In this minilesson, students first explore Dr. King's use of semicolons and their rhetorical significance. They then apply what they have learned by searching for ways to follow Dr. King's model and use the punctuation mark in their own writing.

This activity engages students in an analysis of the 2008 speech by Barack Obama on race. Students will then create an annotated version of the speech that has them analyze and comment upon Obama's use of history, rhetoric, and language in his message. Students can also create a hypertext of this assignment in order to publish works in different media.

This lesson-plan focuses on students analyzing, critiquing, and examining the language and meanings of historical and cultural documents such as The Pledge of Allegiance and the First Amendment. Through this activity they will also examine the impact and meaning of language, as well as the relevance of the meaning behind the words of each document. All handouts are downloadable and printable from this site.

Students will go "inside" the NY Times Best Sellers List to explore recent best sellers across categories, then use those lists as models to create their own in categories of their choosing. They will write one-sentence summaries for each book on their lists, then analyze and explain their choices by writing "Inside the List" articles. Ultimately, students will answer the question, "What do best-seller lists tell us about our culture?"

George Orwell's experiences as a policemen for the British Empire in India formed the basis for his early writings, including this essay. After receiving some background information on British rule in Burma as well as on Orwell, students will read the essay in order to analyze its use of metaphors, symbolism and irony.

In this fourth unit of eight total, Think Alouds (pages 27-33 of the pdf), students will apply skills to investigate and understand text.

In this lesson plan, students learn a list of Greek and Latin roots, then list words that use them. Students then make 3x5 notecards for each root and define them. Students also complete a four square vocabulary box for each root.

Using the musical Hamilton, students will analyze character and apply the elements of argumentation to the "battle" between Jefferson and Hamilton.

Hometown Heritage is a high school level, school-wide, cross-curricular PBL project originally designed and conducted at Tri-County Early College High School in the spring of 2018. The project's primary goal is to allow students to develop, refine, and present a product that addresses the following driving question: "How can we inspire young people to value our local heritage by telling our community’s stories in creative and meaningful ways?" Modeled after the "Foxfire" series, this project asked students to become apprentice level experts on a topic they cared about that was specific to the fabric of our local community, including working directly with an outside mentor to develop this expertise. Moreover, the students were expected to make strong connections and applications to their academic and 21st Century Skill competencies.

In the TED Ed lesson focused on language, students will explore the history of English and why semantically equal phrases can evoke very different images. Discussion questions and additional resources are linked in the sidebar.

In this TED Ed lesson focused on writing, students will explore tips for using language to make fiction really come alive. Discussion questions and additional resources available in the sidebar.

Students will learn about the impact of enjambment in Gwendolyn Brooks' short but far-reaching poem "We Real Cool." One element of this lesson plan that is bound to draw students in is a compelling video of working-class Bostonian John Ulrich reciting the poem.

This lesson reviews the sentence types, then has students write sentences of a variety of structures in a paragraph and review what they write.

In this lesson, students will explore poetry through listening and reading the poem "The Great Migration." Pre-reading activity will utilize small group discussion of nuance in vocabulary. Post reading activity will utilize tableaux to reflect new ideas based on learning, and an optional poem or short narrative on community furthers student exploration of empathy.

In this lesson, students will learn how to integrate evidence and citations into arguments, using paraphrasing.

This lesson is designed to assist learners with understanding the traditional essay, its development, and skills required to effectively practice this traditional form of writing. Students will spend time evaluating specific essay writing techniques prior to practicing writing an essay using some of the techniques they have covered.

Students begin by evaluating the universal theme of betrayal from multiple perspectives. After reading time period scenarios as well as reflecting on personal experiences, students use critical thinking skills to explore and identify interventions for each betrayal scenario, including personal examples. Students then research Roman history as they write down thier own critical perspective of a scenario depicting plausible scenes from Roman times. As the culminating project and assessment, students will create comic strips with the Interactive Comic Creator

In this lesson, students analyze Jacob Lawrence'sThe Migration of the Negro Panel no. 57(1940-41), Helene Johnson's Harlem Renaissance poem"Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem"(1927), and Paul Laurence Dunbar's late-nineteenth-century poem"We Wear the Mask"(1896), considering how each work represents the life and changing roles of African Americans from the late nineteenth century to the Harlem Renaissance and The Great Migration.

This literacy assessment includes an excerpt from "Julius Caesar," eight text-dependent questions, one constructed response writing prompt, and explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS.

Students discuss and examine the differences between electronic communication such as texts and emails versus more "traditional" means of writing. There is also a discussion on audience and puropse when writing, and students will practice writing a "style guide" page in order to reinforce conventions of standard English.