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Refugees at Center Stage
What is an advocate? Help high schoolers understand the issues forcing refugees to leave their home country. After gaining some information on the subject, high schoolers create a dynamic presentation and persuasive essay encouraging...
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Propaganda
How does word choice affect the reading of a text? Compare two headlines that were written about the same event. Is one biased? Discuss how word choice often reveals the author's feelings about a topic. Then look at different techniques...
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Verb Issues I
See the variety of verbs spelled out in these slides. From infinitives to intransitives, each verb is defined and shown with examples. Relationships of verbs to other parts of a sentence are clearly explained. This complex subject is...
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Writing Diagnostics and Introduction to Literary Terms
Assess your new learners' writing abilities and knowledge of literary terms with these diagnostic activities. Part of a back-to-school unit, this is meant to provide the teacher with information about the ability levels of their class....
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Hamlet's State of Mind
Analyze various excerpts from Hamlet and read articles to develop an argument about his sanity. Middle and high schoolers write an argument essay defending whether or not they believe Hamlet is insane. You could modify this assignment...
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Persuasive/Argumentative Essay vs. Opinion writing
Reinforce persuasive and argumentative writing skills with this lesson, which utilizes SchoolNet News Network's website/SNN Monthly magazine. Young writers review journalism writing styles that help them explain that writing a persuasive...
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Effective Persuasion: Developing Persuasive Documents
Great guidelines for writing persuasively are presented in these slides, along with plenty of questions to lead your scholars as they research. This PowerPoint will help your writers be clear, focused, and incredibly persuasive as they...
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Showdown in the New Wild West
What is the root of the conflict between ranchers and environmentalists? Middle schoolers write their impressions of what an environmentalist is and does. They read the New York Times article "In New Wild West, It's Cowboys vs. Radical...
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The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
After reading Ernest Hemingway's well-known novel The Sun Also Rises, print these study questions for your class. There are 10 questions listed, and some require more than just basic recall. There are compare and contrast questions and...
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For Whom the Bell Tolls Quiz
CliffsNotes has generated 15 multiple choice questions based on Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Bring your class to the computer lab to check their basic recall of the story's events.
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For Whom the Bell Tolls - Essay Questions
After finishing the dense novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, have your class prepare for your unit test with this set of study questions. Consider narrowing the list down to encourage a deeper analysis of specific questions.
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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
After reading Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, bring your class to the computer lab so they can study for an upcoming unit quiz. There are 12 multiple choice questions provided, and they all have to do with information recall.
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Hemingway's Short Stories Quiz
This online quiz is really only useful if your class has read several short stories by Hemingway, as it doesn't focus just on one. There are 12 multiple choice questions here, and they almost all relate to a different story.
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Hemingway's Short Stories - Essay Questions
Ernest Hemingway is one of America's great writers. After reading one (or several) of his short stories, visit this list of 24 questions relating to at least 10 of his short stories. Some of the questions are basic recall questions, and...
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Is Everyone Protected by the Bill of Rights?
Who is protected by the Bill of Rights? Learners examine the Bill of Rights and conduct research regarding gay people in the military. They use their research findings to prepare for and participate in a debate regarding the military ban...
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Literary Comparison
Compare and contrast two pieces of literature with this lesson. With the use of a Venn diagram, pupils make connections between literature and real-life situations. They practice skills of surveying a text looking for important details,...
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Giants of the Century
Middle and high schoolers study significant people who shaped the 20th-century history and are introduced to database tools. Researchers use the Internet to research five 20th century history makers. They write a short biography of five...
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Budget Busters
Use this economic activity to focus on writing summaries of informational text. First, middle schoolers define common economic terms used to describe news about the economy. They closely read news about the federal budget deficit and...
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Rachel's Life is in a Hole
Explore how lack of access to water impacts peoples' lives in poor countries. Through text reading and discussion, middle schoolers are presented with the story of a young girl who lives and functions with limited water resources. They...
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The Oedipus Plays Quiz
After reading Oedipus and Antigone, quiz your readers with these online, interactive questions. All questions are multiple choice, and they simply ask for information recall (as opposed to further analysis). Twenty-five questions are...
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O'Connor's Short Stories by Flannery O'Connor
After reading Flannery O'Connor's short stories, provide your high schoolers with these questions. You could use these to prompt higher level thinking for an upcoming test, or provide them as essay prompts.
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Screen Play
High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a sample...
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Making the Old New Again
How does a new version of a Shakespearean play change in the adaptation process? Use this New York Times' Learning Network lesson to consider texts that have been produced in different media. Middle schoolers examine the latest version...
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That's Moor Like It!
How do modern adaptations of Shakespearean plays relate to their original source material? Middle and high schoolers focus on Shakespeare's play Othello and its screen adaptation "O" to explore how modern film adaptations of Shakespeare...