Read Works
Read Works: Passages: Letter From Jackie Robinson on Civil Rights
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a Civil Rights letter from Jackie Robinson and answer questions about comprehension, persuasive text, supporting details, inferences, main idea, and more. Links to a paired text and paired...
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: Don't Buy a Ford Ever Again, Ca. 1960
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read an advertisement and some background information and answer questions about comprehension, persuasive techniques, vocabulary, author's purpose, and more. Links to a paired text and paired...
Read Works
Read Works: Water From the Air: Cloud Forests
[Free Registration/Login Required] In this informational text passage, facts about cloud forests are shared, along with persuasive language to stress the importance of them and threats to them. This passage is a stand-alone curricular...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Gettysburg Address [Pdf]
"The Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln is one page, non-fiction speech given at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 18, 1963. It is followed by an assignment asking students to...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Frederick Douglass [Pdf]
"Frederick Douglass on Women's Suffrage," a one page, non-fiction, reading passage, is an excerpt from a persuasive speech delivered by Frederick Douglass to the International Council of Women in Washington, D.C., April 1888 in support...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: John F. Kennedy's Remarks, Berlin [Pdf]
"John F. Kennedy: Remarks in the Rudolph Wilde Platz, Berlin" is a one page persuasive speech delivered by JFK on June 26, 1963. In it he commended West Germany in its efforts to have a democratic government and berated the Communists...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Chicago: Deval Patrick [Pdf]
"Chicago Is a City of Possibilities" is an inauguration speech by Deval Patrick given as he became governor of Massachusetts. It is followed by questions which require students to provide evidence from the story; it includes determining...
Utah Education Network
Uen: 5th Grade Opinion Writing Prompt
In this lesson, 5th graders are asked to write an opinion about whether the United States should stop using pennies. Their opinion must be based on ideas and information from the two reading passages provided.