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Literature & Thought
Grades 6–12
Unit studies for critical thinking, reading, and writing
Develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills through the close reading of complex texts.
Explore literary themes and genres, historical events and eras, and government and current events through 25 unit-based anthologies. Each anthology contains a cluster of related readings that explore an Essential Question using critical thinking skills such as comparing, contrasting, analyzing, defining, inferring, and synthesizing.
Teaching support includes selection questions, activities, vocabulary, project-based assessments, discussion prompts, pacing guides, and much more.
Interactive versions feature learning tools such as translation, text-to-speech, and accessibility; sophisticated annotation; note-taking tools; real-time collaboration walls; online assessment.
“
The more I used the text with the students, the more impressed I became. These are really premium pieces of literature. The excerpts get right to the crux of the issue. I could pick this up and use a tremendous amount without doing anything extra. It’s really the important information. Students were asking to read ahead. I enjoyed this more than any other text in my years of teaching.
”
Susan Osborne, English/Drama Teacher
Shenandoah Valley Academy
New Market, Virginia
Titles in This Program
Literature & Thought Interactive Collection
Government & Current Events
Historical Events & Eras
Literary Themes
Literary Genres
Program Features & Resources
Features
Develop Critical Readers & Writers
Students learn to
- apply close reading skills.
- compare and contrast texts.
- engage in active discourse.
- learn and apply specific critical thinking, analytical, and evaluation skills.
- respond and share ideas through writing, speaking, and listening activities.
Active Discourse & Literacy
Students develop communication and literacy skills as they
- collaborate to uncover meanings.
- gain new perspectives.
- respond through discussion, writing, and a range of media.
Teacher Materials
Robust Teaching Support
- Comprehensive lesson plans covering two- to six-week units.
- Interactive minilessons for critical thinking skills and text analysis.
- Writing opportunities with models and rubrics.
- Multiple assessment options including online quizzes and tests with statistics and reports.
- Available in print and digital interactive editions.
Access a complete listing of Lexile levels and text types for all Literature & Thought books.
Interactive Editions
Reimagine your classroom, where all students can...
Comprehend the text
Comprehension is the gateway to meaning, and our state-of-the art Immersive Reader technology delivers.
ALL students have the power to
- adapt the reading passage based on their own abilities and learning differences.
- translate and hear the text in their native language—dozens of languages available.
- use a picture dictionary, add line focus (1, 3, or 5 lines of text), or identify parts of speech and syllables.
- change font type, size, and background colors for readability.
Read for meaning
Move students from skimming and scanning to discovering evidence and extracting meaning with Interactive Texts.
Students can quickly
- identify, label, and comment on textual evidence.
- collect evidence in a digital notebook.
- transfer ideas and evidence into discussion and writing tasks.
Participate and collaborate
Reduce reluctance to participate through the Collaboration Wall.
Students and teachers can use digital tools to
- share ideas and perspectives based on meaningful, text-based questions.
- participate in dynamic discussions both online and in small groups.
- track participation in real time.
Look Inside
Access a complete listing of Lexile levels and text types for all Literature & Thought books.
Sample Pages
Voices of the Holocaust
Student Edition | Teacher Edition
To Be a Hero
Student Edition
| Teacher Edition
Mysterious Circumstances
Student Edition
| Teacher Edition
Individual Rights: The Blessings of Liberty
Student Edition
| Teacher Edition
We the People: Foundations of American Government
Student Edition
| Teacher Edition
Correlations
Common Core State Standards
And Justice for All
Mysterious Circumstances
A House Divided: America's Civil War
On the Edge of Survival
The Best of Friends
The Sci-Fi Factor
Dark Days: America's Great Depression
The Three Branches of Government
Decisions, Decisions
Times of Change: Vietnam and the 60s
Echoes from Mt. Olympus
To Be a Hero
Family Matters
Voices of the Holocaust
Flights of Fantasy
We the People: Foundations of American Government
Free at Last: The Struggle for Civil Rights
What on Earth? An Ecology Reader
From There to Here: The Immigrant Experience
What's So Funny?
The Harlem Renaissance
Who Am I?
Individual Rights: The Blessings of Liberty
Wide Open Spaces: American Frontiers
The Main Event
Florida
Next Generation Sunshine State Standards
- And Justice for All
- Free at Last: The Struggle for Civil Rights
- The Harlem Renaissance
- Voices of the Holocaust
Georgia
Georgia Performance Standards for grades K–8 English Language Arts/Reading correlations
And Justice for All
A House Divided: America's Civil War
Dark Days: America's Great Depression
Times of Change: Vietnam and the 60s
Echoes from Mt. Olympus
To Be a Hero
Family Matters
Voices of the Holocaust
Free at Last: The Struggle for Civil Rights
Wide Open Spaces: American Frontiers
From There to Here: The Immigrant Experience
What on Earth? An Ecology Reader
The Harlem Renaissance
Minnesota
New York
Ohio
Ohio Academic Content Standards English Language Arts
- Grades 8–12
- Ohio 9th Grade Language Arts Content Standards correlated to To Be A Hero
- Ohio 9th Grade Language Arts Content Standards correlated to Voices of the Holocaust
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills
Texas
Texas English Language Arts and Reading TEKS
Historical Events and Eras
Literary Genres
Literary Themes
Government and Current Events
Virginia
Virginia Social Studies Standards of Learning
- Dark Days: America's Great Depression
- Free At Last: The Struggle for Civil Rights
- From There to Here: The Immigration Story
- A House Divided: America's Civil War
- Times of Change: Vietnam and the 60s
- Wide Open Spaces: American Frontiers
Virginia Social Studies Standards of Learning for United States History: 1877 to the Present
Washington
Customer Reviews
"I love the Literature & Thought series and so do my students. It helped them gain prior knowledge for their US History class as we focused on literature dealing with Vietnam, Civil Rights, WWII and the Civil War."
Natalie Bolden, Teacher
Peekskill, New York"…I ordered one copy of Literature & Thought The Harlem Rennaisance along with the Teacher's Guide. It arrived within a week! Normally book orders take forever. I loved it so much that I decided to use my own money to order 10 more copies which arrived quickly too! I'm sure I will be ordering more from Perfection in the future."
Nicole Ifill, Special Education Teacher
Coalition School for Social Change
New York, New York"The essential question format of Literature & Thought is how gifted curriculum is designed. I've always taught a unit on humor, so I was excited to receive these books."
Kimberley Rodriguez, Teacher
Georgia O'Keeffe Elementary
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Authors
Dark Days: America's Great Depression
Richard Peck, Bruce Glassman, Jackie French Koller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gail B. Stewart, Robert J. Hastings, Harry Mark Petrakis, Thelma Bemount Campbell, Karen Hesse, Dorothea Lange, Pat Mora, Marion Gross, Virginia Durr, Studs Terkel, and more.
Free at Last: The Struggle for Civil Rights
Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Countee Cullen, W.E.B. De Bois, Richard Wright, Rita Dove, Melba Pattillo Beals, Margaret Walker, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, Nikki Giovanni, Barack Obama, and more.
From There to Here: The Immigrant Experience
Emma Lazarus, Milton Meltzer, Russell Freedman, Nicholas Gage, Ronald Takaki, Yoshiko Uchida, Stephen Sondheim, Margaret Poynter, Marion Espada, Paul Fleischman, William E. Geist, Roberto Suroeste, Charles Osgood, Pay Mora, and more.
The Harlem Renaissance
Vivian Morris, Dorothy West, Frank Byrd, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, Caroline Bond Day, Rudolph Fisher, Janet Mabie, Spike Lee, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, and more.
A House Divided: America's Civil War
Mary Boykin Chestnut, Bruce Catton, Ray Bradbury, Herman Melville, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James McPherson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gary Paulsen, Abraham Lincoln, Lousa May Alcott, Robert E. Lee, Hilary MacKenzie, Linda Pastan, and more.
Times of Change: Vietnam and the 60s
Thuong Vuong-Riddick, M. Hirsh Goldberg, Tim O'Brien, Alex Forman, Estela Portillo, Hugh Thompson, Ben Fong-Torres, Marc Aronson, Tom Hayden, President Richard M. Nixon, Ron Kovic, President Gerald R. Ford, Gary Paulsen, Joel L. Swerdlow, and more.
Voices of the Holocaust
Hans Peter Richter, Eleanor Ayer, Amos Neufeld, Gail Newman, Arnold Geier, Lyn Lifshin, John Roth, Ida Fink, Yala Korwin, Ephim Fogel, Freida Singer, Jacob G. Hornberger, Bernard Gotfryd, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Elie Wiesel, Mary Ann Lickteig, and more.
Wide Open Spaces: American Frontiers
Stephen Vincent Bent, Meriwether Lewis et al, Christina Beck, Joseph Bruchac, Mary Moore, George Ella Lyon, Jacob W. Davis, William W. Howard, Stephen Crane, Robert Boylan, Tom Wolfe, Miguel Asgarin, Michael D. Lemonick, Ray Bradbury, and more.
And Justice for All
David Gifaldi, Johannes Junius with Milton Meltzer, Anita Gustafson, Johnny D. Boggs, Isaac Bashevis Singer, w.r. rodriguez, Sharon Creeden, William Shakespeare, Judge Judy Sheindlin, Margaret Truman, Joan Bauer, Gwendolyn Brooks, and more.
The Best of Friends
Gary Paulsen, Bailey White, Tim Wynne-Jones, Langston Hughes, Helie Lee and Stephanie Covington, Neal Shusterman, Nancy Werlin, Francesca Delbanco, Kirsten Weir, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Ellen Conford, Debbie Spring, Dawna Markova, and more.
Decisions, Decisions
Ouida Sebestyen, Julia Alvarez, Jane McFann, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Gary Beeman, William Stafford, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Maria Testa, Susan Beth Pfeffer, Slade Anderson, Pamela Grim, Todd Moore, Rosa Parks, Dave Barru. Big Wilson, and more.
Family Matters
Susan Haven, Luci Tapahonso, Gary Paulsen, Budge Wilson, Ramona Wilson, Paula Lynn Parks, Erma Bombeck, Richard Pindell, Paulette Childress White, Nikki Giovanni, Jane Yolen, Jane Martin, William Stafford, Vickie Sears, Susan Beth Pfeffer, and more.
On the Edge of Survival
Jane Yolen, Mel Glenn, Tim Cahill, Gary Paulsen, Jack Finney, Robert Abel, Theodore Waldeck, Robert Rosenblatt, David Gifaldi, Williams Forrest, Jon Krakauer, and more.
To Be a Hero
Gary Paulsen, Joseph Bruchac, Nicholas Gage, Phil Taylor, Jane Yolen, Ian Frazier, Christy Brown, Robert Hayden, Rosemary Sutcliff, Kristin Hunter, Brian M. Thomsen, Gordon Korman, Daniel Okrent, David Dinkins, Nikki Giovanni, Nancy Shimmel, and more.
Who Am I?
Vivian Vande Velde, David Raymond, Judith Ortíz Cofer, Budge Wilson, Debra Marquart, M.E. Kerr, Diana Change, Gary Soto, Chaim Potok, Emily Dickinson, Todd Strasser, Victor Hernández Cruz, Lensey Namioka, Jill Krementz, Jane Yolen, and more.
Echoes from Mt. Olympus
Bernard Evelin, Dorothy Evelin, Ned Hoopes, Louis Untermeyer, Barbara McBride-Smith, Olivia E. Coolidge, Rita Dove, W.H.D. Rouse, Margaret Atwood, Barbara McBride-Smith, Richard Woff, Suniti Namjoski, Borden Deal, Jane Yolen, and more.
Flights of Fantasy
Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Tamora Pierce, Lord Dunsany, Marvin Kaye, John Collier, Louis Untermeyer, Peter Dickinson, Neal Shusterman, Nancy Springer, Ursula K. Le Guin, Patricia C. Wrede, Elise Matthysen, Ruth Trowbridge, and more.
The Main Event
Robert Lipsyte, Samuel Hazo, May Sewnson, James DIckey, Dan Cray, Rina Ferrarelli, Richard Alan Nesbitt, Dave Barry, Thomas J. Dygard, Merrell Noden, Rae Rainey, Jackie Robinson, Ira Berkow, E.B. White, William Hazlitt Upson, Will Weaver, and more.
Mysterious Circumstances
Paul Bishop, Agatha Christie, Linda Pastan, Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Arthur Conan Doyle, William Maples, Roald Dahl, Lesley Grant-Adamson, Josh Pachter, Williwam Brittain, and more.
The Sci-Fi Factor
Paul Jennings, Isaac Asimov, Craig Raine, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, Dave Barry, Helen Chasin, Fredric Brown, Nicholas Stuart Gray, Julie Nobles, Carol Farley, Norman Spinrad, Ursula K. Le Guin, Mildred Clingerman, W. Hilton-Young, and more.
What on Earth? An Ecology Reader
William J. Brooke, Gregg Easterbrook, Gary Soto, Joseph Bruchac, Rachel Carson, Joe Kane, Dave Barry, Ray Bradbury, John Card, Mary Oliver, David Quammen, David Wagoner, Severn Cullis-Suzuki, Gary Paulsen, Katherine Paterson, and more.
What's So Funny?
Dave Barry, Barbara Robinson, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Ellen Conford, David Brenner, Joan Bauer, Sinbad, Carolyn J. Gard, Erma Bombeck, Patrick F. McManus, Nancy Belshow, Merrill Markoe, and more.
Individal Rights: The Blessings of Liberty
Moses Seixas and George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Aquiles Lewis, Judge Learned Hand, Justice Arthur Goldberg, Akhil Reed Amar, George Orwell, Abdus Sattar Ghazali, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, James A. Emanuel, Chief Justice John Roberts, and more.
The Three Branches of Government
John F. Kennedy, Stephen L. Carter, Lee Hamilton, Leslie Stahl, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Rudy Ruiz, Alexander Hamilton, Stephen L. Carter, Sonia Sotomayor, Eric A. Posner, Thurgood Marshall, and more.
We the People: Foundations of American Government
Victor Landa, Sarah Vowell, Patrick Henry, John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Fredrick Douglass, Ta-Nehisi Coates and blog contributors, Catherine Drinker Bowen, Linda Chavez, Jill Lepore, Thomas Sowell, March Massura, Margaret Cho, and more.