Students create a design for a new coin after researching people who have impacted history. Students must write a persuasive essay about why this person should be memorialized on the dollar coin and present their person to the class.

Whether you are teaching a newspaper unit in language arts, covering the First Amendment and censorship in social studies, or focusing on writing ethics in journalism, a unit based on the foundations of journalism would be an excellent...

Students present persuasive speeches about philanthropy.  In this persuasive speech instructional activity, students create speeches to encourage younger children to become involved in their communities.  Students use...

Fourth graders discover a fun-filled way to write persuasive paragraphs. After reading stories about mice and weasels, they choose which animal to be their topic. Students use a web outline to organize their opinion, four supporting...

Listen to Sitti's Secrets and have your class discuss their opinions about Arab families.  They will become familiar with the Palestinian /Arabic Culture through a critical literacy focus.  Students will write a persuasive...

Pupils choose their favorite television show, craft and illustrate an advertisement for this show, and then write a short paragraph about why the show appeals to them. No provisions are made for children with limited or no viewing...

Students watch the News Ohio video about Lincoln Junior High School. They write a reaction paper, explaining what effect the studying environment has on students. If the classroom was in a basement, perhaps a little dark and damp, would...

What is the missing link? Provide your class with this incomplete essay (it's missing transition words), and have writers place words from the transition word bank into the essay. Also, since only three of the five paragraphs are...

Are you teaching a high school language arts class and stumped for writing topics? Five pages of writing prompts for all kinds of writing should help you out. Many of these prompts refer to texts that are not included in this resource,...

Need a key to unlock writer's block? Introduce your writers to four easy steps that will release them from their mental prison. The brainstorming worksheet, designed to set free their imaginations, even has an answer key.

HIgh schoolers respond to a persuasive article on using animal research. In this english lesson, writers listen to a conversation, and discuss the point of arguments. They write a critique on a certain film and share it with their...

Class groups investigate the economic and political implications of a country's policies on genetically modified foods, craft a position paper detailing that policy, and share their findings with the class. Armed with this...

Seventh graders, in pairs, decide on a product they would like to advertise and design an advertising plan for said product. Using ClarisWorks, 7th graders create an advertisement using pictures, vote on their favorite and discuss what...

Students first explore the power of the visual image to convey a message by examining the portrait of George Washington on American dollar bills. They next use, 'Prolific Chinese Painter Is Anonymous No More,' to explore a famous...

To get to the heart of a writer's purpose, just remember to have some PIE (Persuade, Inform, or Entertain)! And appropriately, here is a PIE chart that leaves room for pupils to identify each letter of the acronym and any other...

When do people ask for anonymity? Why? After reading the New York Times article "For a Reporter and a Source, Echoes of Broken Promise," young readers participate in a roundtable discussion focusing on freedom of the press and the use of...

Develop critical thinkers and awareness of the media's techniques. Impressionable minds analyze advertisements they see all around them in this potentially 3-week long unit of five complete lesson plans. Extended discussions, outside...

Baseball is a relatively high-interest topic through which social studies classes can explore racial prejudice in the US. Video clips provide much of the background information that groups record on their handout and then share with the...

What should young people think about before drinking alcohol? Have your class consider the eight reasons listed here, some of which are facts, and others opinions. Pupils rank each statement from one to eight, where one is the most...

Slavery in India, Sudan, and Mauritania? What about in the United States? Groups research modern slavery in these four countries, collecting factual evidence (What), determine their feelings about this evidence (So what),...

Elementary schoolers make and use bar graphs to picture information. They learn how choosing the right scale for a bar graph can help make a persuasive argument. This is a terrific lesson on graphing which should excite your kids. There...

Middle schoolers examine the pros and cons of state sovereignty vs. federalism, as argued by the Founding Fathers. They identify the basic positions of each side, complete a worksheet, and write a persuasive essay arguing for Jefferson...

Fourth graders write persuasive letters. In this letter writing lesson, 4th graders read Sitti's Secrets by Naomi Shihab Nye and discuss their areas or topics of concern. Students select a person to write a letter to and how they...

Ninth graders examine the process of writing a newspaper article that presents a point of view. They read various newspaper articles, analyze methods of persuasive writing, interpret and create editorial cartoons, and write an editorial.