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|
Washington Irving
Biography, portraits, and related links.
Anticipation Guide for "The Devil and Tom Walker"
This prereading activity asks students to consider their attitudes regarding specific issues related to the story.
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.
Using Drama to Bring "The Devil and Tom Walker" to Life
After reading and discussing the story, students collaborate to create a short scripted scene of the encounter between Tom Walker's wife and the devil, using context clues and characterization from the text. Students then perform their completed scenes for the class using props and costumes. Includes handout on script writing (with rubric).
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
A rich series of lessons involving a variety of aspects of this classic.
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.
"The Christmas Dinner"
Text of the story, available in both PDF and Google Docs format.
"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.
