Literary works can serve as a springboard for many types of writing and reading activities for all levels. After reading a story, students can collaborate to research the story's context, find out more about the author or write about their own responses. More advanced students can form groups to write letters to the author or the characters in the story, or to collaboratively write a prequel or sequel to the piece they have read.
After reading a story or other work of literature, students can discuss it as a class or in small groups. Lower levels can ask and answer questions about the story's content, while more advanced groups might discuss themes and speculate about the characters and plot. Students may also select scenes from the story and dramatize them, or do a more elaborate staging of a play.
Literature can also be taught in connection with other types of media, such as film. Students can view a film of a work read in class and explore the differences between the two versions, or use the Internet to learn more about a work's history, cultural context and author. These discoveries can be discussed in class, or written as a collaborative report in small groups.
Poetry and very short works can be used in almost all levels of the ESL classroom to teach skills ranging from pronunciation to creative writing. Reading poems aloud can help students to master the sounds and rhythms of English, and students at the intermediate and advanced levels can explore writing poems either collaboratively or individually with sharing. Students can also research poets, as well as their lives and times, for collaborative report writing or oral sharing with the class.