Standard 2: Reading Informational Text

After rereading chapters 1-3 from the text, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the 13th-15th Amendments, students will better understand Civil Rights and the author’s choice of words to use throughout the text to make a point. Students can identify and explain examples within the text where Douglass uses diction and syntax to establish and achieve his purpose.

There are three lessons that can be used to complement a study of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and take a new perspective by merging ELA skills with civics knowledge.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

After rereading chapters 4-6 of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, students will determine the meaning of the term citizen based on their background knowledge and the 14^th Amendment. Students will read and annotate the 14^th Amendment text. Students will then compare how the U.S. Constitution defined citizenship to the way enslaved people were treated by analyzing Frederick Douglass’ words and phrases in chapters 4-6 of his narrative.

There are lessons that can be used to complement a study of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and help students take a new perspective by merging ELA skills with civics knowledge.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be doing a close read of Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s speech, "The Destructive Male." Students will be annotating the text along with answering questions that will lead them to a deeper understanding of women’s suffrage and the importance of the 19^th Amendment.

There are three lessons that can be used to complement a study of Women's Suffrage speeches and help students take a new perspective by merging ELA skills with civics knowledge.

This resource uses a text that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a lesson in the text unit series for A Long Walk to Water. Using prior knowledge students have acquired pertaining to the U.S. Constitution and the establishment of shared powers, students will read, infer, paraphrase, classify, and describe the government's obligations and services extended to citizens of Sudan at the Federal and State levels. Additionally, students will be able to compare the impact of Federal and State powers on the citizens of Sudan explaining it's importance on U.S. history.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will read excerpts from President Lyndon Johnson’s “Let Us Continue” speech. Johnson delivered this speech to a joint session of Congress on November 27, 1963, just days after being sworn into office due to the death of President John F. Kennedy. Students will study excerpts from the speech, analyzing and comparing two central ideas and their supporting evidence. During the lesson, students will collaborate on their analysis, write observations based on their evidence, and answer text-dependent and standards-based questions.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will sharpen their paraphrasing skills using a speech by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Students will paraphrase several key sections from LBJ's speech following the 1968 Civil Rights Act. In doing so, they will learn the four steps to paraphrasing effectively.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will identify rhetorical questioning and imagery in “Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death,” then analyze the effect of those devices on the meaning of the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will examine the specific text features within a document describing the landmark Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines. Students will learn the definition of text features and how these features are used to help organize and present information in the text. In addition, sudents will analyze the details of the case and the Supreme Court's final ruling. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read “The Spirit of Liberty” delivered by Learned Hand in 1944 to a crowd of more than a million people in New York's Central Park for an event billed as "I Am an American Day." Students will analyze the two distinct central ideas that emerge in the speech. They will identify the textual evidence within the speech that supports each central idea. Students will also complete text-dependent questions to further analyze the speech. Students will also make connections with civics content by analyzing Hand’s speech to examine how he emphasizes the common good as a responsibility of citizenship.

Type: Lesson Plan

President Ronald Reagan's Inaugural Address

In this lesson, students will read former President Ronald Reagan’s Inaugural Address to identify two rhetorical devices, imagery and rhetorical question. Students will explain how these rhetorical devices are used strategically to support and achieve the purpose of his speech.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part of a text unit for A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Students will be introduced to the concept of common good. They will be given the opportunity to acknowledge what they do as individuals for the common good of their family, friends, and community. Then they will connect the common good of their personal lives with Salva and Nya’s actions for the common good regarding their personal situations in A Long Walk to Water.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

As part of a unit for Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, students will analyze the photographic text features in the text and write about how they represent the Jim Crow laws passed by some state and local governments in this integrated lesson plan.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s speech “The Destructive Male,” delivered at the Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1868. Students will analyze the two distinct central ideas that emerge in the speech. They will also examine the textual evidence within the speech that supports each central idea. This ELA lesson will also make connections to civics by exploring an example of citizen activism: When Stanton delivered this speech, she was an individual who was speaking/petitioning in an effort to influence her government’s policy, specifically regarding suffrage and a new amendment.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will analyze Susan B. Anthony’s speech “On Women’s Right to Vote.” Students will analyze Anthony’s use of deductive reasoning to develop her argument that she committed no crime in casting a vote for president in the election of 1872. Students will also complete text-dependent questions to further analyze the speech. As part of their analysis, students will examine Anthony’s use of the Preamble of the Constitution to support her argument and consider how Anthony’s actions are a means of influencing the government and holding it accountable.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this four-part series, students will read informational texts in the form of brochures created by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. Students will work in groups to complete a graphic organizer to identify text features, determine the meaning of selected vocabulary, and compare central ideas. Students will also conduct research about Florida wildlife to create an original brochure with a variety of text features.

Type: Lesson Plan

Explore excerpts from the extraordinary autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as you examine the author's purpose for writing and his use of the problem and solution text structure. By the end of this interactive tutorial, you should be able to explain how Douglass uses the problem and solution text structure in these excerpts to convey his purpose for writing.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This teaching resource provides the tools to help students analyze the use of rhetorical devices in the historical American speech by Judge Learned Hand, “The Spirit of Liberty.” Delivered in 1944 during the height of WWII, Judge Hand delivers a powerful message about the true essence of liberty through his use of two rhetorical devices—anaphora and rhetorical questions. Students will analyze his use of these rhetorical devices to better understand their meaning and significance.

Type: Text Resource

This teaching resource provides teachers with the tools to help students analyze the connotation of specific words and phrases within Susan B. Anthony’s speech, “On Women’s Right to Vote.” The speech includes examples of language with positive, negative, and neutral connotations to help the author establish and achieve purpose. This resource will help teachers explain the concept of connotative meaning and make connections to individuals and interest groups that influence our government through the use of this historic speech.

Type: Text Resource