Students examine a variety of historical cartoons. They recognize a political cartoon and identify the main idea, symbolism, exaggeration and caricature in political cartoons. Students analyze a political cartoon by Benjamin Franklin.

This detailed overview of a curriculum unit suggests using travel literature to engage and stimulate your third graders’ interest in reading. The suggested reading list includes fiction and non-fiction materials and offers urban children...

Build the skills your budding authors need to develop to compose well-structured paragraphs. Give them the topic sheet (included here), and have them write a cohesive paragraph using the ideas listed. Consider having them include two...

If you are reading works by Walter Dean Myers in your class, this resource might be worth a look. Included here are activities and discussion questions for Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary, Somewhere in the Darkness, Scorpions, Fallen...

Does propaganda—like that used during the first World War—exist today? The 11th lesson in a series of 12 highlights the role of media when it comes to influencing attitudes. Scholars learn about sensational headlines, misrepresentation...

Encourage your young citizens to make a difference. Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America as a starting point, class members watch documentaries, investigate issues, and then write letters to...

Extra, extra, read all about it! Use a newspaper as the primary resource in a special education classroom to teach reading, writing, and math skills. The activities help class members build their reading skills as well as their...

Third graders investigate nonviolent conflict resolution strategies. In this interpersonal communication lesson, 3rd graders explore conflict resolution. Students construct a newspaper/magazine article detailing nonviolent conflict...

What kinds of media do your pupils use to read and publish information? After a discussion about what publishing means, and about the freedom of the press, class members interview one or two other people about their publishing habits....

Get your message across. Scholars use their prior knowledge and artistic skills to create public service announcements. The project is designed to explain the importance of civic harmony and the responsibility of all citizens to...

Newspapers and broadcast news. Social media, blogs, and blogospheres. Class members generate a list of news sources they use to get information about events. The big idea here is to introduce the necessary vocabulary and to establish a...

Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.

What actually happens at a press conference? Make sense of the mayhem with a mock press conference activity designed to promote media literacy. Individuals participate as either members of the press or the governor's office to examine...

Tenth graders  analyze the role of mentors, point of view, and prejudice using the texts of To Kill a Mockingbird and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In this literature analysis lesson, 10th graders review Scout's...

Tenth graders use the novel To Kill a Mockingbird to analyze relationships in society. In this literature analysis lesson, 10th graders participate in a shoe activity where they bring in one shoe belonging to someone they know and a...

Students identify the main elements/structure of a letter to the editor. They brainstorm for thoughts and opinions on a specific topic and write a first draft of a letter to an editor of a newspaper. They give each other preliminary...

Young scholars generate ideas about what makes a good story and a good photograph then place them together to create a photo essay. In this photo essay lesson plan, learners assemble random photos into a story, select the best photos,...

Sixth graders use articles they've previously written to produce a school news broadcast. For this journalism lesson, 6th graders discuss the goals of a news broadcast and use previously written articles to plan a news broadcast....

Learners work in groups to compose their own "Duty of Care" for pets and make their own individual list from this discussion and illustrate it with drawing or images taken from magazines, websites or newspapers.

Sixth graders discuss what they know about hoax calls and discover that they are illegal and can endanger lives. They also note that hoax calls can be traced and are recorded. They discuss why some people might want to make a hoax call...

Discover colonies! Young historians will listen to a primary source journal entry read aloud with a backdrop of wave sounds. They discuss the entry, add historical facts to a chart and personal insights to another. Then they listen to...

Students define the purpose of headlines and practice writing their own. In this news writing lesson plan, students define the elements of headlines and view examples. Students read a news story in groups and create a headline for it....

Prejudice? Religious intolerance? Political sedition? Class distinction? Plight of women? Voltaire satire, anyone? A literary newspaper offers an opportunity for readers of Candide to make text-to-self and text-to-world connections as...

An interesting resource addresses the role of youth in civic participation and community events. It also explains the role of the justice system in creating boundaries and how citizens play a part in the judicial process.  Pupils...