In this lesson students select and then research an issue that concerns them, using internet and print sources. Next, students review the concepts of purpose and audience. Then they argue a position on their selected issue in letters to two different audiences. Students work with peer groups as they use an online tool to draft and revise their letters.

These docmument based questions and essay prompt provide the student with an in-depth opportunity to evaluate the concepts behind capitalism and communism using primary sources. Selections are taken from: Friedrich Engels, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Adam Smith, Karl Marx and others.

Like many 19th century photographers, Mark Twain struggled with how best to portray fictionalized characters while creating social commentary. In this lesson, students will compare and contrast Twain's novel and excerpts from Frederick Douglass' narrative to original photos of 19th century slaves. After writing journal entries about Huck Finn's Jim and Frederick Douglass, students write an essay evaluating the reliable depiction of slavery.

In this lesson students look critically at the story, "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allen Poe. They use prediction strategies to form and refine thier opinions about the story line progression in each work. They read the story, screen the film, discuss reactions to both works, and plan and write a persuasive essay analyzing the validity of the film interpretation.

Students participate in activities in which they learn about redistricting, types of legislative committees, types of legislation, and the process by which a bill becomes a law in Congress. Students will apply their knowledge by participating in a legislative simulation in which the House Judiciary Committee determines whether to report a proposed bill regarding punishment for drunk driving as favorable on the floor.

Students will first imagine they are executives at major American clothing retailers who are researching and negotiating what policy changes, if any, their company should take in light of the recent disasters in Bangladeshi garment factories. Then, students will write their own persuasive letters to their favorite clothing brand advocating a course of action to improve safety standards for workers around the world.

Students prepare for this lesson by reading Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" (or another short story). After a minilesson on the difference between freewriting and rehashing the plot, students freewrite a response to the story to generate an original framework for a literary analysis essay. Students discuss what makes a solid thesis and then develop a thesis idea from their body of freewriting. This central idea serves as an organizational principle for creating an outline for an original literary analysis essay.

In an effort to examine literature in a variety of ways, students will examine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun through a variety of critical lenses such as feminist, multicultural, Marxist, archetypal, and reader response. 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.

Nineteenth century middle-class American women saw their behavior regulated by a social system, known today as the cult of domesticity, which was designed to limit their sphere of influence to home and family. Yet within this space they developed networks and modes of expression that allowed them to speak out on issues facing the nation. Students will read four sets of passages and identify which principals of the cult of domesticity are illustrated and how. Students will also perform textual anlayses to determine audience, voice, point of view, themes, and the rhetoric used.

The past is often neatly partitioned in time periods and eras with generalized names meant to characterize what life was like during that time. In this multi-day lesson, students question the validity of using ?Dark Ages? to describe Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance. In the process, students examine a variety of primary and secondary sources highlighting different social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental facets of life in Europe during this period.

In this lesson, students take on the role of Victor Frankenstein and attempt to decide whether to create a mate for the horrible monster Victor created early in the novel. Students look at character goals, consider pros and cons of each decision, and write a persuasive essay explaining their decision.

Students will play the role of White House advisers, exploring policy options and recommending the best strategy for preventing war in East Asia.

In this lesson, students research and discuss real-world chemical issues. Students will either participate in a debate or write and essay in which they compare and contrast several points of view.

In this lesson, students respond to a fictional letter to defend Mark Twain and the study of "Huckleberry Finn" using persuasive techniques, appropriate word choice, and correct letter format.

In this lesson, students will determine a central claim and construct an outline for a research based argument paper.

This lesson draws a connection between the threat of smallpox during the Revolutionary War and the influenza pandemic during World War I. In this lesson, students will utilize educational technology to consult primary, secondary, and tertiary sources in the completion of a webquest. Writing across the curriculum is a large focus of this lesson.

Students will explore the first five settlements during the colonization of North America. In groups, students will research an assigned settlement then prepare a skit to teach classmates important information about that settlement. Students will culminate the lesson by creating either a letter to the King/Queen requesting a colony charter or a poster for recruiting settlers to their existing colony.

In this lesson, students read "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" and "Civil Disobedience" to identify the appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos, and write a compare/contrast paper connecting the two essays.

This doc presents an example of an intermediate-level learning plan modeled after Modern Teacher templates.  It covers 17th-century writer Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" and teaches students how to make inferences and how to recognize different kinds of satire.  Students are asked to use correct MLA parenthetical documentation to write an essay discussing Swift's message by analyzing his use of satirical devices.  This plan provides some student choice while still being pretty directive about what the students have to complete and understand to be successful.  Funding for this Advanced Learning Plan provided by the NCDPI Digital Learning Initiative Grant.