This is a lesson plan used as an introductory activity to Barbara Kingsolver's novel, The Bean Trees.  The lesson has students read and discuss (both in small groups and as a whole class) personal stories from survivors of child abuse focusing on what makes those stories powerful and how the abuse affected the survivors and continues to affect them today.  Furthermore, this lesson has students individually write and then discuss as a class about some of the other issues that are touched on in Kingsolver's novel (immigration, names, refugees, and teen pregnancy).

This activity is used as a pre-reading activity prior to reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.  It is used as a way to introduce students to the fact that the "N" word is used in the book and that the word, as Twain used it, did not mean then what it means to us today.  By having students look at a variety of words that have had their meanings change over time, students begin to see derogatory terms in a different light and thus approach novels like Huck Finn differently.  

This is a guided packet used with my Yearbook Publication class.  It was designed to specifically meet standard RI.11-12.8, which is asking for students to read, understand, and evaluate legal reasoning used in US Supreme Court cases.  The cases students are required to look at in this packet are cases specifically related to student journalism and student press rights ( and ).  It is used as a guided Internet search to supplement the information presented in the journalism textbook.