Curated OER
Tell It to the Judge - Persuasive Essay
Students compare and contrast a classic fairy tale with a fractured one and complete a graphic organizer. Then they write a persuasive essay following the steps of the writing process. Finally, students publish their completed essay and...
K20 LEARN
Ichabod and Brom - Two Wild And Crazy Guys: Characters' Differing Perspectives
After reading Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," class members compare the characteristics of Ichabod Crane and Brom Van Brunt. Next, they read an article about ghosts that supposedly haunt the campus of Oklahoma...
Newseum
Give Women the Vote? Analyzing Suffrage Propaganda
Propaganda is often used to shape public opinion. Scholars investigate the persuasive techniques used by the pro- and anti-suffrage movements. Groups compare how these devices were used during the suffrage movement with how the same...
Curated OER
The Embodied Presidency
Tenth graders compare and contrast the immigration reform policies of Presidents Reagan and Bush. In this immigration activity, 10th graders examine primary documents related to each president's policy for immigration reform. Students...
Deliberating in a Democracy
Juvenile Justice
Pupils compare and contrast the legal system as it pertains to juvenile and adult crime and punishment. Incorporating primary documents, legal decisions, and video evidence, individuals form an argument debating the treatment of...
Curated OER
Adolescent Sleep
Learners discuss, summarize, and express alternative positions regarding a study on adolescent sleep. They examine arguments for and against changing the school start time for high-school students, based upon the findings of a scientific...
Curated OER
Science NetLinks: Adolescent Sleep
Wake up, sleepy head! High schoolers craft a creative presentation that represents how they feel when they wake up on a school morning. After the presentations, a reading of Academic Sleep Times and Academic Performance launches a...
EngageNY
Dilations as Transformations of the Plane
Compare and contrast the four types of transformations through constructions! Individuals are expected to construct the each of the different transformations. Although meant for a review, these examples are excellent for initial...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask
Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...
Speak Truth to Power
John Lewis: Non-Violent Activism
After comparing and contrasting non-violent and violent social movements, your young historians will take a closer look at the work and influence of John Lewis on the civil rights movement. They will then choose a current social justice...
Curated OER
The Birth Control Movement
Students examine the resistance to the birth control movement. They compare and contrast the reasons for and against birth control and examine the social agendas of the supporters of birth control.
Curated OER
That Was Then - Persuasive Essay
Student explain how geographic and cultural settings influence a person's identity. They compare and contrasting Esmeralda Santiago's Puerto Rican self with her American self by participating in a close reading of the text and writing a...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 8
In a close reading of "The Overseer" chapter from Sugar Changed the World, groups focus on the words Aronson and Budhos use to contrast the lifestyles of enslaved people and their enslavers. The whole class then engages in an...
Newseum
Persuasion Portfolios
After class members brainstorm a list of current social and political issues, groups each select a different topic from the list to research. Teams create a portfolio of at least 10 examples of stories about their issue, stories that...
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
Down in the Dumps
After an introduction to municipal sludge, middle school ecologists consider the pros and cons of dumping in the Hudson River Canyon. The class is split into two groups: one to debate in favor or dumping and one to debate against the...
Curated OER
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Students use logical arguments and inductive reasoning to make or disprove conjectures. After observing a teacher led demonstration, students discover that the deductive process narrows facts to a few possible conclusions. In groups,...
Curated OER
Principles of Flight: Flying Paper Airplanes
Students investigate ways to enhance an object's flying ability. In this model construction lesson, students construct two paper airplanes, one of which is twice as big as the first. Students compare and contrast the two separate...
Channel Islands Film
Santa Cruz Island - Writing for Information
After re-viewing a documentary segment on the restoration of Santa Cruz Island,, individuals craft an essay in which they compare the views of the various stake holders featured in the video and identify the point of view they find the...
Curated OER
Introducing Jane Eyre
"How can a magazine reflect a particular time and culture?" Using this prompt, your class explores the Victorian Era as it relates to Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. They can also play the "Victorian Women's Rights" game for the year 1840...
Curated OER
Convey Ideas in Writing
Use the platforms of the 2004 presidential candidates to bring persuasive writing to your class. Young voters identify the three issues most important to them in the election and research the issues and candidates' positions. They write...
Curated OER
Persuasive Speech in Julius Caesar
After reading Julius Caesar 1.2 and 1.3, break your class into pairs for this role-play. Each pair will receive one of four prompts (or more, if you create additional examples), in which one person tries to persuade the other to do...
Museum of Tolerance
Immigration Journeys
Through the journey of four stories of immigration, scholars complete graphic organizers and apply knowledge to create a visual representation of their findings on a large poster. Third and fourth readers write a letter to their family...
Curated OER
Similar and Different
Fourth graders observe a pair of students standing in front of the class and compare and contrast them using a Venn Diagram using these guidelines: eye color, hair color, older/younger, tallest/shortest, gender, favorite food, favorite...