Young historians use the prompts on a worksheet to analyze President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech. They identify the intended audience for the speech, the devices FDR used to persuade his audience, the responses promoted, and the...

Elie Wiesel's Nobel Prize Acceptance speech provides young historians with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to use evidence from the speech. They work together to analyze how Wiesel uses rhetorical devices and syntax to...

Sometimes summarizing keeps a writer from going deeper into their analysis—don't fall into that trap. Learn the difference between summarizing and analyzing using an insightful resource. Focusing on introductions, the lesson shares...

Designed as a PowerPoint presentation for AP English class, this resource provides a detailed analysis of the content, format, and purpose of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” Because much of the...

Different tones for different audiences. That's the big idea behind the second lesson in a two-part series that reveals Abigail Adams as a mother. Scholars examine letters Abigail Adams wrote to her sons, John Quincy Adams and Charles...

Scholars use the E.S.C.A.P.E. (Evidence Source, Context, Audience, Purpose, Execution) strategy to analyze a historical source to determine why mistakes happen in news stories. They then apply the same strategies to contemporary flawed...

African Americans fought in the Civil War, and they were recruited by both the Union and the Confederacy! By comparing the wording of posters—one directed at freedmen and another to the owners of enslaved people—young historians discover...

Young historians use the SOAPS (Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject) method of questioning to determine the historical value of primary source documents. The third in a series of five lessons that model for learners how...

Planning on using primary source materials? Introduce your class members to SOAPS, a activity that models how to analyze and reflect on primary source materials. Readers name the document, identify the subject (S), the occasion...

A speaker, a message, an audience. After analyzing these elements in Queen Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury, groups analyze how other speakers use an awareness of events, and their audience to craft their arguments....

The lesson plan provides a richly detailed narrative and sample problems for teaching or reinforcing how to work with percentages. In particular, your audience will compute the costs per serving of food and simulate setting menu prices...

Here's a poster that highlights the skills needed for the close reading of primary source documents when gathering evidence to support historical claims.

The 1939 Oscar-winning Gone with the Wind, is the focus of an informational packet designed to be used with a viewing of the film. As part of their analysis, media students respond to a series of discussion points about the...

Tone and mood are easy to use interchangeably—and yet they are very different elements of literature. Help middle schoolers discern between the way a speaker feels about his or her subject and the way the audience is meant to feel with a...

How does an author's choice of artistic medium influence an audience? What about how an author chooses to transform original source material? These are the questions class members grapple with as they compare scenes from episode IV...

Academics take turns as actors in an engaging poetry cafe. Elementary learners work in small groups to create original poems or stories addressing community issues and read their work in front of a live audience. Scholars also reflect...

Class members meet in their drama circles and share their thoughts on why it might be necessary for the audience to know something the characters don't. They read Act 3 Scene 2 of A Midsummer Night's Dream and complete consequence flow...

Patriots or traitors? Class members analyze images that present widely differing views of the Boston Tea Party, identifying the point of view of the image, the propaganda devices used, and the intended audience.

Combine math and science with fun in the sun! Scientists build a solar gnomon using reusable materials to calculate relative air mass. Mathematicians measure the pole's shadow and use the data to solve for relative air mass....

Imagine these flavors: chocolate, candy, menthol. What age group do you imagine is the target audience of an advertising campaign that features a product with these flavors? Find out the facts about vaping with a resource that provides...

As part of their continued investigation of the reporting of the shooting of Michael Brown class members analyze photos of Michael Brown and the social media response to these images. The class then develops a guide they...

Over the course of a 12-lesson language arts unit, young scholars analyze a variety of poems taking a close look at figurative language and tone. They learn to compare and contrast, improve comprehension, and identify settings. To...

What does your class know about logical fallacies? They can find out quite a bit and practice identifying logical fallacies if you follow the steps and use the resources provided here! After reviewing ethos, pathos, and logos, ask small...

Encourage your young citizens to make a difference. Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America as a starting point, class members watch documentaries, investigate issues, and then write letters to...