Prepare students for persuasive writing by introducing them to the concept of making an argument. Students discover there's a difference between "arguing" and making an argument in support of a position, and that making an argument is a learned skill that doesn't depend on how you feel about an issue. LESSON OBJECTIVES: Define argument, counterargument, and supporting argument. *Identify supportng arguments for a main argument. *Distinguish between types of arguments. *Discuss hypothetical situations where persuasive writing skills are useful.

This lesson is about the Phoenicians, who invented the alphabet inherited by the Greeks, Romans, and eventually, us.

Students meet Ben Brewer and find out what happened the day he decided to wear his favorite band t-shirt to school in violation of a new dress code rule. Students read a summary of a Supreme Court case to figure out the "rule" that applies to Ben's problem. This lesson lays the groundwork for students to write two short persuasive essays-one arguing each side of the issue. LESSON OBJECTIVES: Identify a freedom of speech issue in a fictional scenario. *Construct the rule about freedom of speech in schools by reading and color-coding a summary of the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines. *Apply the rule to a variety of hypothetical scenarios.

In this lesson, students will explore Dickinson's poem "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" both as it was published as well as how it developed through Dickinson's correspondence with her sister-in-law Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson.

This lesson prompts students to think about a poem's speaker within the larger context of modernist poetry. First, students will review the role of the speaker in two poems of the Romanticism period before focusing on the differences in Wallace Stevens' modernist"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

In this lesson, students closely examine Dickinson's poem "There's a certain slant of light" in order to understand her craft. Students explore different components of Dickinson's poetry and then practice their own critical and poetry writing skills in an emulation exercise. Finally, in the spirit of Dickinson's correspondences, students will exchange their poems and offer informed critiques of each others' work.

In order to build arguments for their essays, students examine evidence about whether band t-shirts were disruptive at Ben's school. Students think critically to filter out evidence for and against each position. LESSON OBJECTIVES: Generate evidence in support of two positions by evaluating oral testimony and written exhibits. *Use a graphic organizer to organize the evidence.

The Romans developed the alphabet we still use today. In this lesson we will introduce the Romans and ask how their alphabet got to us.

Students begin to organize their arguments and evidence both for and against the rule banning band t-shirts. Students learn the necessity of clear organization, generate main and supporting arguments, and create idea webs to organize the evidence they gathered in the last lesson. LESSON OBJECTIVES: Compare well-organized supporting arguments with poorly-organized ones. *Deconstruct a well-organized argument. *Develop main and supporting arguments. *Use a graphic organizer to organize arguments and evidence.

Students meet "Yabbut Rabbit" and learn how to flesh out the support for their arguments by developing counterargument. Using the technique they learn in this lesson, students add arguments to their idea webs. LESSON OBJECTIVES: Formulate counterarguments based on fact, not opinion. *Use counterarguments to strengthen the arguments begun in Lesson 4.

As a precursor to writing a rough draft, students learn that you can't ignore evidence for the other side of an argument. Students learn how to use complex sentences to minimize or emphasize evidence when they argue. This lesson may not take an entire class period, so you may want to combine it with your own sentence-writing exercises or with another lesson. LESSON OBJECTIVES: Determine which part of a complex sentence minimizes an idea and which part emphasizes an idea. *Write complex sentences designed to emphasize or minimize evidence in an argument.

Students make direct connections between the format of an outline and the organization in an essay. Using side-by-side examples, students see how the outline translates into a written product. They also see examples of complex sentences in action. At the end of this lesson, students begin their rough drafts. LESSON OBJECTIVES: Deconstruct an essay by color-coding its parts. *Compare an outline and an essay by color-coding the same information in both. *Write the rough draft of an essay.

Draft a response that addresses the theme of isolation in A Lesson Before Dying and the secondary text?

This article highlights lessons and activities for elementary students about the people and cultures of the Arctic region.

This article highlights lessons and activities for elementary students about heat, insulation, and how animals and people stay warm in cold environments.

Travel around the world with this collection of activities from Let's Go Luna! From making postcards and present tags to dressing up your favorite characters in winter outfits, your child will be introduced to social-emotional and social study concepts while having tons of fun!

Lions and Tigers and Bears OH-my! Help young students practice their research and presentation skills with this fun, hands-on animal research and presentation project. 

This tutorial lists and discusses the steps to writing a good essay and provides a downloadable guide. It also allows you to view a sample essay. W.11-12.2a Intro/Format

A variety of quantitative approaches to Congressional elections in which students learn the causes of electoral outcomes, the predictability of those outcomes, and intervening variables that produce unexpected outcomes.

Share news about your family by making a family newsletter in Google Docs. Time to complete: 45-90 minutes