Students become novice lexicographers as they explore recent new entries to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), learn the process of writing entries for the OED, and write a new entry themselves. Students will follow up their entry with a persuasive essay and a competition in which the strongest contender for the title of New Word is chosen. Extensions will offer students a chance to evaluate old lists of "new words" and discuss the power dynamics of dictionaries.

Students will examine a crime scene to evaluate evidence, make claims, explain which evidence supports those claims, and provide commentary to explain how the evidence supports the claims. They will provide a report at the end to show that they are able to make appropriate claims, provide sufficient support, and explain it all in great detail. 

A 4 minute video on removing vague, ambigous words like 'good' and 'bad' from student writing.

Students select a theme-related essay topic from Night, by Elie Wiesel, or The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and develop an essay that relates the theme to modern day personal experiences. The essay follows a preset rubric.

In this lesson, students investigate climate change and search for and evaluate evidence of change. Students will then write a scientific argument using evidence and reasoning to support claims. Students will also be able to reflect on the weaknesses in their own arguments in order to improve their argument and then respond to other arguments.

The goal of this assignment is for students to write an editorial, either by themselves or with a partner. This topic will be something they are interested in or passionate about and hold a particular opinion that they wish to share with others. The learning cycle will focus on students exploring topics and finding one they hold an opinion about. Further points of the cycle will involve students learning about various methods of persuasion and how to find evidence to support their position.

These docmument based questions and essay prompt provide the student with an in-depth opportunity to evaluate the concepts behind capitalism and communism using primary sources. Selections are taken from: Friedrich Engels, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Adam Smith, Karl Marx and others.

Students participate in activities in which they learn about redistricting, types of legislative committees, types of legislation, and the process by which a bill becomes a law in Congress. Students will apply their knowledge by participating in a legislative simulation in which the House Judiciary Committee determines whether to report a proposed bill regarding punishment for drunk driving as favorable on the floor.

In this lesson, students will begin pre-planning by constructing an outline for their argument essay guided by the Argument Outline Tool. Students will determine a central claim and draw upon arguments that they have been discussing in supplemental texts throughout this module.

Students will first imagine they are executives at major American clothing retailers who are researching and negotiating what policy changes, if any, their company should take in light of the recent disasters in Bangladeshi garment factories. Then, students will write their own persuasive letters to their favorite clothing brand advocating a course of action to improve safety standards for workers around the world.

The past is often neatly partitioned in time periods and eras with generalized names meant to characterize what life was like during that time. In this multi-day lesson, students question the validity of using ?Dark Ages? to describe Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. In the process, students examine a variety of primary and secondary sources highlighting different social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental facets of life in Europe during this period.

Students will play the role of White House advisers, exploring policy options and recommending the best strategy for preventing war in East Asia.

After breaking down and discussing the Declaration of Independence, students have a chance to show their understanding of the argument presented by creating a political cartoon and defending their choices in creating it.

Students will evaluate the arguments in the Declaration of Independence and then they will write their own declaration of independence to separate their school from the district. They will also plan for what will happen after the separation. This is a great connection to Animal Farm, but does not have to be taught while reading this book. 

In this lesson, students research and discuss real-world chemical issues. Students will either participate in a debate or write and essay in which they compare and contrast several points of view.

In this lesson, students respond to a fictional letter to defend Mark Twain and the study of "Huckleberry Finn" using persuasive techniques, appropriate word choice, and correct letter format.

In this lesson, students will work together to develop and strengthen their writing, focusing on unity, coherence, logical sequence, integrating evidence, and grammar.

This lesson draws a connection between the threat of smallpox during the Revolutionary War and the influenza pandemic during World War I. In this lesson, students will utilize educational technology to consult primary, secondary, and tertiary sources in the completion of a webquest. Writing across the curriculum is a large focus of this lesson.

In this lesson, students discuss and develop essay ideas for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Students also learn about the writing process.