In this lesson, students use primary source documents and a movie to prompt thinking about why many Tennesseans supported the Butler Act, which forbade the teaching of evolution. Students will formulate hypotheses, fill in a graphic organizer, and support their ideas with evidence from historical documents.

In this lesson, students participate in a Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) as they investigate the question: Did Americans Support the Butler Act? In pairs, students read primary documents and assemble evidence to answer this question either affirmatively or negatively. Students then present their arguments to each other and try to reach consensus regarding the question, or to at least clarify their differences.

In this lesson students use a statement from the American Federation of Teachers and an editorial from the Chicago Defender to expand upon the textbook’s depiction of the Scopes trial as a clash between “creationists” and “evolutionists.” First, students read and analyze a passage from a selected textbook. Then they read documents showing different perspectives on the Scopes trial. Finally, each student writes a letter to the textbook publisher suggesting ways to edit the textbook using evidence from these primary documents.

Selective Highlighting/Underlining is used to help students organize what they have read by selecting what is important. This strategy teaches students to highlight/underline ONLY the key words, phrases, vocabulary, and ideas that are central to understanding the reading.

This resource provides a lesson designed to provide students with a guide for reading and interpreting the text, Harrison Bergeron. Students will spend time analyzing the author's use of irony. The lesson provides a set of guided reading questions as well as a culminating writing activity.

In this lesson, students complete a comprehensive project based on a short story they've read in class. Students craft a presentation, create a test, and create a puzzle or game based on the story.

Students will consider the nature of stories and learn to write more concisely by reading and writing flash fiction.

In this lesson, students will write a tribute to a teacher who has taught them an important lesson that they still remember. The personal essays that students write for this lesson are then published in a class collection. Because writing about someone who has been a significant influence is a typical topic for college application essays, the lesson’s extensions include resources for writing more traditional, formal papers.

This lesson plan is designed to introduce students to the rhythms of poetry. The lesson focuses on two poetic forms: the Ballad stanza and the Blues stanza. Lesson includes notations to incorporate poetry analysis and recitation. The lesson also involves practice skills to recognize and understand poetic structures such as: iambs, measures and rhythm. It includes a link to applicable music files.

This Random House for High School Teachers teacher's guide includes teaching ideas, chapter vocabulary and questions, discussion topics, comparison to other texts, and an author biography designed to aid students in exploring author Lisa See's novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, a detailed and unforgettable narrative of female friendship set in rural China in the 19th century.

In this lesson, students use primary source documents to compare perspectives on helping the poor during the Great Depression. Students will examine different approaches to relief presented in two primary documents, answer questions relating to the documents, and explain which approach they think best and why.

This resource is a collection of discussion questions to supplement Sounds of the River by Da Chen, the story of a young Bejing teenager Da Chen who takes his first train ride away from the farm he was raised on to his new university life in Beijing. He soon faces a host of ghastly challenges, including poor living conditions, lack of food, and suicidal roommates.

In this lesson on the Spanish American War from Historical Thinking Matters, students will use contrasting newspaper accounts of the explosion of the Maine to gain insight into how an author’s word and information choices influence the message and tone of the text. Students will view a 3-minute movie to establish context, use a graphic organizer to compare the articles, and write an essay where they take a position about which account is most believable.

In this lesson, students work through the Spanish-American War investigation on the Historical Thinking Matters website. They read the nine documents, answer guiding questions on the interactive on-line notebook, and prepare to complete the final essay assignment using their notes. Each day includes a brief teacher-led activity or presentation designed to facilitate students’ work. Students complete an essay and participate in a discussion reviewing the four historical reading strategies used to frame the site’s notebook questions.

In this lesson, students use McKinley’s war speech ("McKinley" document) to challenge a textbook’s account of the explosion of the Maine triggering the Spanish-American War. First, students read a selected textbook passage and begin to analyze its story. They then consider what McKinley’s war speech to Congress might contribute to their understanding of these causes, read McKinley’s words, and answer the notebook questions on the site. Finally, each student rewrites the textbook passage using evidence from this primary document.

A teachers guide for Spare Parts by Joshua Davis, including questions for comprehension, discussion prompts, and ideas for exercises and assignments to deepen understanding.

In this Random House teacher's guide to Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder, students will explore three sections: Style and Structure, Comprehension and Discussion, and Personal Essays. The prompts
in the first two sections are constructed for the purpose of fostering classroom and group discussion. The intent of the Personal Essay section is to garner in-depth reflective and/or investigative individual responses.

This resource is a multi-week assignment that has students creating their own anthology of poetry. Students will edit their collections, include relevant images, commentary, a table of contents, bibliography and glossary. The anthology is a personal collection that expresses each student's unique personality and taste.

Exploring the use of style in literature helps students understand how language conveys mood, images, and meaning. After exploring the styles of two authors, students will translate passages from one author into the style of another. Then they will translate fables into style of one of the authors.