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Heritage: Seeking Land or Gold
Middle schoolers write a persuasive letter home defending their decision either to settle in Utah and farm the land, or to go on to California to seek gold. They analyze a problem, make a decision, and write a letter defending their choice.
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DRY WELLS THAT ARE NOT SO DRY
Students analyze how producers respond to incentives and allocate their scare resources to maximize profits. They write persuasive letters to government officials and others. They read "Dry Wells That Are Not So Dry." They take notes...
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The Breakfast Busters Persuade Others
Students write persuasive essays about their favorite breakfast cereal after seeing how advertisements are used to influence people.
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Decision Making and Assertiveness
Fourth graders identify a problem and write a persuasive essay to the appropriate audience, to correct the problem. They demonstrate effective decision making based on positive self-worth. Students need to write a paragraph about their...
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Citizens For the New Zoo
Third graders complete Internet research to find information about an animal and its basic needs. They design a model of a zoo habitat that would accommodate their animal. They write a letter of recommendation to a Zoo board of directors...
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A Question of Faith?
Should organized prayer be prohibited at high school sporting events? Students explore their own feelings about prayer in school-sponsored events, before discussing the recent Supreme Court decision banning public prayer at high school...
US National Archives
Eastern Europe 1939-45 — Stalingrad
Acts of civilian courage in Great Britain—and in one case, the island of Malta—often receive the George Cross, instituted by King George VI at the beginning of World War II. After the valiant defense of Stalingrad by its inhabitants,...
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Worksheet 9. Conversation Completions
In this conversation completion worksheet, students complete the conversations by writing the letter of the correct phrase in the blank in the sentences. There are 8 conversations to complete.
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The Art Of Persuasion
Students engage in a instructional activity that is concerned with the concept of persuasion and how it is used in a writing context. They create persuasive letters addressed to the president of the United States. Students brainstorm to...
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Historic Flight of the Wright Family
Students write a persuasive letter. In this persuasive writing lesson, students view a video of the first flight and read The Wright Sister by Richard Maurer. Students discuss societal roles of women.
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The Ballot Box Battle
Pupils practice note taking skills, study the life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and write a persuasive letter. They listen to the picture book biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and use the information from the biography to write a letter...
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Jim Thorpe: The Greatest Athlete of the Century
Young scholars discuss what makes a sports legend. In this Jim Thorpe activity students analyze both the triumphs and tragedies of Jim Thorpe's sports career. Young scholars then write a letter persuading their representative to name Jim...
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It's Debatable!
Students examine the basic elements and vocabulary of debating. They research an issue and write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, and role-play a Parliamentary debate on a particular bill.
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Persuasion
Young scholars explore the characteristics of a persuasive letter. They label each characteristic and they create a persuasive letter using the correct business letter format. Students recommend a school rule or change of a rule and...
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Are You Money Smart?
Learners figure out and discuss the irony of this coin-centric poem. They also practice persuasive letter writing, and identify and count coin/money values.
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I Nominate My Friend
Students review letter writing skills and the use of descriptive language, and practice writing persuasive letters, with help from teacher and peers. Letters are then written to nominate friend for Friend of the Year.
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Different Types of Text
In this different types of text learning exercise, students review, brainstorm and analyze what a persuasive text is and what an instructive text is. Students then answer what type of text ten examples are as shown.
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How Would You Feel?
Sixth graders put themselves in the shoes of aborigines who were displaced from their homes in the 1800s by Europeans who came in and took their land from them. They discuss the social injustices suffered by these people, and write...
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Lifestyles of Civil War
Eighth graders, after viewing a website on Civil War Time, explore and analyze the lifestyles of Civil War times as well as those of the soldiers through the writing of a composition of a narrative letter and story through the eyes of a...
Museum of Tolerance
The Pursuit of Democracy and Diversity: The Trial of Pro-Social Injustice in Historical Documents and Accounts
Class members investigate The Indian Removal Act of 1830, U.S. Theft of Mexican Territory Timeline, and President Abraham Lincoln’s letter to Horace Greeley, 1862, and then conduct a mock trial of each of these documents to determine...
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The Statue of Liberty: Bringing the 'New Colossus' to America
Young scholars discuss meaning of symbols associated with Statue of Liberty, read and analyze Emma Lazarus' sonnet, "The New Colossus," and write persuasive letter to a nineteenth-century audience to gain support for bringing statue to...
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Romeo and Juliet: To Tell, or Not to Tell
Should Romeo and Juliet have revealed their engagement to their parents? After reading Acts I and II of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, your class discusses this question with a SMARTboard presentation (though the lesson still works...
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Who Has the Power?
Fifth graders write persuasive letters expressing opinions about the purchase of 25 acres adjacent to Wakulla Springs proposed to include a convenience store/gas station. They submit the letter to the Florida Department of Environmental...
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Introducing the Essay: Twain, Douglass, and American Non-Fiction
Students analyze American essayists Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass in an introduction to American literary non-fiction writing. For this essay history lesson, students identify methods for writing essays. Students read and analyze...