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....

When you ask your students to take notes during class, do they really know what you mean? Are they taking the right kind of notes and using their time effectively? Make sure they are by offering this handout, a comprehensive guide...

Political ads as primary source documents? But of course. Viewers analyze the strategies involved in the Republican Party's 1984 advertisement in support of Ronald Reagan's reelection. 

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...

The second module in a series for high school seniors focuses on tracking the central idea of a text across genres and from multiple author and character perspectives. Twelfth graders read a speech by Benazir Bhutto entitled "Ideas Live...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-activity on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how...

If you teach AP English language and composition and are looking for a way to address the differences between written and spoken arguments, consider this activity. Over the course of three days, class members research Charles Darwin or...

How did women use President Wilson's ideals and rhetoric in their bid for suffrage? To answer this essential question, class groups analyze primary written documents and visual images.

An inaugural address represents the first moments of a new beginning. Using John F. Kennedy's speech as a model for guided practice, groups examine the ingredients of an inaugural address. Individuals then repeat the analysis...

Visual and print propaganda are featured in a lesson that asks readers of A Separate Peace to examine the techniques used in propaganda from World War I, World War II, presidential elections, and in the novel.

Why are some immigrant groups in the United States embraced while others become disenfranchised? To answer this question, teams investigate why groups emigrated to the US, why some of these these peoples were...

Explication may sound like a fancy word, but it's just a fancy way to say analysis. Using a handout on poetry explications, part of a larger series on specific writing assignments, writers learn how to break down and analyze a poem. The...

How do Supreme Court justices interpret amendments to the Constitution? The resource helps answer that question by discussing how people use explicit and implicit language to interpret the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Learners...

Zoot suits, the Lindy hop, and conks. Readers carefully examine the rhetoric of chapter 4 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, analyze the effectiveness of using slang to develop a narrative, and consider how they might incorporate Haley's...

Readers examine the rhetorical devices Haley uses in chapter 8 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, paying particular attention to the diction and syntax and how these choices reveal changes in Malcolm X's point of view.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's April 14, 1938 Fireside Chat on economic conditions provides young historians an opportunity to polish their primary source comprehension skills. A great resource to add to you curriculum library.

"Equal opportunity . . . is not enough." Johnson's 1965 commencement address to the students at Howard University provides an opportunity for participants to see how education was a key element in his vision for civil rights.

If your school requires a senior research paper or if you are considering one for your class, then this resource is for you. The 43-page packet includes everything from a sample letter to parents to requirements, from topic suggestions...

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...

Connect the ideas of jazz improvisation and art to writing poetry. Learners collaborate and write different lines of poetry, imitating the jazz styles of improvisation and freewriting. Take a close look at the poems "Tenebrae" by Yusef...

"Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us." As part of a series of worksheets that provide readers with an opportunity to develop their primary source comprehension skills, kids examine an excerpt from...

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.

"I want to be the president who educated young people to the wonders of their world." Readers examine the vision Lyndon B. Johnson presented for his presidency in this excerpt from his "The American promise" message delivered to Congress...

Ever wonder why Pluto isn't considered a planet? Or how large the Earth is compared to the other inner planets? Explore the universe with a series of projects that simulate different aspects of our solar system. The activities require...