Bystander or upstander and advocate? Three lessons have high schoolers investigating data about bullying and school safety. Participants then learn how to take a stand against bullying and use what they have learned to create a PSA to...

To conclude a study of A Raisin in the Sun and to prepare for a visit to the Lewis Museum, class members analyze Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem." Learners then draw connections to characters in the play and to their own experiences...

It's time to put it all together! Using the resource, scholars complete an end-of-unit assessment. They write a multi-paragraph essay comparing Audre Lorde's "From the House of Yemanjá" or "An Address by Elizabeth Cady Stanton" to...

Activism can create real change. Class members examine a series of photographs that represent a different form of activism. Individuals then craft a persuasive speech in which they argue why the photo they chose is the best example of...

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...

What skills are necessary to interact with different types of text? Twenty-first century learners live in a digital world and must develop a whole new set of skills to develop media literacy. Class members engage in a series of...

Students examine the expectations that colonists had for lives prior to the revolution. In this colonial America lesson, students read primary documents that feature the perceptions of white men and minorities during the time period....

Good discussion questions, quizzes, and tests teach as well as assess. Readers of The Great Gatsby will learn much from the materials in a 36-page packet designed to help students prepare for the AP Literature exam. Included in the...

Students explore characterization in Little Women. In this literature lesson, students participate in written analysis and research in order to explore Alcott's characterization in the novel.

Dive into Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and determine what it means to conform in society, and discuss as a group with the thoughts and plans available in these documents. Included are multiple activities and brain targets that form the...

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech, "I Have a Dream," is one of the most famous in United States history, but why was it so effective? Ask your class to determine the answer to this question. While the resource includes a description of...

Young historians examine Lyndon Johnson's vision for a rich, powerful, and upward society as detailed in this excerpt from his famous "Great Society" speech presented at the University of Michigan in 1964.

For some students, college may not be worth the cost. Free-response questions from the 2014 AP® English Language and Composition exam cover a variety of topics, including the value of a college education. Writers review six sources to...

Examine three speeches while teaching Aristotle's appeals. Over the course of three days, class members fill out a graphic organizer about ethos, pathos, and logos, complete an anticipatory guide, read speeches by Martin Luther King Jr.,...

Students work to create a design that will protect an egg from being dropped from a one story floor. They test their prototype after it is completed. They write clear instructions and link aspects of the design process to the scientific...

"Love it or leave it." "You're either for us or against us." Rhetoric and it's polarizing effects are the focus of a lesson plan that uses John Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry as an exemplar. Groups examine primary source documents,...

Young learners today are bombarded by media manipulation. Help them develop the skills they will need to become savvy 21st century media consumers with a unit on media literacy.

Are American young people prepared to become tomorrow's leaders in technological innovation, or does an obsession with being cool sidetrack essential skills? That is the question freshmen and sophomores must address in a performance...

Bob Dylan's selection as the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first songwriter ever to receive the honor, has focused the attention of a new generation on the work of the legendary artist. Class members...

As part of their study of the 1963 March on Washington, class members do a side-by-side comparison of the original text of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" with a transcript of the speech he delivered. The take away from the...

The AP Literature and Composition exam is all about close reading. Test takers are presented with a passage and asked to analyze how an author uses literary devices to create a desired effect. Prepare your students for the exam with a...

Although the work Americans do has changed over time, the plight of the American worker has largely remained the same. Facilitate a class discussion aboutAmerican workers using Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" and...

Critically analyze advertising techniques, such as circular reasoning, bandwagon, testimonial, and repetition, with worksheets that effectively discuss and illustrate how the media aims to influence.