Through an in-depth examination of a primary source excerpt, Churchill’s Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat:Address to Parliament on May 13th, 1940, students will identify meaningful passages of text that might bring citizens to support the entry into war. They will contextualize,analyze,and interpret the passage, then use evidence from it to answer the lesson’s overall focus question, What was Churchill’s purpose in giving this speech? This 7th grade (ELA) lesson is designed to support students’ understanding of the use of word choices and tone to influence the reader’s (or listener’s) reaction to the text.The lesson starts by building historical context and content vocabulary. Students do multiple readings while taking different points of view, then use what they’ve learned to take part in a scored class discussion in which they use powerful and persuasive language. Additional resources have also been provided for 10th grade world history teachers, who want to use this source in their WWII instructional units.