Washington Irving
Lesson plans and teaching ideas

| Biography and Background | | "The Devil and Tom Walker" | | "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" | | "Rip Van Winkle and other stories |

Biography and Background

Washington Irving
Biography, portraits, and related links.

"The Devil and Tom Walker"

Anticipation Guide for "The Devil and Tom Walker"
This prereading activity asks students to consider their attitudes regarding specific issues related to the story.

Characterization in "The Devil and Tom Walker"
Students analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama through an understanding of indirect and direct characterization and third person point of view. Lesson plan includes links to slide presentation, student handouts.

"The Devil and Tom Walker"
How might students use storyboards to demonstrate and to extend their learning? Check the resources here. Students work with vocabulary, tone and word choice, literary elements, more. Note: Storyboard That helps sponsor this site.

The Devil and Tom Walker Newsletter
Students will create a newsletter with information taken from the short story "The Devil and Tom Walker." Students will work in pairs and decide which parts of the newsletter each will be responsible for completing. The finished newsletter will be published for the class to view.

"The Devil and Tom Walker"
Text of the story. Follow links to PDF or Google Docs format.

"The Devil and Tom Walker" vocabulary
50 words presented in context and with definitions. Click on a word for pronunciation, synonyms, examples of use, and more.

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
A rich series of lessons involving a variety of aspects of this classic.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Text in 3 formats: MP3 (1:06.47), PDF (33 pages), and web page. PDF and audio files are downloadable. Flesch–Kincaid Readability Level: 10.0

A Teacher's Guide to The Core Classics Edition of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Other Tales
Support for 4 stories: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "Rip Van Winkle, " "The Specter Bridegroom," and "The Devil and Tom Walker." Documents include background information, comprehension questions, and vocabulary practice. This document is 119 pages long and requires Adobe Reader for access. Consider saving it to your computer and printing only those pages you need.

"Rip Van Winkle" and other stories

"The Christmas Dinner"
Text of the story, available in both PDF and Google Docs format.

"The Legend of the Two Discreet Statues"
Introduction and text of the story in PDF and Google docs formats.

"Rip Van Winkle"
Seven discussion questions.

"Rip Van Winkle" Think Piece
Writing prompts.

"Rip Van Winkle"
This audio file lasts about 23 minutes.

"Rip Van Winkle"
Text of the story.

"Rip Van Winkle" Story Notes
Commentary on author and style.