There is no better sight to see than a classroom full of eager young adults, hands raised high, eager to jump into a class discussion. Get your class identifying and discussing rhetorical strategies and then debating long into the night...

Introduce learners to the debate format with an activity that uses the National Park Service's controversial Channel Islands restoration program as a topic. Class members learn how to generate provocative debate questions, how to prepare...

Should Internet users who send data-heavy content pay higher fees than those who are involved in activities, like sending an email, that have less content? This question is at the heart of the Net Neutrality debate. After watching a PBS...

Discuss the difference between legitimate debate on a political issue and arguments that are based on hate through a science-fiction scenario that shows how a controversial issue can be discussed in both ways. Then learn how purveyors of...

Seward's Folly or brilliant strategic move? Class members investigate primary source documents from each country to determine the rationales behind the sale and purchase of Alaska, and then stage a debate.

Can a negative perception of a president's foreign policy harm his or her historical legacy? A project that winds the clock back to the date of Theodore Roosevelt's death puts students at the editorial desk of a fictional newspaper....

Students research Ohio's concealed gun legislation using provided resource links, read editorials and commentaries from Ohio's daily and weekly newspapers, and analyze these opinion pieces.

Young scholars examine the benefits and the challenges Alaska has presented to the United States. They research what the government and the people of the United States considered at the time of the purchase of Alaska in order to debate...

The 2010 immigration bill passed in Arizona provides class members with an opportunity to examine various perspectives of the immigration debate by watching news videos, reading interview, editorials, and viewing images. Discussion...

When it comes to writing effective arguments, writers must do more than simply make a claim, counterarguments must be considered. Aspiring writers analyze counterarguments in editorials, and then learn how to write counterarguments in...

High schoolers take notes as the teacher goes over the contents of an editorial and four types of an editorial. Students view an editorial and identify the structural elements in the sample as well as identify the type of editorial they...

Being an informed citizen requires distinguishing fact from opinion and understanding persuasion methods. Secondary learners evaluate newspaper editorials. They read opinion pieces, identify the writer's purpose and position on an issue,...

Learning to support your opinions, debate, build arguments, and effectively respect another's point of view are vital skills. Learners work through a series of topics to practice discussion engagement and verbal communication.

Students identify the qualities that contribute to effective verbal and non-verbal communication. They use those qualities as criteria by which to judge an in-class political debate on education.

Have your young writers organize their thoughts before writing. They generate ideas through various brainstorming activities prior to writing a mock feature news story for USA Today. A series of USA Today articles debating the level of...

Eleventh graders analyze political cartoons.  In this American History lesson, 11th graders research the Chinese Exclusion Act and the current arguments about immigration to the United States.  Students create a graphic...

As part of a study of immigration and the U.S. economy, class members assume the role of newspaper editors to determine which submitted letters to print on their paper's editorial page to present a balanced view of the debate.

Students participate in a Model UN Simulation Activity in which they take the role of country delegates and NGO representatives in an attempt to develop and debate resolutions that seek to provide remedies to the problems of...

Young scholars examine embryonic cell research and the controversy that surrounds it.  In this stem cell activity students use a debate model and present and defend their positions. 

Scholars know him for his role in the American Revolution, but Ben Franklin was also a journalist and printer. Learners investigate his standards for what was fit to print using primary sources—including writings where Franklin explains...

Students read articles, conduct Internet research and participate in a mock debate to explore the pros and cons of withdrawing from Iraq or remaining in conflict with the insurgency. They consider the difficulties of consensus building...

Scholars view comics from two different perspectives; one paints the Alfred Dreyfus as innocent, while the other portrays the exact opposite. They solve the mystery of what happened by analyzing the source, working in groups, and...

Students examine the significance and effects of outsourcing jobs to India and Malaysia. They conduct Internet research, create a map and a timeline, write an editorial of their view on the use of outsourcing, and participate in a class...

Fifth graders have a debate and defend one of the three different perspectives of the Civil War. In this Civil War lesson plan, 5th graders defend either the North, the South, or the Neutral perspectives.