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.

In this lesson, students will learn how to address an audience, focusing on formal style and objective tone.

In this lesson, students will learn how to identify and use formal style and objective tone in their argument writing.

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.

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 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 will work to revise and polish their final argument essays, using strategies they have learned over the course of the last five lessons.

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.

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.

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 will learn how to integrate evidence and citations into arguments.

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.

After students have read a book about the Holocaust, such as The Diary of Anne Frank or Night by Elie Wiesel, students will view Life is Beautiful and complete discussion questions that challenge their ability to analyze literature using film. When the film is complete, students will write a letter to the director conveying their opinion of the film.

This packet contains a curriculum-embedded CCLS?aligned task and instructional supports. The task is the culminating task at the end of a 3?5 week unit. Throughout their 9th grade year, students read informational and literary texts focused on responding to the essential question of ?Who am I?? In the study of this question, students will draw from a variety of sources, including texts addressing the social, political, economic, and cultural factors and relationships that build identity in order to analyze the place which rites of passage have in the 21st century.

This is a simple print (pdf) or digital handout that you can give to students who are working on a research project to help them with formatting, in-text citation, and expectations. It is not designed to be a stand-alone lesson. For best results, always involve your SLMC in your research project planning. 

Students begin this multi-day lesson by reading letters to the editor in local, regional, or national newspapers, note common characteristics of the genre, and catagorize those characteristics. Next, they search to find news articles on topics that interest them. After choosing one on which to focus, students summarize the article, then use an online tool to write a letter to the editor. After peer editing them, students publish their letters and send.

Speech writing is a rhetorical art and provides the content for these scaffolded lessons that support the increased cognitive rigor of literacy standards with presidential writings.

This lesson is designed to assist students through multiple sessions with identifying relevant propaganda techniques in literature, discussing persuasive elements found in print and non-print media and composing a persuasive essay. Lesson is appropriate for use with a provided list of novels to include Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

This lesson plan is designed to introduce students to the rhythms of poetry. The lesson focuses on two poetic forms: the Ballad stanza and the Blues stanza. Lesson includes notations to incorporate poetry analysis and recitation. The lesson also involves practice skills to recognize and understand poetic structures such as: iambs, measures and rhythm. It includes a link to applicable music files.