After reading excerpts from Frederick Douglass' autobiography, pupils will draw on what they've learned about the cruelty of slavery to write and present an anti-slavery speech or editorial.

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.

Placing Ben Franklin’s ideas about a free press next to those embodied in the First Amendment sheds light on both. Learners interpret and compare two primary sources and then examine them in the light of a contemporary survey about...

Newspapers are the perfect medium through which to explore different perspectives in informational text. After researching the fur trade and resultant colonization, groups write a newspaper, including an editorial page, selecting one of...

A picture is worth a thousand words, but political art may be worth even more! After examining examples of political cartoons, murals, and other forms of public art, class members create their own pieces to reflect their ideals and...

Fifth graders run a school newspaper on a school website and discover how to use various literary forms as they relate to the writing process. In this school newspaper lesson plan, 5th graders synthesize information from different...

Students complete Internet research to write an editorial about a topic relating to the women's rights movement and the issues presently surrounding women's rights in America and around the world.

How free are people in the United States, or in the world for that matter? The class reads and compares two articles that discuss levels of freedom enjoyed by different people around the globe. They discuss why some people have more...

Fifth graders write a website based school newspaper using a variety of literary forms to present the news of the school.

Political cartoons about the September 11 terrorist attacks provide an opportunity for class members to analyze the inferences embedded in the drawings.

Middle schoolers practice framing issues. In this writing skills lesson, students participate in a classroom activity that requires them to look at specific topical issues by framing them. Middle schoolers then create collages on current...

How can the rhetorical structure of an editorial help to develop its argument? Use this New York Times editorial to emphasize the importance of structure in a piece of informational text. Adolescent writers then use the editorial as a...

Students investigate George Washington's military career. In this George Washington lesson, students research the contributions of Washington the colonial military and then write editorials about his accomplishments for a mock colonial...

Students explore why the need arose for laws to govern society, comparing and contrasting hunter/gatherer societies vs. agrarian societies. They write letters to the editor of the Babylonian Times, discussing their opinion of Hammurabi's...

Learners explore the editorial concepts, site designs and business models of online news digests. They propose detailed plans for Web sites that demonstrate their own areas of expertise.

Eighth graders apply knowledge of the Holocaust in general and The Diary of Anne Frank in particular to their writing. Acting the play out in class provides them an almost firsthand knowledge of Anne and the other characters.

Middle schoolers examine the various forms of Islamic Art. Using the art, they identify the basic elements and research its history and style of calligraphy. They create a piece of art based on information they collected and...

What is happening to our newspapers? In the context of the current trends of media and the ever-declining print news industry, this handout includes two political cartoons for pupils to analyze, both created by artists working for...

Combine two current events (2008) in one political cartoon. This handout examines the Large Hadron Collider, a scientific invention that caused a sudden fear of black holes, and the financial meltdown on Wall Street. Background...

Political tensions have surrounded the Olympics for centuries; take a look back at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics with this political cartoon analysis learning exercise. Background information gives learners context regarding Tibetan...

Students examine and discuss how editorial cartoons are made and their role in society. They research and write about Andrew Jackson's presidency, and create an editorial cartoon of a modern presidency.

Students research various aspects of school bus safety about what makes a bus safe or unsafe. They check the Internet (with sites below and others) and see what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has to say.

Students listen to a summary of the life of Mary Bethune. They read or listen to an excerpt from an interview with Mary Bethune. They discuss the differences between the transcript and the draft of the biography.

Students respond to cartoons. In this social and cultural issues lesson, students examine how cartoons can be used to get a message across to the reader. After examining numerous cartoons, students create their own cartoon with a social...