Below are 16 topics, each of which includes: A sample essential question which introduces the prompt A draft prompt including three founding documents that could help shape the students’ arguments. Each prompt is crafted to encourage deep analysis and aligns …
The ending of Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery“ is shocking. I would use the conversation with John Adams about Power to lead students in a discussion of the story and how some people in society exert their power over …
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is a perfect novel to use to study happiness. The main character spends a great deal of the novel in unhappy situations. After a study of the novel, I would use the …
In the novel Lord of the Flies, the theme of self-discipline is evident when the stranded boys attempt to recreate the disciplined society that they grew up in on the island. Mid-way through a study of the novel I would …
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is an important novel that every American should read. I like to use this novel to teach several different themes and historical issues, but the character of Atticus Finch in To Kill a …
The theme of self-expression is very evident in the Walt Whitman poem “I Hear America Singing.” After a class reading and an analysis of the multiple expressions presented in the poem, I would connect to the Confucius conversation about how …
Emily Dickinson’s poem “There’s a Certain Slant of Light” describes the effect of light in “winter afternoons” as a subtle, invisible “affliction,” something imperceptible yet real; something not unlike solitude. Franz Kafka states, “Isolation is a way to know ourselves.” …
The George Floyd protests have erupted all over the country and sparked a national debate not only over racism and police brutality, but also about the best way to protest injustice. The Abraham Lincoln conversation on leadership would give students …
When students are learning about early exploration and the arrival of Europeans in North America, I like to use the fascinating survival story of Spanish Explorer Cabeza de Vaca to teach students about the struggle of arriving in a new …
The young adult novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen pairs perfectly with the Friedrich Nietzsche conversation on perseverance. This survival story lends itself to a post-reading discussion on not giving up in the face of adversity, and how people of different …
Dan Fouts–current social studies teacher and co-founder of Teach Different— sat down with Drew Perkins of TeachThought to discuss the importance of critical thinking and inquiry, and how both can be employed to teach content in a more creative way. …
The United States Constitution was written carefully by our founding fathers with the primary goal of establishing a government that would never makes its citizens victims of tyranny, as they were under the tyranny of King George III. After teaching …
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