What are the limits on freedom of speech? While a cherished right in the Constitution, it is not unbridled. Budding historians consider what checks should exist on this liberty using news stories, court cases, and College Board prompts.

As a part of a study of the First Amendment, high schoolers research a current news story that seems to involve one of the freedoms granted by the First Amendment. Investigators decide whether they think the action presented in the story...

Consider how America's founding fathers and their experiences contributed to the rights we all enjoy today. A collection of reading, writing, and collaborative exercises prompt high schoolers to think about the ways their current lives...

Make sure your class is sure of terminology when referring to the non-violent methods used in the civil rights movement. This glossary includes 19 terms paired with parts of speech and definitions. 

Can schools ban t-shirts picturing musical groups or bands? Your young citizens will find out with this resource, which includes a summary of a United States Supreme Court case from the 1960s about a similar dispute over learners wearing...

Learn about the festivity of Mardi Gras with a series of reading and writing assignments. As class members read a passage about the history of Mardi Gras and the way it's celebrated around the world, they answer comprehension...

Students construct sentences using nouns and verbs from a "renewable energy" word bank. In this cross curriculum ecology and sentence structure grammar and mechanics lesson, students listen to the book Our Earth: Clean Energy by Peggy...

Is your class studying civil rights? Consider taking a look at President Lyndon B. Johnson's voting rights speech. This resource includes an abridged version and three related questions. Pupils consider Johnson's use of language and the...

Students analyze a political cartoon, and at the same time cover the basic parts of speech, in order to view a cartoon and determine its subject, action verb, and object.

Sometimes it takes a work of fiction to demonstrate nonfictional tragedies and events. George, an escaped slave, describes to Mr. Wilson the hardships of his life in a short passage from Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle...

Alliterative adjective nicknames generate stories inspired by Rosemary Wells' book Noisy Nora (also a thematic complement to any class with children who make a ruckus to get attention). Class members explore basic story elements --...

Students broaden knowledge about all the 50 states. They combine their knowledge about states with their knowledge about parts of speech to create grammatically correct sentences that describe the characteristics of the states.

What better way is there to teach about human rights than by seeing them firsthand? Introduce your class or club to the spirit of service through a myriad of service project ideas. First in a series of human rights instructional...

Learners examine the relevance of the Bill of Rights. In this Bill of Rights lesson, students study the parts of the Constitution and the ten amendments. They investigate the rights and responsibilities that accompany being an American....

Engage critical and social thinking by exploring the value of language and word choice. The class considers the article "The Silence of the Historic Present" and analyzes several presidential speeches. They engage in class...

By writing 5 sentences about spring, students practice creating yes and no questions. The prompts for the questions are difficult to follow. A teacher would have to give students explicit directions.

If you stop a student from expressing views that advocate drug use, are you violating their right to free speech? Use the 2007 Supreme Court case Morse v. Frederick to discuss a nuanced interpretation of the First Amendment....

Is there value in preserving indigenous languages that are almost extinct? That's the question posed to viewers of a short film about the attempt of one Native American woman who is creating a dictionary for Wakchumni, the language of...

The final installment of a 22-part American history series examines the many faces that make up the country's story. From Henry Ford to Tulio Serrano, scholars use biographical evidence and Internet research to uncover the people behind...

Discover the lovely story of Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho with your class. Over the course of the lesson, pupils practice descriptive writing, write short narratives, collaborate in small groups, watch a powerful short film about Raimundo,...

The star on the top of a Christmas tree can be beautiful, or it can be gold, or it can be shiny—or, in fact, it can be all three! A picture of a decorated Christmas tree encourages pupils to choose from a list of 18 adjectives to...

Kate Chopin's The Awakening introduces readers not only to the lush Louisiana setting of Grand isle but also to the nuances of Creole culture. the second lesson in a three-part series examines how Chopin's use of literary realism and...

Upper graders read the story One Grain of Rice, and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast topics found in the story to current event topics today. Groups of three learners work together to create their diagram. The topics they must...

Clear up "lame duck" congressional confusion with this political cartoon analysis worksheet. Background information on the concept's history and current use is provided, and 2 cartoons give a past and present context. Three talking...