First and foremost, teach students what literary criticism is. It is important for them to understand the fundamental differences between summarizing a piece of literature and critically analyzing it. One of the most basic questions of literary criticism is, "What is literature?" Start by having the class come up with a list of definitions followed by a sharing and discussion period of what they came up with. You can now present them with a brief timeline of how literary criticism has changed over the years and the greatest breakthroughs in the field. Finally, give a small lecture about the different applications of literary criticism and how it may be applied to one work, all of an author's works, all of the works within a time period or all of the works within a cultural or philosophical period.
One way to integrate both history and literature into one lesson plan is by doing a critical analysis of a piece of literature, focusing on historical perspective. Have students choose a historically significant piece of literature, such as Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun." First, have students conduct research about the historical period within which their chosen piece of literature takes place and/or was written. Formulate ideas about how a piece of literature might have been influenced by events, attitudes and beliefs of the time. Have students make a list of questions to ask themselves as they read the piece that will help them focus on how historical perspective has particularly formed this piece. Good examples of reading questions are: "How are the attitudes of this time period expressed by the characters?" or "How does the author address the audience differently during this time period?" After they have read and fully analyzed a book your students can write a paper with a central thesis argument on how historical perspective has particularly influenced this piece, using ample evidence.
This type of lesson plan can also be fine-tuned to focus on culture, socioeconomic status and a variety of other perspectives instead of history.
Literary theory and literary criticism have often been used interchangeably, which has led to quite a bit of controversy in the academic world. Some argue that literary criticism is simply the application of literary theory. You can teach this concept to your students by first giving a short lesson or lecture on a certain literary theory. For instance, introduce your students to feminist literary theory, explaining the main points of this type of criticism and how it focuses on gender. Have students apply this theory to a work of their choice, such as "The Edible Woman" by Margaret Atwood. Like the previous lesson plan, students should write a critical analysis of the piece using the main tenets of feminist literary criticism.