After studying utopian literature, students design their own utopian society, publishing the explanation of their ideal world on a blog. As they blog about their utopia, students establish the habits, practices, and organizing social structures that citizens will follow in their utopian societies. They begin by brainstorming ideas about what a perfect society would be like and then, in groups, begin to plan their project. Next, they become familiar with the blogging process, including legal guidelines and the specific site they will be using. Over several class sessions, students work on their blogs comparing their work to a rubric. Finally, after students visit one another's blogs and provide constructive and supportive feedback, they reflect on their own work. The lesson plan includes alternative handouts for classrooms where computer or blog access is limited. In this alternative, students complete the same basic activities, but publish their work using a Flip Book.

This unit focuses on aspects of argumentation
involving evidence, reasoning, and logic, rather
than on persuasive writing and speaking. Students are first expected to understand objectively a
complex issue through exploratory inquiry and
close reading of information on the topic, then
study multiple perspectives on the issue before
they establish their own position. From their
reading and research, they are asked to craft an
argumentative plan that explains and supports
their position, acknowledges the perspectives and
positions of others, and uses evidence gleaned
through close reading and analysis to support
their claims.

In my English 10 classroom, students spend several weeks deciding on, researching, and writing about a career of their choosing. As part of this, they are expected to interview someone that is in their career field and learn more about what is required to have this job. Students also will create an infographic about their career, as well as a presentation that they will present to their peers. Attached is the unit plan for this project.

The lesson and activities teach students to recognize and explore bias and media stereotyping and be able to identify and analyze propaganda techniques in magazine and//or TV advertising.

This WebQuest has students examine how to search the internet wisely when researching and how to evaluate a source. Students choose one of five topics which has a variety of articles they read and evaluate. A final quiz evaluates their understanding.

What is scary, and why does it fascinate us? How do writers and storytellers scare us? This lesson plan invites students to answer these questions by exploring their own scary stories and scary short stories and books. The lesson culminates in a Fright Fair, where students share scary projects that they have created, including posters, multimedia projects, and creative writing.

Students read a work of realistic fiction about bullying and gain understanding through writing, Readers Theatre, and discussion.

This webfolio is a follow-up assignment to an Honors English unit on Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achiebe. In this webfolio, students will take on the role of social scientists interested in learning more about the life of Africans in different parts of the continent. They will each have different aspects of African culture and life to research.The webfolio format emphasizes the power of teamwork and the Internet to learn all about an area of Africa. Each team will learn about one region of the continent, and then they will come together to get a better understanding of Africa as a whole by participating in and observing classroom presentations. The culminating project combines individual research and informational genre format into a first-person travel diary, imagining an actual trip through each region of Africa.

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This iTunes U course/lesson is an overview of how to write a MELCON paragraph. In order to access the course, one must first access iTunes U through the Apple iTunes store, and then search for Paragraph Writing within the Courses category. The course is free and accessible on PCs and iOS devices.

Students will learn persuasive techniques used in advertising, specifically, pathos or emotion, logos or logic, and ethos or credibility/character. They will use this knowledge to analyze advertising in a variety of sources: print, television, and Web-based advertising. Students will also explore the concepts of demographics and marketing for a specific audience. The lesson will culminate in the production of an advertisement in one of several various forms of media, intended for a specific demographic.

Purdue Owl is a comprehensive style and grammar guide for all aspects of writing. The site offers over 200 free resources including:
Writing and Teaching WritingGrammar and MechanicsStyle GuidesESL (English as a Second Language)Job Search and Professional Writing
It is the best and most current resource for guidelines in citation, grammar, puncuation and other stylistic aspects of writing. It is best used to look up answers to speciific questions in regard to usage.

This lesson allows students to explore the different sides associated with the issue of slavery. It can be used for either cross-content lessons between English and Social Studies, as part of an argument unit in English, or as part of a larger unit in Social Studies. The learning objectives for the lesson are that students are able to identify those who are for and against slavery, understand how people used the U.S. Constitution to support their reasons for/against slavery, and the economic argument for or against slavery.

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After reading The Odyssey and discussing the hero journey, students will move into this career research unit. First, students will choose a career that they are interested in exploring and researching. They will create a project/presentation to share the information about their career with their classmates. Then, they will choose a "hero" who made great strides in their chosen career as an inventor, business person, manufacturer, personality, etc. Students will review using MLA style in-text citations and works cited, paraphrasing and summarizing, and writing research as they write a research paper about their career hero.

Your students will apply their knowledge of letters and letter sounds as they play games and interact with letters online, using what they see and learn to create their own ABC book.