Students read a definition of myths in the "Things to Know" section that explains myths as legends handed down and often explaining natural phenomena. Students complete a "Matching Genres" activity that includes modern retellings (a dystopian twist on "The Three Little Pigs" and a Cherokee legend retelling) and identify those as satire/parody or myth. Students are invited in Activity 2 (Option 1 and Option 2) to rewrite a nonfiction scene in another genre (including science fiction) or combine genres, giving them a chance to create new versions of existing material.

Students are asked to read the introductory material (title pages, preface/introduction) to Animal Farm and answer a question noting that the book is described as "A Fairy Story." Activity 1 directs students to examine covers, prefaces, and introductions and to record observations about the author and introductory materials. Activity 2 has students sort examples from traditional/folk tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, John Henry, The Itsy Bitsy Spider) into topics, plots, and themes, and an answer key identifies themes and patterns in those traditional stories.

Students are asked in Activity 1 to re-imagine a scene from a book, movie, or play with animal characters and to explain how personification changes the scene or shifts its meaning, which asks them to describe how material is rendered new. Reading questions require students to analyze events and character behavior (e.g., how Napoleon maintained power, how Frederick tricked Napoleon, and the consequences of the windmill's destruction), so students practice analyzing themes and patterns of events within the modern work.

Students identify and label figures of speech from Elijah of Buxton on the Figures of Speech activity page, including recognizing the line that compares weather to the "fires of Hades" as hyperbole/allusion. Students practice locating and naming idiom, pun, simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole in specific passages and use those devices to create a visual display or carnival advertisement. The Parent Plan and activities require students to analyze the impact of specific word choices, including analogies or allusions to other texts, in context.

The Parent Plan explicitly lists the CCSS skill of analyzing how a modern work draws on themes or religious works. Students are directed to an Allusions activity where they must write 2–3 sentences explaining an allusion's origin and connection to Elijah of Buxton. Student Activity Pages require students to link scenes to biblical passages (Mark 6:33-44; Joshua 6; Luke 3) and the answer key models how those passages map onto scenes and dialogue in the novel.

The unit includes an allusion question asking students to identify the allusion in the sentence "This place is like the Garden of Eden!" and to explain why an author might make an allusion, with the answer noting the Garden of Eden is a Biblical account. The story-structure section asks students to name a theme and give two examples of how that theme is developed in Elijah of Buxton. The rubric and writing tasks require use of a symbol and figures of speech and ask students to create mood and tone, skills that support literary analysis.

The Parent Plan asks students to consider whether Matt has a soul and to respond to Maria's claim about heaven and hell, prompting students to engage with religious concepts in the text. Another Parent Plan question asks why the author described a historical agreement as "a pact made in hell," asking students to interpret religious language and the author's intent. Activity 2 and related discussion prompt students to identify the warning offered by the dystopian society and to compare themes across modern dystopian works (e.g., The Giver, The Hunger Games).

Students are asked to identify religious symbols and messages that Celia communicates to Matt and to explain how he internalizes those messages (Activity 1 includes excerpts about the Virgin of Guadalupe and Celia's lullabies). The lesson prompts students to reflect on Tam Lin's teachings and how they shaped Matt's development, and it explicitly lists the skill of analyzing how a modern work draws on themes or character types from religious works in the Parent Plan skills section. The discussion questions ask students to consider other "wise 'voices'" and the maternal comfort associated with Celia and the Virgin Mary.

Students are asked in Question #2 to explain El Patrón's funeral arrangement and the answer explicitly links his actions to "the Chaldean kings," which requires recognizing an allusion to an older tradition. The Parent Plan skills list includes analyzing the impact of word choices and "analogies or allusions to other texts," indicating students are expected to notice and consider intertextual references. Students also answer short responses and test questions that prompt them to explain character motives and parallels (e.g., Tam Lin's death and power dynamics), which can surface comparisons to traditional character types.

Students are asked to consider how Watership Down contains elements of both fantasy and epic and to record examples of those characteristics in a graphic organizer. The Epic prompts require students to identify an amazing hero, an amazing task or long journey, a vast setting, and an omniscient narrator, and the answer key links Hazel and the rabbits' search for a new home to those epic features. Students also compare realistic and unrealistic elements of fantasy and cite serious themes such as leadership and human impact on the environment.

Students are asked in their Connection Commander role to make connections between the book and other writings or media, including "Similarities between this book and other writings on the same topic or by the same author." The lesson includes direct questions about Dandelion's "Story of the King's Lettuce" and asks students what they learned about El-ahrairah and why Hazel's group loves the story while Cowslip's group does not. The parent notes and activities prompt students to connect the El-ahrairah stories to family or traditional stories and to explain differences in how groups respond to those stories.

Students are asked to research the works cited in chapter-opening quotations (William Blake and Thomas Hardy), recording the cultural/time period, important themes, and why the works are well known. Students must then explain how each quotation relates to the events and theme of the corresponding chapter of Watership Down. The lesson also prompts students to notice that authors reference other works purposefully to communicate meaning.

The Parent Plan explicitly lists the skill of analyzing how a modern work draws on themes, patterns, or character types from myths and traditional stories. In Activity 1, students read summaries of the El-ahrairah tales, summarize "El-ahrairah and the Black Rabbit of Inle," and record what lessons and values each story teaches and how each contributes to rabbit identity. The materials and example prompts lead students to identify character types (e.g., El-ahrairah as a trickster) and to consider mythic qualities of characters like Hazel.

Students are asked to define and give examples of "Myth" in the Study Guide and to cite mythology within Watership Down in the Literary Terms section. The answer key and prompts direct students to identify the rabbits' myths (Frith, the Black Rabbit of Inle, El-ahrairah) and to explain their role in communicating community values and teaching younger rabbits. The Study Guide and test items also ask students to recognize epic patterns and the hero journey (noting Hazel as a hero) and to describe leadership qualities of characters.

Students analyze Max's allegory "The Word Shaker" with guided questions that ask what Hitler is "planting," what the conveyor-belt scene represents, and who the "word shakers" are, prompting interpretation of symbolic meaning and themes. The lesson defines allegory and asks students to identify items and pictures that stand for other ideas (political, moral), and to explain how Liesel differs as a "word shaker". Students also examine figurative language, word choice, and descriptive writing to analyze how language creates tone and meaning related to those themes.

Students are instructed to recognize allusions and symbolic meaning (for example, the lesson points out the allusion to Helen of Troy in "To Helen" and explains that recognizing that allusion is necessary to get the poem's symbolic meaning). The activities ask students to distinguish literal and symbolic meanings (e.g., interpreting "O Captain! My Captain!" as a metaphor for Lincoln) and to research references to literary or historical figures to find symbolic meaning.

Students are asked to consider an explicit allusion in "The New Colossus" and discuss how understanding that allusion helps comprehension, signaling practice in recognizing references to earlier works. Option 1 of the narrative-poem activity asks students to choose a well-known story (a fairy tale, fable, or myth) and retell it as a narrative poem, which has students rework traditional material into a new form. The Parent Plan notes analyzing the impact of word choice and allusions to other texts, and the Poem Analysis page asks students to identify symbolic meaning and imagery, which can support identifying links to older stories.

The lesson's Option 2 for the Visual Response includes a link titled "Landscape with The Fall of Icarus" and explicitly notes that Icarus was a figure in Greek myth, directing students to read poems by William Carlos Williams and W.H. Auden inspired by that painting. The lesson also introduces ekphrastic poetry and asks students to check example paintings and poems before writing their own poem about a piece of art, which could include artwork based on mythic subjects.

Students read contemporary poems including Louise Glück's "A Fable," which the lesson explicitly notes contains an allusion to a biblical story about King Solomon. Students are asked to research poets' influences on the Poet Research sheet (including the question, "What other poets or artists influenced the poet?"). Students read and compare contemporary poems with earlier poets (for example, discussion questions ask how contemporary poetry differs from earlier American poets, and a question links Ginsberg to Walt Whitman).