Humanities Texas
Primary Source Worksheet: Excerpt from Reagan's Farewell Address
Here's a worksheet designed to help learners develop their skill reading primary source documents. The questions, based on an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address, encourages close reading and analysis.
University of North Carolina
Poetry Explications
Explication may sound like a fancy word, but it's just a fancy way to say analysis. Using a handout on poetry explications, part of a larger series on specific writing assignments, writers learn how to break down and analyze a poem. The...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Historical Thinking Matters
Rosa Parks: 3 Day Lesson
How can evidence and perspective challenge even the most well-known of stories? Through primary and secondary source analysis, think-alouds, and discussion, young historians evaluate the historical narrative of Rosa Parks across multiple...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“Read All About It”: Primary Source Reading in “Chronicling America”
Can investigative journalism become too sensationalistic and accusatory, or is it vital for the survival of a democracy? Middle schoolers analyze primary source documents from early 20th-century newspapers as well as Theodore Roosevelt's...
Humanities Texas
Primary Source Worksheet: Ronald Reagan, Excerpt from Reagan's First Inaugural Address
A key challenge in teaching kids how to read informational text, particularly primary source documents, is finding suitable resources and then developing questions that guide readers. Never fear, help is here in the form of a series of...
EngageNY
Analyzing Douglass’s Purpose in Excerpt 2
Learners revisit Plantation Life to focus on Douglass's purpose and choices he made for writing the text. They complete text-dependent questions, an analysis note catcher, and finalize their thoughts by sharing out with the class.
Curated OER
Hugh Miller's The Old Red Sandstone (1841)
Pollution has been an issue since the advent of stratified society. Learners will read this excerpt from Hugh Miller's The Old Red Sandstone (1841) then answer two document-analysis questions.
Curated OER
Understanding the Bush Tax Cut Plan
The class examines the new tax cut plan proposed by President Bush. They practice calculating income tax rates and interpreting the data. Then they research topics that are of interest to them related to taxes.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Slave Narratives: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and the Columbian Orator
Young historians practice in-depth, quality analysis of primary source texts in this three-lesson unit, which examines excerpts from the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Caleb Bingham.
Center for History Education
Northern Racism and the New York City Draft Riots of 1863
Just how racist were some people in the North during the American Civil War? Using excerpts of the Conscription Act, as well as graphic images of lynchings, young historians consider why white people in New York City rioted and killed...
K12 Reader
Abigail Adams: Persuading Her Husband
After reading a brief excerpt from a letter written by Abigail Adams to her husband and future president of the United States, John Adams, your young historians will practice their reading comprehension skills and identify what Abigail...
Learning for Justice
The Color of Law: Creating Racially Segregated Communities
It is pointed, powerful, and painful! The first of three lessons about laws and practices that support inequality looks at how government policies created and reinforced segregated communities. Young social scientists read excerpts from...
Historical Thinking Matters
Scopes Trial: 3 Day Lesson
Was the Scopes trial more complicated than a simple debate between evolutionists and creationists? As part of a structured academic controversy (SAC) activity, pupils consider multiple perspectives of the Butler Act and engage in close...
K12 Reader
Find the Meaning: JFK's Inaugural Speech
Analyze a seminal speech from the 20th century with an activity focused on President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address. After reading an excerpt from the address, pupils use a worksheet to practice their reading comprehension skills...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 9
Find the central idea in an excerpt from Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a literary analysis lesson. As your class analyzes a section of the story, they determine how the author forms the central idea...
Digital Public Library of America
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the focus of a teaching guide that introduces readers to some of the many controversies surrounding the use of the novel in classrooms. The packet includes 15 primary source excerpts and...
K12 Reader
Summarize It: President Theodore Roosevelt's 7th Annual Message to Congress
How did Theodore Roosevelt stress the importance of conservation during his time as president of the United States? Take a closer look at the language Roosevelt used himself in a 1907 address to Congress, and have your young historians...
Stanford University
Iranian Constitutional Revolution
What makes a good primary source? The assessment tests pupils' knowledge of how to use primary sources with written responses. Designed for high school social studies, it requires scholars to read and analyze a text excerpt concerning...
American Battlefield Trust
John Brown
How did the raid on Harper's Ferry contribute to the start of the Civil War? Curated for high school historians, the activity explains John Brown's contribution to the start of the Civil War by using violence to demand an end to slavery....
K20 LEARN
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death: The Journey to Revolution
The words of "Common Sense" and Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech ring throughout history. Scholars explore the nuances of each patriot's argument using excerpts from the famous pamphlet and speech and a recorded...
Curated OER
Introduction To Literary Analysis
Explore the fascinating ways in which authors use specific literary devices to create interesting and realistic texts. Using non-fiction articles with the subject of rogue waves, an excerpt from The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger,...
Curated OER
CTBS Reading Practice #1
Expose your class to a variety of excerpts of poetry with a reading practice activity. There are four excerpts from different poems included in this resource; there are three to five related questions for each poem. Learners read each...
Curated OER
Who Can Achieve the "American Dream"
Exploring the idea of working to achieve the American Dream, the class reads an excerpt from How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents by Julia Alvarez. Following, the class analyzes the excerpt and discusses the theme of the reading using...