Library Guides: English and Literacy: Lesson resources for English texts, YA fiction and picture books

Lesson resources for Young Adult (YA) fiction & children's literature

The following websites provide resources for use in primary and secondary school classrooms including discussion guides for YA novels and lesson plans that will showcase ideas and save you time with lesson planning and preparation.

Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA) site
Visit this site for access to a range of quality teaching resources, units of work, and professional learning resources, for full access to some resources you need to be a PETAA member. Find PETAA publications in our collections (see links below).
Teaching the texts and language of HASS by Lorri Beveridge (PETAA)
In this text Bronwyn Custance and Tony Hole provide an explicit and systematic guide for teaching the specific literacies of the Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) sub-strands of History, Geography, and Civics and Citizenship.With special attention paid to literacy as the capacity to make meaning from texts (comprehending) and through texts (composing), and the core interests and values of the HASS learning area, this book is every primary teacher’s ultimate guide to HASS instruction.
The Early Reading and Music Partnership by Lorri Beveridge (PETAA)
This book gives teachers the tools to explore a beneficial, but often under-explored element of learning to read: music. Learning early reading and music are potentially joyful and reciprocal processes. The early reading and music partnership provides a vital overview of what we now know about neuromusicology - the recent scientific research that supports the view that learning music, engaging in song, and learning to read are complementary and mutually supportive cognitive processes. With a generous approach to sharing classroom strategies and activities (all mapped to the Australian Curriculum), this book is every teacher's essential guide to building lessons across English and The Arts: Music.
University of Queensland Press teachers notes
This site provides teachers' notes for picture books and a range of YA novels by Australian authors, including many which are widely used within schools. These comprehensive teachers' notes include features such as a synopsis, themes, activities, writing style, author motivation and study notes for each novel.
Teacher guides to A-Z fiction list
These teacher's guides to works of literature for the late-elementary and middle-school levels (grades 3-8) include overview information, discussion questions, and extended learning activities, in addition to printable worksheets and lesson plans.
Random House - Educator guides
These guides offer discussion notes and writing exercise ideas for YA literature.Random House offers discussion guides for current YA novels, which can be used in a whole class context or for small reading groups.
Allen & Unwin's teacher resource site
A resource for teacher's to assist in the promotion and teaching of literature and encourage recreational reading and a love of books in children. Book trailers, discussion notes and author posters are available free for use in the classroom.

Tips for finding study guides

Try using these search examples in the library catalogue or combine these term with an authors name:

e.g. "criticism and interpretation" AND Salinger, J.D.

"criticism and interpretation" AND senior secondary english

"study guide*" AND VCE English

Try using subject headings to find resources:

English language -- Study and teaching (Secondary)

Fiction -- History and criticism

Novels as school level English texts

The following novels are English texts widely used for secondary school English.

English Texts:

Novels for students : presenting analysis, context and criticism on commonly studied novels / Diane Telgen, editor. UniM Giblin Eunson 808 NOVE

'Novels for Students' is an 8-volume resource in which each entry or chapter focuses on one novel. The following elements are contained in each entry: introduction, author biography, plot summary, characters, themes, style, historical and cultural context, critical overview, sources, for further study, and criticism.

Wuthering Heights / Emily Brontë. UniM Giblin Eunson 823.8 BRONTE

The great Gatsby / F. Scott Fitzgerald. UniM Giblin Eunson 813.52 FITZGER

To kill a mockingbird / Harper Lee. UniM Giblin Eunson 813.54 LEE

The catcher in the rye / J. D. Salinger. UniM Giblin Eunson 813.54 SALING

Night / Elie Wiesel ; translated from the French by Stella Rodway ; foreword by François Mauriac. UniM Giblin Eunson 940.5318 WIES