In this lesson students will gain an understanding of the history of the African slave trade, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the development of slavery in America through discussing historical facts, art work, and excerpts from the book, Copper Sun.

In this unit from the Standford University The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute students develop a broader understanding of the struggle for equality from 1868 to the present by exploring first-person narratives from a diverse group of Americans. Beginning with a study of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, students determine the criteria for identifying an event as historically significant. Students then explore the impact of the struggle for equality by interviewing people in their community and utilizing resources such as Toni Morrison’s Remember: The Journey to School Integration, Voices of Civil Rights, a national oral history project by the Library of Congress, and StoryCorps, an independent non-profit project that focuses on oral history collections of individuals’ life experiences.

Clues to Walt Whitman's effort to create a new and distinctly American form of verse may be found in his Notebooks, now available online from the American Memory Collection. In an entry to be examined in this lesson, Whitman indicated that he wanted his poetry to explore important ideas of a universal scope (as in the European tradition), but in authentic American situations and settings using specific details with direct appeal to the senses.

This resource is a collection of discussion questions to supplement the non-fiction war verterans' account, We Were There by Yvonne Latty.

A series of lessons to introduce students to writing a mutigenre paper. Students will analyze and identify literary elements present in selected novels, work in collaborative groups and sythesize various genres to publish a multigenre webpage.

Creating Facebook-like presentations via Microsoft PowerPoint will engage and motivate students to learn about famous people of the American Revolution. To gain background knowledge prior to their study of the Revolutionary War, students will research people who played an important role during this time period. While sharing their research in their PowerPoint presentations, students provide written feedback.

In this lesson students will listen to examples of several dialects and discuss what they hear about each speaker from the recordings. As a class, students will also define dialect and use Alice Walker's novel the Color Purple to continue their analysis.

In this lesson on the writings of Truman Capote, students focus on author's purpose in, In Cold Blood and A Christmas Memory. They compare the intended audience for the two pieces as a start to a discussion about the use of language to manipulate meaning.

This lesson pairs Ernest Hemingway's "Cat in the Rain" with Raymond Carver's "Little Things" to guide students to an understanding of the characteristics of minimalist fiction. When asked to think about the reasons behind the popularity of minimalism, students begin to appreciate how literature develops and learn to see it as a reflection of the culture. Afterwards, students are tasked with comparing both works using a Venn diagram. Next, students read additional Carver stories to develop a list of characteristics for minimalist writing. Finally, students explore the roots of minimalism and write using characteristics of the style.

This resource contains a lesson plan for assisting students with a culminating activity during a reading of Romeo and Juliet. Students are tasked with reading a critical essay independently. Afterwards, students are required to draw evidence from the essay, other readings, discussions and any other applicable materials used for a study of the play. The lesson may be used as a guide and may be manipulated to include resources that were aligned by the instructor. The resource contains applicable handouts to include: worksheets and graphic organizers.

Students will learn about characters and their traits. Using graphic organizers and video clips, students will be able to determine character traits and the main idea of a text.

In this lesson, students consider the difficult problems facing the queen Penelope at home during The Odyssey. Students brainstorm sensible solutions to the problems, then write Penelope a letter offering advice.

In this lesson, students will pair reading and discussion of Tim O'Brien's story "The Things they Carried" with a letter-writing activity intended to help students analyze text to identify figurative and connotative meaning as well as ultimately organize and create their own piece of prose.

Guide your students in creative, expository, and persuasive writing, class debates, and science communications exercises designed for any subject area.

In this lesson, students review the concept of dialogue and write original dialogue based on a prompt. Students then work in pairs to revise their writing for clarity and quality.

This lesson gives students the information they need to practice writing great introductions for essays and other academic writing assignments.

This lesson encourages students to get involved with the environmental issues facing the world today. Students choose an audience and an environmental issue, then craft a persuasive letter urging someone to take action.

In this lesson, students review the writing process before using it to write poems. Students prewrite and complete a first draft before revising, editing, and proofreading their writing.

In this lesson students will learn to write and analyze technical writing instructiuons with consideration to audience, purpose, context, length, and complexity using common household items. After writing their own instructions, students will conduct usability tests of each other’s instructions, providing user feedback. Finally, students use this user feedback to revise their instructions before publishing them.

This lesson plan teaches students to write an effective essay reflecting on an event from their life. Students brainstorm ideas, then use the writing process to draft an essay in which they reflect on a decision or experience from their life.