This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Answer a Research Question with Close Reading and Research: | In this lesson, students will conduct research to answer the research question: How are current trends in education affecting higher education and/or the workforce? |
| Buried in Ash: New Revelations of an Ancient Culture: | In this lesson, students read a non-fiction text as they learn of the artifacts unearthed from the remains of a Salvadoran village preserved in volcanic ash much like Pompeii. Students will discover how researchers piece together evidence to determine the significance the artifacts reveal in illustrating the daily lives of this ancient people. As students come to understand the researchers use the artifacts to infer religious, cultural and economic aspects of the Ceren village, they will answer text-dependent questions and compose a multi-paragraph writing response (sample answer keys included) asking students to describe the power of this natural disaster to destroy this ancient culture yet preserve its details for future generations to learn from. |
| Swagger: Shakespeare versus Jay Z: | This lesson provides students the opportunity to explore how the word ‘swagger’ has transformed over centuries through the writings of poets such as Shakespeare and rappers such as Jay Z. Students will read an article from NPR titled “What do Jay Z and Shakespeare Have in Common? Swagger” and thereafter will be asked to analyze vocabulary from the article, respond to text-dependent questions, and complete a summary of the term swagger analyzing its previous and present day definitions. |
| Looking Over the Mountaintop: Tone and Perspective: | This lesson is the third lesson in a three-part series on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. In this lesson, students will analyze King's speech, which has been broken up into eight sections, for his perspective and tone. At the end of the lesson, students will respond to a prompt and write an essay based on what they have analyzed throughout the lesson. A graphic organizer, suggested answer key, and writing rubric have been provided. |
| Looking Over the Mountaintop: Figures of Speech and Rhetorical Devices: | This lesson is the 2nd part in a 3-part series on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop." This lesson focuses on some of the figures of speech and rhetorical devices used by Dr. King in his speech. The speech has been divided into eight sections. As students read through each section they will analyze some of the figures of speech and rhetorical devices King used, record their answers on a graphic organizer, and analyze how use of the figure of speech or rhetorical device impacted the meaning of that section of the speech. Students will write an extended paragraph for the lesson. |
| Looking Over the Mountaintop: Central Ideas: | This is the first lesson in a three-part series on Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop." In this lesson, the speech has been divided into eight sections with text-dependent questions that are specific to each section. Throughout the course of the lesson students will determine a central idea for each section and examine King's ideas and claims and how they are developed and supported. At the end of the lesson, students will determine an overarching central idea of the speech and write an extended paragraph to explain the central idea and how it is developed and supported with specific evidence throughout the text. |
| Someone is Always Watching You: | This is the third lesson in a three-part unit examining privacy, surveillance, and technology. In this lesson, students will create a digital presentation and present their information to the class discussing a current privacy concern related to technology. |
| The Surveillance Society – Is Privacy just an Illusion?: | "The line between private and public space is as porous as tissue paper." This is lesson two of three in a unit to introduce students to the central idea of privacy. In this lesson, students will continue to explore issues of privacy through their previous research on Edward Snowden. Students will use a graphic organizer to evaluate how an author develops the central idea. Students will be asked to consider to whether or not privacy has become an illusion due to our technological advances. |
| Writing an Argument: | In this lesson, students will conduct close readings of a teacher-selected news article that introduces a claim and two sides. As they read, they will implement vocabulary strategies, analyze the article’s claims and their validity. After they read, they will participate in a whole class discussion before choosing a side and writing a three-paragraph argument in the form of a letter. |
| Privacy: A Matter of National Security?: | In this lesson, students will embark upon a journey of espionage and inquire how the rights of one can become a barrier for the greater good of a nation. This is the first lesson in a three-part unit evaluating the concept of privacy, surveillance, and technology. After learning briefly about former NSA agent Edward Snowden, students will research to find more information on Snowden’s actions and surrounding events. activity will require students to use textual support, reasoning and relevancy of the text, and analyze an author's claims. Students will synthesize the arguments, information, and claims within the text to participate in a class debate on whether Snowden is should be celebrated or considered a traitor. |
| A Biography Study: Using Role-Play to Explore the Lives of Authors: | Dramatizing life stories provides students with an engaging way to become more critical readers and researchers. In this lesson, students select American authors to research, create timelines, and write bio-poems. Then, they collaborate with other students in small groups to design and perform a 'panel of authors' presentation in which they role-play as their authors. The final project requires each student to synthesize information about his or her author in an essay. There are tons of additional links and resources included in this lesson plan! |
| Analyzing Logos, Ethos, Pathos in "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro": | Students will read, understand, and analyze a speech by Fredrick Douglass through close reading and scaffolded learning tasks. Students will write an essay to support their analysis of the central idea of Douglass's speech, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro." |
| Language of Letters: Analyzing the Change in Diction and Syntax from Civil War Times to the Present: | This lesson includes a close-reading and text-marking activity using two soldiers' letters, one from the Civil War and one from The War on Terror. Students will discover by looking at word choice and sentence structure how language styles have changed over time. |
| Exploring Immigration and America: Part 3: | This lesson is the 3rd lesson of a unit on Immigration and America. In this lesson, students will analyze the and make thematic connections to the previous works studied. The culminating activity is students' oral presentation of a digital presentation in which they compare the works in terms of theme. They will need to support their ideas with textual evidence. |
| Do You See What I See, Feel, Hear, Taste, and Smell?: | In this lesson, students will discuss the importance of imagery as it pertains to writing. They will practice using vivid descriptions through their writing. |
| A Collaboration of Sites and Sounds Using Wiki to Catalog Protest Songs: | Protest songs serve as a means to combat social ills and cover a wide array of topics, including racism, sexism, poverty, imperialism, environmental degradation, war, and homophobia. This lesson makes a connection to popular culture by asking students to work in pairs to research and analyze contemporary and historic protest songs. After learning about wikis, each pair posts their analysis of the protest songs to a class wiki, adding graphics, photos, and hyperlinks as desired. The class then works together to organize the entries. Finally, students listen to all of the protest songs and add information and comments to each other's pages.
This lesson works well with a unit focusing on a piece of literature in which a character(s) actively fights for social, political, or economic justice. For example, this lesson can build on a discussion of the issues that Atticus Finch contends with in To Kill a Mockingbird. |
| Universal Themes in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: | Students will review the first three chapters/sections of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men to analyze character traits as they support the universal themes of anxiety and fear in this lesson. They will then compare the two themes using their analysis. |
| Exploring Immigration and America: Part 2: | This lesson is the second of a unit comprised of 3 lessons. In this second lesson, students will use small group discussion to analyze informational text, a speech given by Judge Learned Hand entitled "The Spirit of Liberty," in terms of central idea and author’s choices in achieving purpose. |
| Slaves Come to America: | This lesson introduces students to the history of how Africans were transported from their native countries (including the conditions they had to endure) to the United States and then forced to work as slaves on southern plantations. It examines the daily life of a slave in North Carolina and includes other informational texts about slavery and the slave trade, as well as a PowerPoint presentation, and links to two short videos. The summative assessment requires students to write an explanatory essay showcasing what they have learned and using evidence from the print texts and videos for support. |
| Ethos, Pathos, and Logos: Part 1: | This is the first lesson of a three-lesson unit on rhetoric appeals and persuasion techniques. |
| Rhetoric From a Birmingham Jail: | In this lesson, students will analyze examples of ethical appeals, pathetic appeals and logical appeals using an excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail". Students will analyze the author/writer's purpose in these works, how they use rhetoric to develop their purpose, how the author/speaker's claims are developed in specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions, while citing textual evidence. |
| Universal Theme in Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death": | Upon reading “The Masque of the Red Death,” students will analyze the universal theme of humans trying to escape death and will create a one-page visual summary of their analysis in this lesson. |
| Analyzing Night by Elie Wiesel Using Academic Discussion: | This lesson uses a whole class guided discussion to deepen students' understanding of the text Night by Elie Wiesel. Students will use textual evidence during the discussion and in writing a short response. |
| A Multimedia Introduction to the Epic Hero: Homer's Odyssey: | In this introduction to Homer's The Odyssey, students will work with peers and technology to determine the elements of an epic hero and the hero archetype. They will analyze how the definition of the hero has changed over time and present their findings through the use of multimedia presentations. In the end, students will be prepared to apply this knowledge to Homer's epic poem. |
| Sold: Meeting the Victims of Trafficking - Lesson 1: | In this lesson, students will read and write about the social, economic, and political effects of human trafficking. Students will be expected to annotate various texts, work collaboratively in groups, and demonstrate their understanding of the texts read by citing evidence to support a written summary. |
| The History of Miami Research Paper: | In this lesson, students will conduct research, go through the steps of the research paper process, and write a paper on the history of Miami. The teacher will provide support on how students should document their citations, will model summarizing material and using notecards to record their research, as well help students determine if a website provides credible information. Students will explore primary and secondary sources, will practice summarizing information they have read from their source materials and record that information on notecards. As the summative assessment, students will take their research and draft an informative paper using the material they have gathered. Students will receive peer and teacher feedback before turning in the final draft of their paper with a works cited page. |
| I Declare War: Part I: | In this lesson (part one of a three-part unit), students will analyze the choices Lincoln made to establish the purpose and central idea of the Gettysburg Address. |
| I Have a Dream Today!: | Students will read and analyze Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. Using the knowledge and textual evidence gleaned from multiple readings, students will write a short response to support their analysis of this famous speech. |
| Ripples of the Great Depression: 1930s to today: | In this lesson, students will gather information on aspects of the 1930s and the Great Depression including how they are linked to current issues and events, then create a presentation based on their findings and present it to the class. This lesson will help to build background knowledge for reading literature set in the 1930s and would be a good activity to complete before reading texts that take place during that period. This activity will develop students' research skills including evaluating sources, note-taking, and integrating information from multiple sources, as well as giving students opportunities to engage in creating digital presentations. |
| Behind the Cover: Investigating the Backstory of Frankenstein and other Classics: | In this lesson, students will briefly examine the history and myths that led to the creation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein by reading and discussing the article, "Frankenstein, Meet Your Forefathers" (link provided within the lesson). Students will then choose a text to research the backstory for how that written work came to be. A list of detailed research questions is provided, as well as optional book titles for students to research. Students will present their findings through creating a poster that illustrates the interesting points from their research. A number of engaging extension ideas, interdisiciplinary connections, and questions for further discussion are provided. |
| Analyzing the Rhetoric of JFK’s Inaugural Address: | Students will identify rhetorical terms and methods, examine the rhetorical devices of JFK's inaugural address, and analyze and evaluate the effects of the rhetorical devices on the delivered speech. |
| Elie’s Life through Many Mediums: | In this lesson, students will compare and analyze information about Elie Wiesel and determine how rhetorical devices support his central idea(s) as evidenced across the various mediums. |
| Essential Liberty v. Temporary Safety: | In this lesson, students will explore the concepts of individual rights and freedoms as opposed to the good of society using currently relevant topics. Students will participate in small-group and teacher-led discussions, research, collaboration, and debate to gain understanding and to present their findings and conclusions, supported by evidence, about the issues and implications of their assigned topics. Supporting materials will enable the teacher to guide students to consider, explore, and respond to the guiding question of whether it"s appropriate in a democratic society to give up essential liberties for temporary safety. |
| Hunger and Fear: Comparing Literature and Non-Fiction: | The purpose of this lesson is to help students learn how to compare and contrast fiction and nonfiction texts that explore similar topics. In this lesson, students will compare and contrast aspects of the popular novel The Hunger Games with an informative text on food shortages in Africa and an informative text on fear and the "flight or fight" response. |
| What You Say: Language Context Matters: | In this lesson students will read and analyze three texts: Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue," Richard Rodriguez's "Se Habla Espanol," and Zora Neale Hurston's "How it Feels to be Colored Me" looking at how the language in each expresses a specific tone and author’s style. Students will choose one of the three texts and write an analysis of how the author uses language to create tone and style. |
| Who is A.A.A.’s Hero?: | In this lesson, students will read multiple texts, conduct online research, brainstorm ideas, and analyze and synthesize information. Students will also practice the arts of note-taking, writing concise and informative summaries, and collaborating with peers to learn more about South Africa's Anti-Apartheid (A.A.A.) movement and the hero who saved them. |
Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
