Description
This nonfiction close reading lesson features President George W. Bush’s Address to the Nation from September 11, 2001, paired with analysis questions that directly align to the speech. This resource allows teachers to commemorate September 11th while also giving students structured practice with textual evidence, context clues, and author’s purpose.
Through guided reading and analysis, students examine how language is used during moments of national crisis and determine why the speech was delivered and how it was intended to affect its audience. Students must ultimately identify the author’s purpose and support their conclusions using explicit evidence from the text, reinforcing core ELA nonfiction analysis skills.
Teachers may choose to extend the lesson by having students watch the video version of the speech after reading, allowing for meaningful compare and contrast discussion about how tone, delivery, and medium influence impact. This activity supports critical thinking and media literacy, encouraging students to evaluate how meaning changes across formats.
This September 11th ELA resource incorporates proven reading and writing strategies, including RAFT and PIE, to help students analyze informational texts and articulate their understanding clearly. The lesson includes the full text of the speech, a combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions, a complete answer key, and an editable Word document, making it easy to adapt expectations or pacing for your classroom.
This resource is ideal for middle school and high school ELA classrooms, September 11th remembrance lessons, nonfiction units, and author’s purpose instruction.