Writing represents a complex interplay between author, audience, and artifact. As a teacher, my goals are to help students identify their personal writing goals, illustrate the importance of social and cultural considerations that affect genres, and then guide them in preparing works that will resonate with readers. The lesson plans shared here represent several years of my teaching.
One of the most important parts of researching any topic is deciding what exactly you'll research. For this, you'll want to start with an open-ended approach, and then use your initial research to narrow-down your topic and your genre.