Pride+and+Prejudice

= Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen =

Wiki By: Holly Elise Miller


**Background and Pre-Reading Information ~ Painting a Picture of the 19th Century World** This links to a good essay on background information to the social world of the 19th century. I believe students will get more out of the novel if they can understand the context as much as possible.
 * []

This links to a lesson plan exploring the themes of social class and marriage in the novel. I think that it is important for student to have background knowledge of the time period in which a text takes place. I like this specific lesson plan because it includes pre-reading activities, creative activities that introduce drama into the clasroom, and higher-level research projects.
 * []

Although this is from the "dreaded" Wikipedia, I thought it was interesting and extensive, including every character. Students can become overwhelmed when introduced to many characters, especially if they are just trying to understand the language. This would be helpful and is just fun to look at.
 * []

It has been shown that the traditional way of teaching vocabulary off of a list isn't the most effective. Students must see the word in context and apply it to their prior knowledge if it is to be remembered. I think pre-reading vocabulary lists can sometimes come in handy though, because it is an annoyance to have to look up words in the middle of reading and some students may just glaze over the words. In order to help students retain the vocabulary, I would have them write the context that they found the word in (in the novel) then write a journal entry in which they have to creatively use at least half of the new words.
 * []

**Lesson Plans** .This is one of my favorite links because the lesson plans outline which standards the lesson will use and explains specifics of the activities used. There is a lot of small group interaction and each activity is in-depth enough to give students a good understanding of the material. Each activity relates to an objective and standard so I would feel very comfortable using this in my classroom.
 * []

This link has a ton of information linked on it. First, there is an e-text. This is convenient for anyone who doesn't have access to the book for whatever reason and it is very easy to jump from chapter to chapter. There are character lists, annotations, comments, event lists and almost every resource one could ask for!
 * []

This website contains 5 lesson plans of varying difficulty. They cover the importance of finding meaningful quotations, character analysis and background information. I like that each assignment allows the student to be creative while applying their knowledge of the novel.
 * []

A teacher discusses her usual procedure for teaching Pride and Prejudice. I think it's a good resource because her years of experience are apparent and she explains what typically works and doesn't work and what students typically struggle with. Her lessons also incorporate technology, which is important.
 * []

This assignment caught my eye from the beginning because the objective point to students seeing why classics endure the test of time. They look at themes, plot and characterization in order to compare Pride and Prejudice with modern films. Both elements of theater and textual analysis are present.
 * []

This link provides several different brief activity ideas. These are just a few more possible ideas that I could use to provoke student discussion.
 * []

**Possible Discussion and Essay Questions** The questions in this link are pretty basic and straightforward. They don't ask for much elaboration but are good questions to begin a test with or just to provoke class discussion because they are broad.
 * []

I came across this forum for asking and answering questions about novels. I see that some have been intelligently answered while others haven't received anything but an "I don't know." I'm willing to bet that some of them are students trying to get someone else to answer their homework questions. There are nearly 300 questions and they are of all levels and topics. I could use this as a teacher for questions ideas. I think for students this COULD be a good resource, but it would have to be used in a similar fashion to Sparknotes--the student read the book but is just looking for more interpretations and analysis. If I ever relayed this site to students I would make sure to check it often and make sure they weren't asking their homework questions!
 * []

At the bottom of this page are some discussion questions prepared by the Manitowoc Public Library. Questions deal with social class, marriage and why the novel is still popular today.
 * []

The part of this link that I found to be the most relevant are the discussion questions near the bottom of the page. They probe the student for in-depth responses and ask them to evaluate why the story unfolds as it does.
 * []

**Some Other Helpful Tools That May Benefit Students** This links to passages that illustrate themes in the novel. While students should be encouraged to graze the novel on their own for good passages, this is a great resource to help with understanding. It could be convenient for finding relevant passages when writing an essay or paper.
 * []

For the same "mother site" as above, this page has genealogical charts for the characters as well as detailed lists of where each character appears in the novel and quotations that characterize them.
 * []

This is an extended, exact timeline of what happens throughout the novel. It is based on the original text, First Impressions. It may be helpful to students who have trouble with chronology of stories.
 * []

Sparknotes... the site that most teachers love to hate. My teacher in my senior AP English class disagreed though. She said that as long as we actually did do our reading, she felt Sparknotes was a great resource to help understand difficult parts of a book if we were struggling. I like her thinking--I admit that I often check the "analysis" section of Sparknotes when reading a novel to make sure that I am not missing any important symbolism and to get a different perspective in general.
 * []

**Other Random Information** Pride and Prejudice was made into a film in 2005. Students can draw parallels between the movie and the novel. Often, watching a movie can help students visualize the text more and help them compare different ways it might be portrayed, especially if they engage in creating skits like in the above lesson plan.
 * []

Seth Grahame-Smith created a mash-up of Pride and Prejudice and zombies. However, this book is not something I have read, so I can only mention it in passing. Students, especially males not particularly interested in a Romantic period novel, might find this strange creation to be interesting--and proof that the novel really can be related to anything! It can show students that connections can be made between classic literature and apparently anything if zombies can become a part of Pride and Prejudice!
 * []