Martin Luther King, Jr. Nobel Acceptance Speech

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He was known for his use of nonviolent civil disobedience to protest against racial injustice. In 1964, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the Civil Rights Movements. As you read, identify and take notes on examples of figurative language in King’s speech, as well as how they contribute to an understanding of racial inequality in America.

Material Type: Assessment, Lesson, Reading

Authors: Jr., Martin Luther King

Audio Listening Practices: Exploring Personal Experiences with Audio Texts

Students keep a daily diary that records how and when they listen to audio texts, then analyze the details and compare their results to published reports on American radio listeners.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Behind the Masks: Exploring Culture Through Art and Poetry

Students research mask-making from various cultures, highlight the masks' connections to cultural practices, compose poetry to reveal their understanding, analyze their own culture, and create personal masks and poetry.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

Bio Cube

Bio Cube is a useful summarizing tool that helps students identify and list key elements about a person for a biography or autobiography.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive

Blogging With Photovoice: Sharing Pictures in an Integrated Classroom

Make the most of your students' diverse ability levels and experience with a prewriting activity in which they describe an abstract idea using blogging and photographs that they have taken.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Breaking the Rules with Sentence Fragments

Though teachers usually caution students against using sentence fragments, Edgar Schuster's work demonstrates that professional writers often use fragments effectively. This lesson helps students understand that there are reasons that they can and should use sentence fragments to become effective writers.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Stereotype This by Melanie Fey

Melanie Fey is a Diné (Navajo) writer and Indigenous feminist from Tuba City (Dinétah), Arizona. Her work seeks to celebrate the LGBTQ/two spirit community, raise awareness about violence against Native women, and explore the challenging conflict between – and combination of – rural and urban Native life. In "Stereotype This" a Native American speaker experiences both the grief and fortitude that they receive from the collective of ancestors long past. As you read, take notes on the feelings expressed in the italicized lines.

Material Type: Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Reading

Author: Melanie Fey

Auschwitz by The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Auschwitz was a network of concentration camps and extermination camps. It was built on Polish land that was controlled by Nazi Germany during World War II. While the camp began as a Polish political prison, it eventually evolved into a means for the Nazi Party to exterminate Jews and other so-called "racially undesirables." This informational text discusses the purposes of the three main camps of Auschwitz, as well as the treatment of prisoners.

Material Type: Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Reading

Author: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Authentic Persuasive Writing to Promote Summer Reading

Turn summer reading lists from a teacher-centered requirement to a student-driven exploration by asking students to create brochures and flyers that suggest books to explore during the summer months.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) was a Jewish American poet, best known for her sonnet "The New Colossus." This poem is currently engraved on a bronze plaque and displayed on the Statue of Liberty's pedestal. The statue stands across from the historic Ellis Island, through which millions of immigrants came into the U.S. in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Emma Lazarus

Poetry in Translation, Spring 2006

This seminar addresses the inherent challenges of translating poetry from different languages, cultures and eras. Students do some translation of their own, though accommodations are made if a student lacks even a basic knowledge of any foreign language.

Material Type: Full Course

Author: Asarina, Alevtina

Adjectives & Questions EFL/ESL

Suitable for beginner level students of English as a foreign language, beginner level. Students need to know how to compare adjectives and asking questions.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: None listed

Hurricane by Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was an American poet who won the National Book Award in 1992 and the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. Today, she is regarded as one of America's most famous and best-selling modern poets.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Mary Oliver

In Praise of Single Moms on Mother's Day by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon is an author who has written about the role of women in foreign policy. She serves on the Council of Foreign Relations and has written several books. In this article published in The Atlantic in 2017, Lemmon explains why single mothers are a perfect representation of the American Dream.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Why Summer Makes Us Lazy by Maria Konnikova

Maria Konnikova is the Russian-American best-selling author of The Confidence Game and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes, and host of the podcast The Grift. While researching her latest book The Biggest Bluff, she also became an international poker champion. In "Why Summer Makes Us Lazy," Konnikova explains the unexpected ways in which the weather can impact both our mood and productivity.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Maria Konnikova

A Brief History of Summer Vacation by Jackson Murphy

"A Brief History of Summer Vacation" is an article that was taken from Jackson Murphy's year-long research for his thesis at Connecticut College. It explores how summer became a time for rest and relaxation, and how summer vacation has changed over time.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Jackson Murphy

All-American Girl by Julia Alvarez

Julia Alvarez is a Dominican American poet, novelist, and essayist. Alvarez was born in New York but spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic. Much of Alvarez's work focuses on her experiences as a Dominican in the United States. In this poem, the speaker discusses the experience of learning a new language.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Julia Alvarez

The Joy of Writing

Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012) was a Polish poet, essayist, translator, and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature. Her poetry is often noted for its wit, irony, and deceptive simplicity, and she is known for writing from unusual points of view. In "The Joy of Writing," a speaker ponders the joy of bringing scenes to life on the page and controlling fate like no mere mortal can.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Wislawa Szymborska

On Juneteenth, three stirring stories of how enslaved people gained their freedom

The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) during the height of the Civil War declared that all enslaved people in Confederate states were free, and could join and fight in the army. Juneteenth is a holiday that celebrates emancipation. In this informational text, journalist Gillian Brockell recounts the actions of several enslaved people during the emancipation process.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Gillian Brockell

Juneteenth: The Celebration of a New Freedom in America

Billy R. Glasco, Jr. is an archivist at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum. Archivists are people who are specially trained to take care of and help other people access historical records. Juneteenth is a federal holiday that celebrates the emancipation of the last enslaved people in the Confederacy.

Material Type: Reading

Author: The National Archives