This lesson will help students identify the various uses of language and understand their appropriateness within context. Students participate in journal writing as well as writing literacy narratives describing multiple uses of language. The lesson is designed to accompany a ready of "Mother Tongue"; however, the lesson may be used in conjunction with a study of other writings in English by authors who write or speak English as a second language.

This resource provides a lesson designed to assist students with identifying the skills they use to read and comprehend with a small group. Afterwards, learners with use some of those strategies to read online, informational texts. As a culminating activty, students will report their discoveries through discussion pertaining to the differences in reading physical and online texts and the strategies they used.

In this lesson, students will read and discuss an excerpt of Douglass' July 5th oration, examining the contradictions and hypocrisies he raised regarding a nation who owned slaves while celebrating the ideals of liberty and equal rights. Students will apply their understanding of the speech and its themes by planning their own modern day Fourth of July celebration for the White House.

This presentation is intended for use with the lesson "Exploring the Hypocrisy of American Slavery with Frederick Douglass' 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?'" In this lesson, students will read and discuss an excerpt of Douglass' July 5th oration, examining the contradictions and hypocrisies he raised regarding a nation who owned slaves while celebrating the ideals of liberty and equal rights. Students will apply their understanding of the speech and its themes by planning their own modern day Fourth of July celebration for the White House.

How do you make sense of contrasting accounts of historical events? What makes one source more reliable than another? How does corroborating information across sources help confirm or discredit historical accounts? In this lesson, students engage in such questions as they evaluate and compare different types of primary source documents with different perspectives on working conditions in English textile factories at the beginning of the 19th century.

This resource includes a lesson that requires students to read a short memoir prior to writing a memoir for a family member. Students are tasked with interviewing the family member prior to formulating their memoir, which may take the forms of photographic collages, image panels, a painting, a video, musical composition, sculpture or any other creative method. This lesson was designed to accompany the PBS documentary, The Mystery of Love. Links are provided to the PBS website for the documentary.

This activity asks students to analyze three primary documents about the experiences of young women who worked in textile factories in New England during the 1830s and 1840s. It provides worksheets to guide and support students in writing a paragraph that cites evidence about the documents.

In this lesson students will be introduced to Islamic culture while viewing the PBS video series Islam: Empire of Faith. Students will have the opportunity to research aspects of Islam by using the World Wide Web, library books, and other research tools. Students will also have the opportunity to work with classmates in creating an ABC Book of Islam based on their research, accompanied by visuals. *This is lesson 2 of unit on Islam entitled: Islam-Empires of Faith.

This lesson is based on the highly engaging book Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle by Thor Hanson. Alternate texts and strategies for sharing are provided in case there are not enough book resources for all students to have an individual copy. As they read, students will take notes and then participate in an interactive "grab bag book review" where they will take objects from a bag, one at a time, to act as prompts for re-telling big ideas from the book and lesson.

In this lesson, students anaylze the primary source Federalist No. 26. There are analysis questions at the end of the lesson and a teacher answer key.

Students will explore the world of Medieval Europe. They will learn the way the people lived and how Phragmites was part of this world. Students will then be assigned a social class role in the system of feudalism and research information about their character's privileges and disadvantages. Students will experience the feudal system through activities and presentations to relay what they learned to their class. Students may choose a variety of creative outlets to express their character's life in their own creative way with a group or separately.

This news brief from December 2009 focuses on malaria. Malaria is normally treatable, but now some strains are evolving resistance to our most effective drug. Students will find out how researchers and doctors are trying to control the evolution of the disease.

This resource is a collection of discussion questions and resoures to supplement the film, Finding Antwone Fisher.

In 1095, Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade, calling forth knights and peasants from across Western Europe to march against Muslim Turks in the Byzantine Empire and ultimately ?re-conquer? the holy city of Jerusalem. In this lesson, students compare Christian and Muslim perspectives of the First Crusade by analyzing different accounts of the siege of Jerusalem.

This lesson plan is designed as a guide that offers different ways to engage your students in the article "Fractured Lands" by Scott Anderson, published by The New York Times with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In "Fractured Lands," Anderson explores the modern Middle East through the eyes of six individuals, tracing their lives from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq through the Arab spring, up to the present day. While these people come from different countries, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds, their interlinked narratives provide a window into a turbulent region and help the reader understand the macro-narrative of modern Middle Eastern history. Throughout "Fractured Lands" Anderson raises questions about leadership, governance, identity, dissent and the consequences of history, which enrich our understanding of current events and may also help us better anticipate the future.

This lesson plan is designed as a guide that offers different ways to engage your students in the article "Fractured Lands" by Scott Anderson, published by The New York Times with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In “Fractured Lands,” Anderson explores the modern Middle East through the eyes of six individuals, tracing their lives from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq through the Arab spring, up to the present day. While these people come from different countries, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds, their interlinked narratives provide a window into a turbulent region and help the reader understand the macro-narrative of modern Middle Eastern history. Throughout “Fractured Lands” Anderson raises questions about leadership, governance, identity, dissent and the consequences of history, which enrich our understanding of current events and may also help us better anticipate the future.

In this lesson, students explore the free exercise clause in the first amendment by reading about various court cases throughout history. Discussion questions are provided. In an associated close-reading activity, students will review the two tests used by the Supreme Court in the Sherbert and Smith cases and apply the tests to the 1972 case of Wisconsin v. Yoder.

This activity engages students in an analysis of the 2008 speech by Barack Obama on race. Students will then create an annotated version of the speech that has them analyze and comment upon Obama's use of history, rhetoric, and language in his message. Students can also create a hypertext of this assignment in order to publish works in different media.

In this lesson, students read primary and secondary source documents about the Supreme Court cases National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977) and Brandenburg v. Ohio (1968) and freedom of speech. Students then answer analysis questions about the case. There is a teacher answer key included in the lesson.

This lesson-plan focuses on students analyzing, critiquing, and examining the language and meanings of historical and cultural documents such as The Pledge of Allegiance and the First Amendment. Through this activity they will also examine the impact and meaning of language, as well as the relevance of the meaning behind the words of each document. All handouts are downloadable and printable from this site.