A speaker, a message, an audience. After analyzing these elements in Queen Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury, groups analyze how other speakers use an awareness of events, and their audience to craft their arguments....

Though often used in shows of patriotism, Bruce Springsteen's 1985 song "Born in the U.S.A." is critical of America's role in the Vietnam war and its treatment of American veterans. High schoolers analyze the song's lyrics in an activity...

Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their eyes Were Watching God has been highly praised and severely criticized for its depiction of African American folk culture. A set of primary source materials, including photographs, articles, essays, and...

“. . .different men often see the same subject in different lights. . .” but the great orator Patrick Henry used all the skills at his command to craft a speech to convince listeners to see things as he did--that liberty was worth dying...

Compare and contrast the ideologies of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle schoolers conduct research regarding civil rights and rhetorical strategies used in political speechs. They examine the strategies that both men employed...

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 scholars evaluate the ship of state metaphor in relation to the historical events in America from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War. They synthesize ideas presented in ten different primary source documents and compose an...