EngageNY
End of Unit 2 Assessment: Working with Two Texts - Reading, Listening, Summarizing, and Synthesizing
As a summative assessment for this unit on colonial trade, fourth graders listen to and read informational texts in order to demonstrate their ability to take notes, write summaries, and draw connections. Young scholars first listen as...
Curated OER
Identify and Discuss the Author's Purpose
Examine author's purpose in a persuasive text using this scaffolded plan. You essentially have a verbatim script here, but it can definitely be used as an outline instead. Review questions that readers should ask themselves when...
Prestwick House
Reading Nonfiction: Analyzing Joseph McCarthy's "Enemies from Within" Speech
Looking for a lesson that teaches class members how to analyze nonfiction? Use Joseph McCarthy's famous "Enemies from Within" speech as a instructional text. Worksheet questions direct readers' attention to the many historical references...
ReadWriteThink
Dear Librarian: Writing a Persuasive Letter
Everyone deserves to read a great book! Here, pupils write a persuasive letter to the school's librarian detailing their favorite story and why it should be found on the shelves. Class members' persuasive reading passages are shared with...
EngageNY
Text-Dependent Questions and Choosing Details to Support a Claim: Digging Deeper into Paragraphs 6–8 of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address (and connecting to Chapter 7)
Readers learn how to choose specific details drawn from a primary source (Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford University commencement address) to support an analysis of informative text.
Curated OER
Reading and Writing Arguments
Should schools continue to teach cursive writing? After reading and considering the merits of a series of arguments on both sides of this proposition, class members choose a side of the issue and craft their own argument, drawing support...
Curated OER
Apply Post-Reading Skills and Discuss Persuasive Text
Students put their reading comprehension skills to practice. In this interpreting text lesson, students read "Chief Red Jacket's Reply," and then respond to questions that require them to reason, infer, and analyze the selection.
Curated OER
Persuasion as Text: Organizational, Grammatical, and Lexical Moves in Barbara Jordan’s "All Together Now"
A thorough lesson on persuasive writing takes middle schoolers through several activities, including group discussion, collaborative posters, and independent writing. They compare historical speeches and analyze the persuasive techniques...
Curated OER
Trap Door Reading: Persuasive Text
Middle schoolers create T-charts to analyze persuasive text. In this persuasive text lesson students make predictions based upon titles and learn how to make arguments based on facts.
Curated OER
A Movie in Your Mind: Persuasive Text
Students listen to a broadcast of War of the Worlds and illustrate what they hear. In this persuasive text instructional activity students prepare for making a movie poster intended to persuade a director to make a film based on a short...
Curated OER
Persuasion in Print
Advertisers target teenagers. Groups select three magazine advertisements for similar products, analyze the appeals used in each, create a poster that features the persuasive techniques used, and present their findings to the class. The...
BW Walch
Vending Machine Bans Increase in Schools Nationwide
Does a ban on vending machines infringe on student rights, or do school officials have an obligation to monitor foods sold on school grounds? Your class members will explore the educational, health, and financial issues related to...
Curated OER
What's the Purpose Anyway?
Examine author's purpose in newspaper articles, comic books, cookbooks, encyclopedias and other forms of written materials. Working in groups, middle and high schoolers read teacher-selected articles and write an explanation of the...
Curated OER
Main Idea in Informational Text
Individuals complete a pre-assessment to gauge their ability to determine the main idea and supporting details in nonfiction text. They examine a new piece of nonfiction reading by looking at the table of contents, headings, and index...
Curated OER
Using Details from Text to Identify Author's Purpose
Explore writing techniques by analyzing newspapers and magazines with middle schoolers. They will collaborate in small groups to read local news stories and identify the main ideas and author's intent. They also utilize an information...
Curated OER
The Hundred Penny Box with Multiple Viewpoints and Persuasive Letter
Third graders read The Hundred Penny Box and complete comprehension activities. In these perspectives and letter writing lessons, 3rd graders read and discuss the story then complete a Venn Diagram to explore the different viewpoints in...
Curated OER
American Dream and The Great Gatsby
Is the American Dream alive and well or has it dried up and died? As part of a study of The Great Gatsby, class members search for articles on the state of the American Dream, analyze the arguments presented in those articles, and then...
ReadWriteThink
Persuasive Techniques in Advertising
Help your 21st century learners develop their media smarts with this resource that has them examine the persuasive techniques advertisers use to influence specific demographics and then to use these techniques to craft their own ads.
Curated OER
English Lesson Plans for Grade 12
HIgh schoolers respond to a persuasive article on using animal research. In this english lesson, writers listen to a conversation, and discuss the point of arguments. They write a critique on a certain film and share it with their...
Curated OER
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Discuss the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This story, called "Franklin D. Roosevelt" by Laura Hamilton Waxman, is used to explore comprehension skills. Some of these skills include identifying prefixes and suffixes, making comparisons,...
Curated OER
Movie Poster: Persuasive Text
Students create movie posters based upon short stories they've recently read. In this persuasive writing lesson students analyze a poster that is intended to persuade people to want to see the movie and convince Steven Spielberg to...
Curated OER
Storyboard for Persuasive Text
Students demonstrate their knowledge of the main elements of a story by creating a storyboard. For this persuasive writing lesson students create storyboards that are intended to persuade a director to make a movie out of the short...
Curated OER
My Name is___________.
Read to gain an understanding of the author's intent or purpose. Learners analyze a persuasive text, identify the author's purpose, and evaluate the claims used as support. They then compose a persuasive essay of their own.
EngageNY
Making a Claim and Advocating Persuasively: Preparing for the Practice Fishbowl
Scholars consider their reading in The Omnivore's Dilemma to develop a claim answering the question, "Which food chain would you choose to feed your family—the local sustainable food chain or the hunter-gatherer food chain?" To guide...