Students read the first and second halves of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and answered targeted comprehension and analysis questions (e.g., identifying the "tragic misconception of time" and linking the black community's destiny to America's). Students listed the four basic steps of a nonviolent campaign and identified persuasive arguments King used. They completed a "Just and Unjust Laws" double-entry diary and a "People of the Past" activity in which they identified and explained the historical and religious figures King referenced, explicitly analyzing his rhetorical comparisons and moral claims.

Students read and analyze excerpts from Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and selections from Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches through guided activity pages that ask them to identify overlapping ideas and quote-based similarities. Students use a comparison table (Thoreau, Overlapping Ideas, King) to mark phrases, explain areas of agreement and disagreement (topics include what makes a law just or unjust, when it is acceptable to break the law, the role of government, and voting). Students answer comprehension and analysis questions on the excerpts for homework and are prompted to decide which author's views they align with and explain their reasoning.

Students read an excerpt of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have Been to the Mountaintop" and watch a video of him delivering the passage, then reflect on differences between reading and hearing a speech (noting voice inflections, pauses, facial expressions, etc.). Students are asked to consider how oral devices add to meaning and to be prepared to discuss these rhetorical effects. Activity 3 asks students to identify a universal truth in Wiesel's speech and draft a paragraph comparing that statement to one or two other human-rights advocates (explicitly suggesting Dr. King) using quotes to support alignment of themes.

The exam's Part IV, Discussion prompt A asks students to "Explain what civil disobedience is, what Thoreau meant by the phrase, and how Martin Luther King, Jr., defined it," which requires students to analyze Thoreau's and King's treatments of the concept. Day 2 and other prompts note that students may be asked to explain "how Thoreau's writing influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.," indicating students will connect ideas across those nonfiction works and authors.

Students read Abraham Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address" and answer text-based questions about his justifications for brevity and his tone. Students identify and analyze rhetorical strategies—tone, organization of ideas, word choice, parallelism, antithesis, and allusion—on a Student Activity Page and in guided questions. Students cite quotes from the speech, label the literary device used, and explain the intended effect on the audience, and they complete a homework task that maps sentences to the speech's background, main message, and forward-looking statement.

Students read and analyze multiple primary U.S. historical documents related to the Sand Creek Massacre (eyewitness testimonies of John S. Smith and Robert Brent and Col. Chivington's testimony) and complete activities that require citing specific textual evidence. Students compare primary and secondary accounts using the 'Firsthand Accounts' organizer, evaluate the reasoning and rhetoric in testimonies through the 'Primary Falsehoods' activity, and compare differing portrayals (newspaper editorials vs. eyewitness accounts) in the 'Two Points of View' task. The Parent Plan explicitly lists skills students practice, including evaluating a speaker's point of view, reasoning, use of evidence and rhetoric, and comparing treatments of the same topic across primary and secondary sources.

Students are asked to print out and read Andrew Jackson's Message to Congress on Indian Removal (link provided) and to highlight at least three passages that demonstrate fallacious reasoning. The Parent Plan and answer key list specific excerpts from Jackson's speech and classify them as straw man, non-sequitur, bandwagon, and ad hominem, which students are to identify and defend. Students also analyze rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) in Lou Gehrig's farewell speech and identify fallacies in contemporary political examples, practicing close reading of primary-source rhetoric.

Students watch a History Channel video explaining the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and are instructed to jot down major points and be ready to answer questions. The lesson supplies the text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and asks students explicit questions about what the Act prohibited and which major civil rights events led to it. The introduction and activities ask students to connect the Act and broader civil-rights developments to the themes and setting of A Raisin in the Sun.