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.

Students examine the state of the print newspaper industry, then debate its future.

In this lesson, students examine the state of the print newspaper industry, then debate its future.

Here is one of the strategies that we ought to be using in history and social studies classes because it lets us take advantage of a tool that students probably already possess ... namely, the story maps they've been using in English and Language Arts and Literature for years and years. When looking at stories and novels, students are often asked to focus on the "elements" of story: setting, characters, plot, and theme, among others. When we look at historical events, we're interested in the same things: where and when did the event take place? who was involved? what was the problem or goal that set events in motion? what were the key events? how was it resolved? and, for theme, so what? what's the universal truth, the reason this matters?

This extensive resource provides standard by standard strategies for meeting the goals of each, including graphic organizers, approaches, and multiple informational texts.

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.

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.

Summarizing teaches students how to take a large selection of text and reduce it to the main points for more concise understanding. Upon reading a passage, summarizing helps students learn to determine essential ideas and consolidate important details that support them. It is a technique that enables students to focus on key words and phrases of an assigned text that are worth noting and remembering.

Worksheets and Powerpoint lessons to help students of differing levels summarize selected passages.

This set of lessons extends over several days. Students work with a partner to read and annotate G.K. Chesterton's "The Fallacy of Success." Students take notes which summarize each section of the text. Students write an objective summary of the text, identifying two claims and determining how those claims are developed in the text.

In this activity, students develop Common Core reading skills (eg. citing textual evidence, determining the central ideas, and determining meaning of words and phrases) through a study of the history of the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution and its significance today. First, students work independently, with some class discussion, to complete a close reading of the second amendment text and related primary and secondary documents. Then, students work in groups to prepare a presidential candidate for a debate in which he/she must defend a particular position, or claim, about the meaning of the second amendment and constitutionality of gun regulation.

This resource contains a primary source about a supreme court case related to World War II. Accompanying the reading are text-dependent questions, an academic vocabulary list, and a writing prompt with student samples.

Was the American Revolution inevitable? This lesson is designed to help students understand the transition to armed resistance and the contradiction in the Americans' rhetoric about slavery through the examination of a series of documents. While it is designed to be conducted over a several-day period, teachers with time constraints can choose to utilize only one of the documents to illustrate the patriots' responses to the actions of the British.

Students engage in a character study of the numerous figures created by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities. Students first compare and contrast several forms of communication: email, text message, and telephone. They then complete a character study chart that breaks down physical background, character traits, social status/background, unanswered questions about the character, and a final judgment about the character. Next, students will create text messages between numerous characters that show the relationship between the characters, their background, and plot points that they are involved in. The lesson concludes with students sharing their text messages and a discussion of the rationales behind their choices.

In this lesson, students read primary and secondary source documents about the Supreme Court case Taylor v. Louisiana and the 6th and 14th amendments. Students then answer analysis questions about the case. There is a teacher answer key included in the lesson.

A teacher's guide to American Tapestry, Michelle Obama's biography. Included are chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, writing prompts, and activities.

In this lesson, students read an excerpt from "A Raisin in the Sun" and a 2013 news article on the persistence of the problem of housing discrimination. Graphic organizers are provided for students to use as they read and discuss the two texts.

"The Scarlet Letter" is full of famous passages that probe themes like sin, redemption, guilt, revenge, and hypocrisy as they relate to female sexuality. At the same time, our modern-day news is full of stories that highlight the sexual double-standard that exists in our society between men and women. The extent to which this double-standard exists is the focus of this lesson, which uses an excerpt from Hawthorn's classic and an op-ed about once-convicted murderess Amanda Knox.

Students are presented with a paired critical reading activity uses excertps from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and a New York Times article "˜History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names"™ to exlplore the deep and painful history of racial injustice in the south. Included are close fiction/non-fiction analysis, varied media resources, and writing assignments.