In this lesson, students will analyze the rhetorical strategies Malcolm X used in his speeches, such as tone, emotional appeal, and descriptive language. They will also consider the strategies used by African American leaders during the Civil Rights Movement and the social implications of these strategies, contrasting the leadership and ideology of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X in the Civil Rights Movement and evaluate their legacies. They will identify personal values and use them to determine appropriate behaviors for protecting their individual rights.

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.

In this lesson, students examine various perspectives on gun violence and solutions to school shootings by reading an article and watching a series of videos.

Students will read, critically analyze and write about a series of poems dealing with 'songs about the American experience."

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.

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.

This lesson introduces students to the epic poem form and its roots in oral tradition. Students will learn about the epic hero cycle and will learn how to recognize this pattern of events and elements. They will also be introduced to the patterns embedded in these stories that have helped generations of storytellers remember these immense poems.

This is a unit introduction for any unit that has a thematic focus on the concept of "home." The first activity asks students to use critical thinking with art from the Smithsonian collection. Students will ask questions and look at commonalities. The second part of the activity asks students to look at an artist's sculptural interpretation of the idea of "home." The final piece of the activity involves students watching a video ("Fatima's Drawings") about a young girl who had to leave her home in Syria due to war and violence. Student are asked to analyze her concept of home and how it evolves.

These activities engage students in deep discussions and thinking about the concept of evil. Students explore the idea of evil in the works of Poe and then apply it to the world around them. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this unit plan centered on the poem, "A Far Cry from Africa," students will identify key details in the poem, work with a partner to analyze and understand the poem's meaning, and then work online to answer additional questions about the poem.

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.

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 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.

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.

In this lesson, students analyze newspaper articles, then interview classmates for newsworthy events and write articles of their own.

This resource is a strategy for directing written conversations and silent discussions within the classroom setting. A model, powerpoint presentation is provided as a guide. It may also be adapted to be used by learners.

In this 1-3 day lesson with 5 activities, students will develop the ability to make evidence-based claims, working individually and in pairs.