Students debate about incorporating service-learning into their school's curriculum.

Students are often asked to perform speeches, but rarely do we require students to analyze speeches as carefully as we study works of literature. In this unit, students are required to identify the rhetorical strategies in a famous speech and the specific purpose for each chosen device. They will write an essay about its effectiveness and why it is still famous after all these years.

To prepare for literature circles featuring historical novels, students research the decades of the 1930s to the 1990s and share their information using Prezi, a web application for creating multimedia presentations.

After researching political platforms of past presidents through primary sources and other resources, students create commercials for these presidents using Voki, an online web tool that produces speaking avatars.

This lesson invites students to create a "Driver's License" for characters that have made a contribution to western expansion in the United States.

Through Prezi, a web application, students create "zooming" presentations for various purposes, such as presenting research, defending an opinion, or sharing a digital story.

Using Animoto, a free Web 2.0 tool, students can develop short digital videos that include music, photos, video clips, and text as well as share their creations electronically.

Through Voki, a Web 2.0 tool, students create customizable avatars for class presentations for various purposes, such as presenting biographical information, expressing an opinion, or reading a poem.

Students learn how to get their voice out on the web when they research issues important to them and compose a persuasive podcast to post online.

History takes on new dimensions in this interactive multimedia lesson that emphasizes the B-D-A approach to research as students investigate the experiences of people with disabilities since the early 1800s.

Through a study of Langston Hughes' poetry, students connect his writing to his place in history.

After learning about the story of Pedro Albizu Campos and his commitment to Puerto Rican independence, students research and share their learning about another nationalist figure from around the world.

Through Sewell's novel, students explore the cruelty to animals and extend the discussion to current events, eventually presenting the information.

Students explore body image and advertising through an activity where they bring in pictures from magazines that they read and discuss gender representations in the media.

Students read messages sent to the White House from Jackie Robinson and discuss his role as an athlete and a civil rights activist, as well as the role of athletes in society.

Students use Ringgold's books as a springboard for a discussion of race, gender, and civil rights, and then write and illustrate original picture books on these topics.

Students brainstorm a list of human rights issues, research their group's issue in depth, examine the way journalists cover a story, and create articles for a classroom newspaper.

Students write about the origin of their name and explore the names that Malcolm X used during this life.