When you hear the first few beats of "Despacito," the unrivaled Latin pop hit of 2017, you can't keep your feet from moving! A music analysis lesson plan examines the intoxicating hit by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee and introduces the...

High schoolers investigate the dilemma of a proportional response with a lesson about the history of terrorism and militant extremists in the United States. As they examine memos from the FBI and speeches from Presidents Bush and Obama,...

Encourage your class to explore their curiosity with a lesson on the research process. After pupils choose a topic of interest, they produce a research paper with textual evidence on their findings. They learn how to assess sources,...

Is personal safety worth sacrificing privacy? Young citizens investigate the issue by examining the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution and documents published by the Department of Justice, President George Bush, ACLU, Apple, and...

Encourage teenagers to get involved in ending violence among young people. A Common Core-aligned resource and curriculum guide, designed to be used with a reading of A Time to Break Silence: The Essential Works of Martin Luther King,...

Consider how America's founding fathers and their experiences contributed to the rights we all enjoy today. A collection of reading, writing, and collaborative exercises prompt high schoolers to think about the ways their current lives...

America was founded by dreamers, and the American dream still resonates in our country today. Track the American dream from its Puritan beginnings to its optimistic descendants with a instructional activity that focuses on speeches by...

From the essential question about the cause of the American Revolution to a Town Hall meeting hosted by and for your social studies class, a set of American history lessons are a great addition to your Revolutionary War unit. After...

An incredibly detailed and focused resource, this cross-curricular unit uses text dependent questions, primary sources, and close reading to help readers interpret and analyze the content and structure of Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg...

Most Americans have heard of the Gettysburg Address, but may not know what it means and why is it so important. Following guidance and scaffolded prompts, scholars analyze the short document that left an undeniable impact on the American...

While Joshua Chamberlain's name is not as iconic as Abraham Lincoln or Robert E. Lee, he still played a pivotal role in the military engagements of the Civil War. Using two secondary sources—including one that draws heavily from his...

Alliteration created by both the immediate and non-immediate juxtaposition of the initial sounds of words is the subject of a instructional activity that focuses on how speakers use the rhetorical device to engage and persuade their...

Lead scholars through a series of lessons that teach them how to develop and support an argument. Pupils first read text of facts and opinions pertaining to terrorism. After forming an argument, they construct an argumentative essay.

It's time to show what you know. The final lesson asks scholars to think back across the seven-lesson unit and complete an end-of-the-unit task. Readers consider the claims presented in speeches from both Eleanor Roosevelt and Malala...

The impressive story of Benjamin Franklin, including his rise from a printer’s apprentice to a statesman, color upper-level scholars’ understanding of the possibilities of life in colonial Philadelphia. But not everyone had the...

Maya Angelou's first autobiography,  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, demonstrates both the author's exemplary writing and the themes of gender and racial injustice that perpetuate beyond the limits of the 20th century. Use a thorough...

What advantages do political cartoons have over written editorials? Scholars discuss the topic by exploring editorial cartoons. Working in small groups, pupils analyze an Uncle Sam cartoon and complete a worksheet. As a fun extension,...

Good readers make connections between texts. The SAT regularly assesses the ability to make those connections using paired reading passages, a topic discussed in an official SAT practice lesson plan on synthesis. During the lesson,...

Survey says ... social media is here to stay! How do the pupils in your school use social media? Using lesson four from a 16-part series, The Social Media Toolbox, learners study surveys and create their own. The resource includes...

Is there a difference in the way organizations present news via social media and in print? The third in a series of 16 lessons from The Social Media Toolbox explores news outlets and their delivery methods. Groups follow a story for a...