preview…

Hey Natayle: 5-day Thank You M’am unit (story elements, S.T.E.A.L., conflict analysis)

Natayle / Hey Natayle

5-day unit for 6th graders. Day 1: character analysis with S.T.E.A.L. method (Speech, Thoughts, Effect on others, Actions, Looks) and Character Carousel group activity. Day 2: internal/external conflict analysis. Day 3-5: theme, empathy, second chances…

Mondays Made Easy: 3 engaging activities (symbolism graphic organizer, Hughes biography, paired poems)

Mondays Made Easy

Three activities: (1) Symbolism graphic organizer where students locate and interpret symbols in the story with pre-reading informational handout defining symbolism. (2) Hughes biography activity tracing formative years and literary influences…

Hot Seating: interrogate Mrs. Jones or Roger in character

Dorothy Heathcote tradition / Drama Resource (David Farmer)

One student or teacher sits in role as a character and answers questions from the class. For Thank You M’am: teacher-as-Mrs-Jones answers why she brought Roger home instead of calling the police…

Conscience Alley: should Roger take the money from Mrs. Jones’s purse?

Drama Teachers UK / Neelands tradition

Class forms two lines. A student walks between them as Roger at the moment Mrs. Jones leaves her purse unattended on the daybed. One side whispers reasons to take the money; the other side whispers reasons not to. The walker decides at the end…

Freeze Frame / Tableau: key moments from the story frozen and analyzed

Heathcote/Neelands tradition

Students create physical still images of key story moments: the purse-snatch, Mrs. Jones holding Roger by his shirt, Roger washing his face at the sink, the moment Mrs. Jones gives Roger the money…

Mantle of the Expert: students as Harlem community journalists investigating the purse-snatch

Dorothy Heathcote / Gavin Bolton (1995, Drama for Learning, Heinemann)

Heathcote’s approach: students are cast as a team of experts with a commission from a fictional client. For Thank You M’am: students are journalists for the Amsterdam News (Harlem’s Black newspaper…

Role on the Wall: visual character mapping for Roger and Mrs. Jones

HFL Education / Heathcote tradition

Draw an outline of the character on a large sheet. Outside the outline: what others see (actions, speech, appearance). Inside: what the character feels, thinks, fears, wants. For Roger: outside shows the attempted theft, the blue jeans, the dirty face…

CommonLit: Mother to Son by Langston Hughes

CommonLit

CommonLit module with full text, guided reading questions, discussion questions. Direct paired-poem resource for Thank You M’am: Mrs. Jones as the mother-figure delivering hard-earned wisdom to a young person…

Harlem (A Dream Deferred) by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes (from Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1951)

The poem that names the campaign’s setting. What happens to a dream deferred? In the campaign: this poem is the dimension’s thematic ground. Roger’s dream of blue suede shoes is a deferred dream. Mrs…

StoryboardThat: The Treasure of Lemon Brown by Walter Dean Myers (lesson plan)

StoryboardThat

Visual storyboarding lesson for the commonly paired Myers story. Useful for scaffolding paired-reading week…

Kaylor 2017: Dungeons and Dragons and Literacy (Master’s thesis, UNI)

Stefanie L. B. Kaylor

Qualitative study examining how TTRPG play develops literacy skills and reading interests in teenagers. Finds that non-traditional texts used in TRPGs (magazines, graphic novels…

ResearchGate 2025: Effects of Playing TTRPGs on Academic Literacy of Secondary Students (literature review)

ResearchGate / multiple authors

April 2025 literature review. Three themes: (1) conceptual framework from play theory, developmental psychology, and literacy research; (2) empirical evidence on reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing skills, narrative competence…

NGLC: How Tabletop RPGs Teach SEL and Improve Academics for Kids

Adam (Kentucky Educators for RPGs) / NGLC

Cites Kade Wells (South Dakota middle school ELA teacher) whose students doubled NWEA MAP growth using D&D as entire instructional framework. Cites foundry10/Game to Grow white paper on TTRPGs and social-emotional learning…

NGLC: Polyhedral Pedagogy (Adam’s McFarland book 2025)

Adam / NGLC / McFarland Publishers

Profile of Sterling Harris at Western High School Louisville (JCPS). Peer-reviewed book: Tabletop Role-Playing Games in the Classroom: Infusing Gameplay into K-12 Instruction (McFarland, 2025). Free article; book is paid.

TTRPGkids: scholarly resources bibliography for educational tabletop RPGs

TTRPGkids

Curated bibliography of academic sources. Includes: Bowman & Standiford 2015 (Educational LARP in middle school, International Journal of Role-playing); Boysen et al. 2022 and 2023 (playful learning designs in teacher education…

Heathcote & Bolton 1995: Drama for Learning (Mantle of the Expert, Heinemann)

Dorothy Heathcote & Gavin Bolton

The foundational text for Mantle of the Expert. Students study curriculum as if they were a group of experts with a commission from a fictional client. Directly parallel to bookwormburrows’ structure where the DM gives bookworms a purpose in the dimension…

ELA Learning Experiences (19 modular Engage/Explore/Extend activities)

Facing History & Ourselves

19 modular learning experiences using head/heart/conscience analytical posture. Each follows Engage/Explore/Extend structure. Insertable into any literature unit. The Mrs. Jones/Roger encounter rewards exactly this posture. Free with educator account…

Coming of Age ELA Unit Planning Toolkit (voices and choices analysis)

Facing History & Ourselves

Designed around coming-of-age literature. Strategies for teaching setting as moral/social force, perspective-taking activities, voices and choices analysis. Mrs. Jones choosing to feed Roger rather than call police is a textbook voices-and-choices exemplar…

Strategies for Addressing Racist and Dehumanizing Language in Literature

Facing History & Ourselves

Practical guidance for handling dialect and period-appropriate but now-offensive vocabulary. Relevant because Hughes 1958 story uses period dialect and the broader Harlem 1958 historical record includes period use of the word Negro. Free.

How Historical Empathy Helps Students Understand the World Today

Facing History & Ourselves

Defines historical empathy as understanding people in the past by contextualizing their actions. This is exactly the cognitive move the fictional / historical 1958 Harlem dual layer asks students to make. Free.

Discovering a Passion for Poetry with Langston Hughes (Literary Graffiti tool)

ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)

Students analyze Hughes poems in sociohistorical context then create their own poem on a current issue using the Literary Graffiti interactive tool. Develops literary-historical contextualization, voice, and written composition…

A Harlem Renaissance Retrospective: Connecting Art, Music, Dance, and Poetry

ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)

Students conduct internet research, use interactive Venn diagram tool, build a museum exhibit on a Harlem Renaissance artist. Develops research, synthesis, cross-disciplinary connection…

Varying Views of America (Whitman / Hughes / Angelou comparison)

ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)

Students compare Whitman I Hear America Singing, Hughes I Too Sing America, and Angelou On the Pulse of Morning. Tone, point of view, perspective-taking. Strong scaffold for hot-seating Mrs. Jones vs Roger. Free.

Portrait of Langston Hughes (primary-source photograph strategy)

ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)

Uses Carl Van Vechten 1936 LOC photograph as primary source for figurative-language and biographical study. Good establishing shot for the fictional Harlem layer. Free.

Drafts of Langston Hughes Ballad of Booker T. (revision process primary source)

ReadWriteThink (NCTE/IRA)

Five typewritten drafts (LOC mcc.024) showing Hughes revision process. Develops the revision strand. Ontario 2023: strand C (Composition). In the fictional 1958 Harlem: bookworms visiting Hughes workroom at 20 East 127th might find these drafts on the desk…

The Negro Speaks of Rivers (A Walk Through Harlem series, PBS LearningMedia)

PBS LearningMedia

Hughes biographical clip plus full reading of his first published poem (1922). Develops figurative-language and connotative-meaning standards. Free with educator account.

Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance (C-SPAN Classroom, Schomburg Center)

C-SPAN Classroom

Schomburg Center Director Howard Dodson interview footage. Downloadable graphic organizer. Free.

Blues, Poetry, and the Harlem Renaissance (TeachRock, KWL chart)

TeachRock

Connects Hughes poems (I Too, Negro Speaks of Rivers, Homesick Blues, Harlem) with Blues lyrics. KWL chart handout. Develops media literacy and the place-based Harlem-as-cultural-context strand. Free.

Langston Hughes (Voices and Visions documentary, Annenberg Learner)

Annenberg Learner

Full documentary with James Baldwin and biographer Arnold Rampersad. Gold-standard background video for teacher prep. Free streaming.

Restorative Justice in School: An Overview (Cult of Pedagogy)

Jennifer Gonzalez / Cult of Pedagogy

Practitioner overview of RJ in schools. Comments thread recommends Touching Spirit Bear (Mikaelsen) as narrative RJ parallel. Same logic applies to Thank You M’am: Mrs. Jones substitutes relationship-building for police involvement, community accountability…

Examples of Restorative Justice (Colorado School Safety Resource Center, PDF)

Colorado CDPS

Concrete classroom scenarios usable as parallel readings to Thank You M’am. Free PDF.

UNC K-12 Database: Thank You M’am kindness-and-choice role-play lesson (PDF)

University of North Carolina K-12 Database

Scripted ethical role-plays (Student A asks Student B to copy on a test; Student C must decide whether to tell teacher) plus alternate-ending creative writing. Direct alignment with the campaign diceless/role-play model…

Cook, Gremo & Morgan 2017: We’re Just Playing (Simulation & Gaming, modified TTRPG in middle-school ELA)

Mike P. Cook, Matthew Gremo, Ryan Morgan

Qualitative study of 36 middle-school ELA students using a Pathfinder-modified TTRPG paired with Connell The Most Dangerous Game. Found textually grounded gaming decisions, meaningful collaboration, narrative learning through character…

Sayers 2011: Mantle of the Expert as Community of Practice (English in Education)

Ruth Sayers

Frames Mantle of the Expert as Wenger-style Community of Practice. Directly relevant to the campaign students as literary detectives in Hughes Harlem frame. English in Education 45(1) 20-35. DOI: 10.1111/j.1754-8845.2010.01084.x. Paid journal; abstract free.

Salter & Moulthrop 2021: Twining (Amherst College Press, open access)

Anastasia Salter & Stuart Moulthrop

Peer-reviewed monograph on Twine as critical, creative, and pedagogical medium. Chapters on classroom integration of branching interactive fiction. DOI: 10.3998/mpub.12255695. Free open access.

Kirilloff 2021: Interactive Fiction in the Humanities Classroom (Programming Historian, Twine)

Gabi Kirilloff

Open-access peer-reviewed lesson. Surveys prior pedagogical literature on Twine in teaching (Jeremiah McCall on history-classroom Twine, Jonathan Kotchian on composition and reader response). DOI: 10.46430/phen0095. Free.

Cawthon, Dawson & Ihorn 2011: Activating Student Engagement Through Drama-Based Instruction (ERIC)

Stephanie W. Cawthon, Katie Dawson, Shari Ihorn

Drama for Schools model increases authentic engagement among middle-school students. ERIC: EJ985619. Journal for Learning through the Arts. Free PDF.

Anderson & Loughlin: Process Drama Pedagogy for the Literacy Programme (ERIC EJ1139685)

Anderson & Loughlin

Exploratory study showing process drama expanded students text-user, meaning-maker, and text-analyst practices. Pedagogies: An International Journal. ERIC: EJ1139685. Free abstract.

Ontario Curriculum Grades 1-8: Language, 2023 (official PDF)

Ontario Ministry of Education

Canonical strand reference. 2023 document orders strands as A (Literacy Connections and Applications), B (Foundations of Language), C (Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts), D (Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts)…

TVO Learn Grade 7 Language (Ontario-certified teacher-curated activities)

TVO Learn / Ontario public broadcaster

Learning activities, vocabulary lists, videos, articles, podcasts aligned to 2023 Ontario curriculum. Free.

TVO Learn Grade 8 Language

TVO Learn / Ontario public broadcaster

Grade 8 page explicitly states students are encouraged to explore issues related to personal identity and community concerns as they interact with increasingly complex and challenging texts. Direct fit with campaign identity/empathy themes. Free.

ENG3U / ENG2D / ENG4U General Course Outline Map

Saul Nassau / Seminar Schools

Full course outline map across ENG2D, ENG3U, and ENG4U. Literary devices by grade, poetry and short story unit resources with difficulty progressions, novel study and ISU lists from easiest to hardest, drama unit resources, media studies unit outline…

Thank You Ma'am — Interactive Campaign Page

Saul Nassau / Seminar Schools

Student-facing interactive campaign built on the Langston Hughes 1958 short story. Set in Harlem, September 20-21, 1958. Part of the BookwormBurrows tabletop educational system. Includes period media, historical research, and dimensional-travel game mechanics.

Thank You Ma'am — Interactive Campaign Experience

Saul Nassau / Seminar Schools

Student-facing interactive campaign page for the Langston Hughes short story Thank You Ma'am. Set in 1958 Harlem on September 20-21. Includes period media (music, newsreel, photographs, front pages), historical context, and the full campaign framework…