This resource includes an extended lesson designed to help students engage with ideals relative to the “American Dream”. The lesson is largely designed to accompany a reading of the novel The Great Gatsby. Students will read articles that discuss the “American Dream” prior to writing their own argumentative essay.

In this lesson, students will take a position on a writing prompt and analyze the best approach to creating a multi-paragraph argument using evidence to support their viewpoint.

In this lesson, students will learn to draft an effective introduction that focuses on their claim.

In Lesson 5 (pages 88-91 of the pdf) from the unit Argumentative Writing and Research, students will focus on how writers evaluate and rank their claims in order to structure and create strong argumentative paragraphs.

Students become novice lexicographers as they explore recent new entries to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), learn the process of writing entries for the OED, and write a new entry themselves. Students will follow up their entry with a persuasive essay and a competition in which the strongest contender for the title of New Word is chosen. Extensions will offer students a chance to evaluate old lists of "new words" and discuss the power dynamics of dictionaries.

Students examine books, selected from the American Library Association Challenged/Banned Books list, and write persuasive pieces expressing their views about what should be done with the books at their school.

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.

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.

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 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 will review major economic topics by applying the principles to a popular movie or television show of their choice.

Students will reflect on their reading experiences in and out of school and discuss the roles that both fiction and non-fiction played. Next, they will become familiar with what the Commmon Core Standards say about reading, and what critics and supporters have written in reaction. Ultimately, students will write about the question, "What should students read?"

Students will perform several tasks during this assignment. They will:-Create allusions based on Greek muths-Research -Apply information learned  through research to their project idea-Create a website using propaganda tecgniques-Create a presentation to promote the food truck 

Suggestions on how to guide students through the writing process when writing editorials "” from brainstorming a topic to publishing their work "” and all the steps in between.

Students learn about life in Babylonia through the lens of Hammurabi's Code. This lesson is designed to extend world history curricula on Mesopotamia and to give students a more in-depth view of life in Babylonia during the time of Hammurabi.

The focus of this lesson is on the use of hieroglyphs as a form of communication, record keeping, and as a means for preserving and passing down history. Students will learn basic information about the alphabet, common Egyptian words, and how to read hieroglyphic messages. Students will also practice using hieroglyphs to create messages of their own.

In this lesson, students practice writing strong hook sentences to start their writing. Students take notes on some effective strategies for writing strong hook, then practice by picking a topic and writing five hooks for it.

This lesson teaches students how to write an effective thesis statement. Students first discuss what makes a good thesis statement and what form they should take, then write thesis statements and evaluate each others' work.

This lesson plan walks students through writing two types of introduction paragraphs for essays. Students also learn what not to do and practice writing introductions for various types of essays.