Cluster 1: Key Ideas and DetailsArchived

In this lesson, students will listen to a mini-lecture by a history professor regarding two passages included in Thomas Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence but deleted from the final version. Students will then participate in an analysis of the two passages, then write an argumentative essay about the professor's argument.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will listen to a mini-lecture by a history professor regarding two passages included in Thomas Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence but deleted from the final version. Students will then participate in a close-reading analysis of the two passages to understand the professor's argument, explaining it in an essay. The hypocrisy of slavery is the primary theme: Can a people who enslave others validly plead for their own freedom?

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read and analyze the satire in Mark Twain's, "Advice to Youth." Students will answer text-dependent questions and write a short analysis regarding how Twain uses satire to support his claim.

Type: Lesson Plan

This unit from Student Achievement Partner web resources has been developed to guide students and instructors in a close reading of Learned Hand's "I am an American Day Address". The activities and actions described below follow a carefully developed set of steps that assist students in increasing their familiarity and understanding of Hand's speech through a series of text-dependent tasks and questions that ultimately develop college and career ready skills. This unit is recommended as an activity for a "Great Conversation" Module and can be taught in two days of study and reflection on the part of students and their teachers. A third day or more could be added if the time is needed or extension activities are desired.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part three of a three-part unit that will explore and analyze how different authors convey American Puritanism. In this lesson, students plan to write and then complete an essay to explore how two different authors and texts portray American Puritanism, Jonathan Edwards in “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and Arthur Miller in “The Crucible.”

Type: Lesson Plan

This is Part three of a three-part series on the writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Students will analyze F. Scott Fitzgerald's inspirations for both his characters and stories. In this lesson, students will analyze a 1928 portrait of Louise Brooks by Eugene Robert Richee as a stimulus for creating an original character living during the glitter and glamour of the 1920s. Finally, using compiled textual evidence recorded throughout the three lessons, students will create a narrative in the style of Fitzgerald for Louise Brooks.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read and analyze the "Narrative of the Captivity" for Rowlandson's use of allusion as it contributes to the meaning of her account. In addition, they will identify and analyze the central idea and supporting details as they contribute to meaning.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part one of three in a unit that will explore and analyze how American Puritanism has been represented in different texts. The goal of this lesson is for students to analyze the central idea and how the authors' style (figurative language, persuasive techniques) contributes to establishing and achieving the purpose in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the fourth and final lesson in a small unit on the life and works of Phillis Wheatley. Although details are given only for this final lesson, some information is given on the preceding three lessons.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will work in small groups to arrange moon phase cards into the correct sequence.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn to identify common text structures used in nonfiction texts: problem/solution, definition/example, cause and effect, and compare and contrast. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read excerpts from Walden by Henry David Thoreau and examine how complex ideas can be expressed using various text structures.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this interactive tutorial, you'll hone your skills of analysis using excerpts of the essay "For Brevity and Clarity" by Ambrose Bierce. You will sharpen your skills identifying textual evidence to support what an author states directly and as well as draw inferences from the text. You'll then learn to distinguish what is stated through satire and determine what amiguities the author creates.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to provide a complex analysis of two or more central ideas in a nonfiction text in this interactive tutorial. You will also analyze how the author’s central ideas develop over the course of the text and describe how they interact and build on one another. This tutorial utilizes an excerpt from the closing arguments by Clarence Darrow at the trial of Leopold and Loeb.

*Due to the subject matter of the Leopold and Loeb trial, this tutorial is recommended for a mature audience.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This teaching idea is designed to help students analyze grammar pet peeves. Students begin by thinking about their own grammar pet peeves and then read a "Dear Abby" column in which she lists several grammar pet peeves of her own. Students become aware that attitudes about race, social class, moral and ethical character and 'proper' language use are intertwined and that rants such as this one reveal those attitudes. Finally, students discuss the pet peeves as a class while gaining an understanding that issues of race, class, combined with audience expectations, help to determine what is considered 'proper' language use.

Type: Teaching Idea

This USA Today activity is perfect for combining Language Arts and Civics' lessons for close-reading of higher levels of text complexity appropriate to grade-bands. The activity uses cross curricular skill areas—reading/writing, speaking/listening—as students engage in close-reading activities, analysis of test questions, and formation of new test questions.

Type: Teaching Idea

After gaining skills through analyzing a historic and contemporary speech as a class, students will select a famous speech from a list compiled from several resources and write an essay that identifies and explains the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose while crafting the text to make an effective argument. Their analysis will consider questions such as: "What makes the speech an argument?", "How did the author's rhetoric evoke a response from the audience?", and "Why are the words still venerated today?".

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

After gaining skill through analyzing a historic and contemporary speech as a class, students will select a famous speech from a list compiled from several resources and write an essay that identifies and explains the rhetorical strategies that the author deliberately chose while crafting the text to make an effective argument. Their analysis will consider questions such as: What makes the speech an argument?, How did the author's rhetoric evoke a response from the audience?, and Why are the words still venerated today?

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence