Students take a closer look at the death penalty. In this U.S. government lesson, students watch a Discovery video about capital punishment in the United States and then compose letters to the editors of newspapers about their stance on...

What would Ben do? Jumping off from the pseudonymous letters Ben Franklin fooled his older brother into publishing when he was still a teenager, young literary lovers dive into acting, writing, and addressing a local issue with wit and...

As your class finishes the novel Dragonwings, use these culminating projects. A vocabulary list is given for chapters eleven and twelve and either an epitaph or letter activity concludes the book. The final project consists of creating a...

How do nineteenth-century texts by African American and Native American writers contribute to the country's ideals of freedom and individuality? Learners explore the topic by watching and discussing a video, reading biographies, writing...

Students explore the benefits and drawbacks of free trade from the perspective of the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Mexico. For homework, they each write a letter to the editor expressing their personal...

Just finished reading about the 17th century and the period of Enlightenment? Use this helpful worksheet that covers the people and events your class has just read about. Learners can use this resource to match ten different...

School House Rock's "Preamble" launches a study of the Preamble of the US Constitution and the relevance of this 200 year-old document today.

Learners debate whether college athletes should be held to a higher behavioral standard than non-athletes. Students determine whether behavior outside of school should be punishable by university administration, then write letters to the...

Young writers work backward to analyze persuasive techniques. As a class, work through the provided persuasive letter: a plea to an imaginary city council to lift a city-wide ban on fast food restaurants and discount stores. Start by...

Need a journal topic? Whether you use these prompts as part of a persuasive writing unit, or reproduce the download as a one-page handout for your class members, the suggested topics make a great addition to your curriculum library. In...

Young scholars work in a small group to create news stories, feature stories and editorials/letters to the editor and organize them in a podcast, video-based program, or newspaper/magazine focused on Hurricane Katrina.

Students investigate editorials.  In this literacy critical thinking lesson, students compare and contrast two newspaper editorials and two letters to the editor by completing a Venn diagram. Students work in groups to write...

High schoolers examine the topic of immigration reform. They conduct research on groups representing various viewpoints on immigration, write and perform a role-play, and write a persuasive essay or letter to a state senator on their...

What is the "Faurisson Affair”? What is “Holocaust Revisionism”? What does freedom of speech entail? Do revisionists have a right to voice their ideas? Such questions are at the heart of a richly detailed, thought provoking activity...

Students engage in the various steps involved in the writing process. The lesson plan is written as a guide for the teacher to write more in depth lesson plans for specific activities. This is a good model plan to follow.

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...

All sources are pretty much the same, right? If this is how your class views the sources they use for writing or research projects, present them with a media literacy lesson on smart source evaluation. Groups examine several articles,...

How do you feel about cloning? This issue is highly debated, so educate your class before they participate in a similar debate! Read a New York Times article related to the use of cloned pig organs for human transplants. Groups develop...

Students examine President Bush's July 2007, decision to commute the 30-month sentence of former White House official, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby by reading a New York Times article. They scan editorial sources on various sides of the...

Students create a biographical portfolio of the three important people. They write letters of request, asking for autographs of people in assorted fields. Students are explained that an autograph could be one of the following: A...

Students work in cooperative groups to read one current situation of Tibet. They respond to a set of discussion questions. Pupils write a newspaper article expressing the current information explored. Students write an editorial or...

Students discover what it was like to cross into freedom. In this slavery lesson, students read the "Emancipation Proclamation," and letters written by Abraham Lincoln and John Washington (a former slave). Students identify the key ideas...

Students define the terms associated with parts of a newspaper. They identify various sections of a newspaper and the type of articles found in each and provide the responses to who? what? when? where? and why? contained in a ...