A Seed Discussion is a two-part strategy used to teach students how to engage in discussions about assigned readings. In the first part, students read selected text and identify "seeds" or key concepts of a passage which may need additional explanation. In the second part, students work in small groups to present their "seeds" to one another. Each "seed" should be thoroughly discussed before moving on to the next.

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.

In this Random House for High School Teachers reader's guide, indepth discussion questions guide students through exploration of author Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II, a true tale of riveting adventure in which two weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery–and make history themselves.

Students will examine their preconceptions about Shakespeare and his work. Then, after reading one theater critic's case for reading and seeing Shakespeare, they will use the Times to explore adaptations of a Shakespearean play they are currently studying. Finally, they will use these as a springboard for staging their own scenes from the play in a new way, using an adaptation they have read about as a model.

In this lesson, students will write an Extended Constructed Response (multi-paragraph essay) explaining how Sherman's march was a turning point in American history changing in all social classes both peoples attitude towards war and towards their own country.

"A Quilt of a Country" by Anna Quindeln will be used to ask and answer text-based questions. In this lesson, students will be required to identify evidence in the text to answer text-based questions which requires deeper discussions and close reading.

In this lesson, students research the Triangle Shirtwaist factory using primary and secondary sources. Students will synthesize and interpret a wide array of information using argument, narrative or informative writing skills.

Students compare an excerpt of a WPA interview with an ex-slave with a more famous statement by Frederick Douglass to arrive at their own interpretations of slave resistance. This lesson is designed to work with the film Doing As They Can, but parts of it can be completed without the film.

This lesson will focus on the views of the founders as expressed in primary documents from their own time and in their own words. Students will see that many of the major founders opposed slavery as contrary to the principles of the American Revolution.

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.

In this lesson, students learn about the rivaling policy proposals for aid to the aged in the early 1930s. They examine a poster for the Social Security Act that was created by the Social Security Board. Then, they design posters for the different policies proposed by Huey Long and Francis Townsend. Finally, students analyze posters from other eras of American history.

In this lesson, students engage in an inquiry focused upon different historical interpretations of Social Security and the New Deal. They examine the different ways that historians Carl Degler, Barton Bernstein, and Anthony Badger have addressed the question: Did the Social Security Act and the New Deal fundamentally change the role of American government in the economy? Students learn elements of historiography—in particular that interpretations of history may differ, in part, due to the evidence used by historians and their particular perspectives. Finally, students answer the inquiry question themselves and support their arguments with evidence from both primary and secondary documents.

Students use a Socratic seminar to analyze and argue about a recent news topic on which they"™re sure to have strong opinions: the SAT.

This online interactive lesson from the United Kingdom's National Archives guides students through several primary sources in this case study about the Soviet control of Eastern Europe to answer the big question, "How did the Cold War work?" There is a worksheet, glossary, and timeline provided to assist students in their analysis. You must click on the picture of each primary source to access it.

In this lesson, students will be able to discuss how the space race impacted American culture using evidence from the primary sources and a video.

In these lessons from Historical Thinking Matters, students learn to read more analytically as they investigate the causes of the Spanish-American War. After hypothesizing causes for the war, they test their hypotheses using successive sets of documents. They answer the notebook questions for these documents and consider how each informs the inquiry question. Using historian think-alouds from the site, the teacher can model a historical read of particular passages. Finally, students practice these new ways of reading with a document they find in a directed webquest. *The lessons are made available in 3 options: 1 Day, 3 Day or 5 Day. The 5 Day version includes an essay assignment with instructions on thesis writing.

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.

How do great authors build suspense and keep us engaged? In this lesson students will discuss how they "read" their favorite televsion shows in order to make predictions about what will happen, then apply these skills to speculate about happens to literary characters after the novel or play ends. Finally, they will use the inferences they gain thorugh close reading to create imagined futures for these characters in comic strips, next chapters, letters, journals, or videos.