ELA.10.R.2.2

In this lesson plan, students will read President John F. Kennedy’s “A Moral Issue,” delivered on June 11th, 1963. Students will analyze the central idea of the speech and examine the textual evidence within the speech that supports the central idea. As part of the analysis, students will make connections between President Kennedy’s speech and the ideas expressed in an excerpt from the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. They will answer comprehension questions about the central idea and the connection to these important historical documents as well as answer text-dependent questions to further analyze the speech.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is the first lesson in a three-part series on Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech "I've Been to the Mountaintop." In this lesson, the speech has been divided into eight sections with text-dependent questions that are specific to each section. Throughout the course of the lesson students will determine a central idea for each section and examine King's ideas and claims and how they are developed and supported. At the end of the lesson, students will determine an overarching central idea of the speech and write an extended paragraph to explain the central idea and how it is developed and supported with specific evidence throughout the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read, understand, and analyze a speech by Fredrick Douglass. Students will write an essay to support their analysis of the central idea of Douglass's speech, "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro."

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is the second of a unit comprised of 3 lessons. In this second lesson, students will use small group discussion to analyze informational text, a speech given by Judge Learned Hand entitled "The Spirit of Liberty," in terms of central idea and author’s choices in achieving purpose.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson (part one of a three-part unit), students will analyze the choices Lincoln made to establish the purpose and central idea of the Gettysburg Address.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part one of three in a unit that will explore and analyze how American Puritanism has been represented in different texts. The goal of this lesson is for students to analyze the central idea and how the authors' style (figurative language, persuasive techniques) contributes to establishing and achieving the purpose in "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, student groups will discuss their understanding of the U.S. Constitution, Federalists' arguments in support of ratification, and Anti-Federalist arguments against ratifying the Constitution. Students will discuss controversies over ratification of the U.S. Constitution, as well as identify and analyze differences between Federalist and Anti-Federalist perspectives. Students will then complete a group writing assignment.  

Type: Teaching Idea

This resource provides the tools to help students analyze the rhetorical devices in one of the most pivotal speeches of the civil rights movement. In 1965, President Johnson addressed Congress and the nation in the wake of the events in Selma, Alabama. The American public had been jolted by scenes of state troopers attacking peaceful marchers.

Just days later, President Johnson addressed the nation to promote the passage of the Voting Rights Act. He skillfully drove home his purpose through the use of two rhetorical devices: imagery and anaphora. This resource will help students analyze his use of these devices and how they strengthen his speech.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this lesson, students analyze the speech delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The speech contains two distinct central ideas for students to analyze. Students will also read the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution to compare the foundational principles and ideals in the Constitution with those found in Roosevelt's speech.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching resource will provide teachers the tools to analyze the “Gettysburg Address” delivered by President Abraham Lincoln (1863) in which he dedicates a portion of the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg to honor the country’s Founders and the soldiers who died in the name of American ideals. He also urges the audience to continue to fight for the core principles upon which America was founded: equality and liberty. Students will analyze the two central ideas of Lincoln’s address. Students will also make connections between an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s speech, and they will make connections between the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution and Lincoln’s speech.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching resource provides teachers with the tools to help students analyze the central idea and mood within John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. This includes examining how President Kennedy supports the central idea relating to foreign policy and protecting liberty throughout his speech. 

Type: Text Resource