Links to Literature
Developed by Wilkes Community College ESL Staff
Deborah Britton, Coordinator
John Hough
Margaret Horn
Jan Gresham
The Links to Literature project consists of ESL Independent Study exercises designed to link topics in American history and civics to selected works of American literature.
| Please respect copyright laws.It is expected that users of these Links to Literature units will purchase sufficient copies of each work to comply with the fair use provision of copyright law. |
Advise and Consent
Allen Drury’s Advise and Consent is currently out of print. The excerpt used for this unit is from the 6th printing, published by Doubleday in 1965. Used copies can be purchased economically at http://www.amazon.com and other booksellers. In addition to being an absorbing novel, Advise and Consent has been made into an entertaining motion picture. It may be available at your local library or video store.
- Student Booklet
- Senate Seating Chart for Exercise 11 (slow printing, high resolution)
- Senate Seating Chart for Exercise 11 (fast printing, low resolution)
- Answer Key
- Audio file of the Reading Selection
- Audio file for Exercise 3
- Audio file for Exercise 4
- Audio file for Exercise 6
- Audio file for Exercise 10
- Audio file for Exercise 12
- Audio file for Exercise 12 (Listen and read along version)
Grapes of Wrath
The literary excerpt used in this unit is from the 1992 paperback edition of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, published by Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-01.8640.9.
- Introduction
- Student Booklet
- Audio file of the Reading Selection
- Audio file for Exercise 9
- Audio file for Exercise 10
- Answer Key
I Have a Dream
A recording of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is available from The King Center, 449 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30312 (404-526-8900). You may find the text of the speech available on a number of internet websites.
The booklet Free at Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and Those Who Died in the Struggle is available from Teaching Tolerance, The Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104 or visit http://www.tolerance.org
Inherit the Wind
This unit uses the 2003 Ballantine edition of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind, published by Random House, ISBN 0-345-46627-6.
- Audio file of the Reading Selection
- Part 1
- Part 2
Johnny Tremain
The excerpt used in this unit on Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes is from the 1969 paperback edition, published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Books, ISBN 0-440-94250-0.
- Student Booklet
- Audio file of the Reading Selection
- Audio file for Exercise 10
- Audio file for Exercise 11
- Audio file for Exercise 12
- Answer Key
O Pioneers
The excerpt from Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! that is used in this unit comes from the 1994 paperback edition, published by Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-01.8775-8. O Pioneers! has also been made into a motion picture. It may be available at your local library or video store.