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Everyone Gets a Laptop
Young scholars view a news segment on a local school district giving every student a laptop. After viewing, they interview the school principal and discusses what he expects the outcome to be. They interview parents and students in their...
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Browns Player Helps Kids
Students read the brief news stories about Michael Lehan and his involvement in the program Adopt Cuyahoga's Kids. Students then write a reaction paper on the topic: "What is the best way to help parentless teens?"
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Family Sues Over Discipline That Stinks
High schoolers read a brief explanation of a situation in which a family is suing a school district because a teacher made a child spray himself with Lysol in front of the class, saying this would take care of his body odor. Students...
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Rosa Parks: Mother of Civil Rights Movement
Students read an article from Time and react to the article based upon what they have studied about Rosa Parks. They find that even though Rosa is no longer alive, she still has an impact today. They focus on that impact she has and...
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Hip-Hop: A Journalist's View
Students watch a CNN television news special about hip-hop and write a review. Using the internet, they investigate the pros and cons of the music while interviewing students on their opinions. They examine the growth of this type of...
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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 lesson students prepare for making a movie poster intended to persuade a director to make a film based on a short story.
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Storyboard for Persuasive Text
Students demonstrate their knowledge of the main elements of a story by creating a storyboard. In this persuasive writing lesson students create storyboards that are intended to persuade a director to make a movie out of the short...
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Media Literacy Discussion Guide
Students examine and analyze visual media and its messages critically. They determine whether specific media messages inform, entertain, or persuade and what factors influence the media. Using primary sources, they participate in peer...
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Forceful Persuasion
Students investigate U.S. foreign policy in Middle Eastern countries, and rank their level of support for American military and diplomatic actions.
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Georgia Performance Standards Framework for ELA Unit 3-7th Grade
Seventh graders explore persuasive writing using the city life and the country life as focus topics. In this persuasion lesson plan, 7th graders read "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse" in an attempt to determine the pros and cons of...
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Movie Poster: Persuasive Text
Pupils 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...
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Eli Thayer and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Young scholars determine how states were identified as slave states or free states. In this Kansas-Nebraska Act lesson, students explore the work of Eli Thayer as well as the work of Thayer's supporters in Massachusetts.
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Fuel for Thought
Students explore the mathematical concepts used to compare different types of vehicles. They create a print advertisement in which they persuade an audience to purchase a specific vehicle.
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Using a Thesaurus
Middle schoolers discover how to use a thesaurus. In this language arts lesson, students explore thesauruses as they look up words and write sentences for the new words they encounter.
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Propaganda Techniques
Sixth graders locate examples of persuasive writing. For this persuasive writing lesson students work in a groups to identify and analyze the use of propaganda techniques. Students use newspapers to find editorials, or advertisements,...
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Neighborhood Rubrics
Students use a rubric to analyze their neighborhood and write a persuasive essay about changes that should be made. In this writing lesson, students use a rubric to grade their neighborhood and brainstorm improvements. Students write a...
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Persuasive Letters and The Tell Tale Heart
Young scholars write persuasive letters based on "The Tell Tale Heart." They brainstorm topic sentences, main ideas, and details. They analyze the character and determine if he is innocent or guilty. They create a map listing their...
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Busting the Tobacco Ads.
Fifth graders recognize that tobacco companies target young people with their advertisements. In this tobacco lesson, 5th graders understand why tobacco companies target youth. Students define the word adbuster and create adbusters...
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Battery Power
Sixth graders examine how much energy they use in the form of battery power. They examine the cost of using regular vs. rechargeable batteries and examine the effect on the environment of the two types of batteries. They discover that...
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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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Ban That Book!
Take advantage of Banned Book Week to pique students' interest and get them reading! Create a classroom display of previously banned books and allow each member of your class to choose one to read. After they have read their book, get...
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The Trial of the Bloody Sucker
A blood sucking what? Grade schoolers identify the characteristics of blood sucking parasites. They organize their information, identify their arguments, and present them to the class in persuasive arguments. They participate in a debate...
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Helping Homeschoolers: Rigorous and Relevant Writing
Maximize the strengths of the homeschooling relationship to improve the quality and focus of your child's writing.
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Using Aphorisms to Help Dealing with People
Here's a formal plan for what many effective teachers already do: Provide a week's worth of aphorisms and have learners choose one to write about in their journals each day. They reflect on the meaning of each aphorism and project how it...