Curated OER
Reconsidering Malcolm X
Students analyze the strategies and speeches of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Curated OER
Cotton Production and Milling
Students examine cotton production and milling. They compete in a hand-ginning contest to realize how difficult it was to separate the seeds from the fibers of cotton. They discuss why Eli Whitney's cotton gin was an important invention.
Curated OER
Antonio's Story
Eleventh graders put a human face on the refugee experience to help them empathize. They are given an "virtual" introduction to Antonio, which gives students insights into the life of refugees in Canada and around the world. Pupils...
Curated OER
Rosa Parks/Segregation
Students examine the role of Rosa Parks in ended segregtation in the South. Using new vocabulary, they observe the effects of segregation by being placed into different groups over a two day period. They discuss the feelings and emotions...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Immigrant Discrimination
For a class learning about Chinese and Irish immigration in America, here's a great starting lesson plan. It has your critical thinkers examining song lyrics, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and a political cartoon, and finally...
Curated OER
Make it a Hemingway Day
It’s always a good time to have your class read the works of this Nobel Prize recipient.
Curated OER
Feel the Beat of the Drums
These percussion instruments have a rich history and a variety of uses.
Curated OER
"Pray, Why Speakest Thou Thusly?"
Examine popular language and slang and how they have changed over the course of American history. Conduct Internet research, use an online interactive Colonial House website to translate 17th century language into 21st century language,...
Curated OER
Fun Field Trip Funding Ideas
Whether it's a lack of funds or lack of time, check out these great ideas for getting creative with field trips.
Macmillan Education
Webquest: Thanksgiving
Class members use the Internet to research the history of Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada, as well as the traditions surrounding the Thanksgiving-style celebrations of the Hebrews, the Chinese, and in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Curated OER
Cave Diagram
Students examine limestone cave geology and hydology. They study cave vocabulary.
Curated OER
Cave Stories - Tales of Adventure
Students list three things about caves that interest them and list reasons why writers choose caves as settings for stories.
Curated OER
ESL: Punctuating Titles
When are titles underlined, italicized, or placed in quotation marks? Take your class to the computer lab to give them some independent practice. Here they read through the information, examples, and explanations provided. They then...
Lesson Planet
New Books for Black History Month
Suggested books to help students better understand African American history.
Curated OER
Badges of Pride
Fifth graders investigate jobs and how people identify with their job. In this labor lesson, 5th graders create a book from illustrations of various jobs. Students read an article about labor and answer questions about the article....
Stanford University
The 1898 North Carolina Election
Pupils discuss why the Democrats defeated the Fusion ticket in the 1898 North Carolina election. In this content area reading instructional activity, learners explore three primary documents and answer guiding questions that help them...
Curated OER
Analyzing Photographs: From Theory to Practice
Learners analyze photographic images and use cameras to document their own life. In this analyzing photography instructional activity, students apply formal analysis techniques to images, then create a documentary of photographic images...
Curated OER
A Question, Mr. Lincoln!
Students discuss Abraham Lincoln. In this social science lesson, students describe key events in Lincoln's life. Students practice using interviewing skills to gather information pretending to be Lincoln.
Curated OER
The Greatest Educational Change America has Ever Seen
Students examine the history of the penny. In this Lincoln Bicentennial One Cent teachers guide, students connect the life of President Abraham Lincoln to the 1-cent coin in his honor through a variety of lessons and activities.
Curated OER
5 Mother's Day Lessons and Activities
Students complete a craft project. In this Mother's Day lesson plan, students learn about Mother's Day around the world, write an essay about their mother, create a Mother's Day card, create coupons for meaningful time with their...
Curated OER
Music-Follow the Drinking Gourd
Fourth graders study the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd." In this dance lesson, 4th graders listen to the book by the same name, listen to the music, and in small groups create a short dance illustrating a stanza from the song.
Curated OER
Slave Narratives
Students examine the slave perspective and how it differs from stories we hear in text books. In this slave narrative lesson, students use primary source narratives to compare how slave life was expressed by the slaves to how slave life...
Stanford University
Reconstruction Structured Academic Controversy (SAC)
Young scholars debate whether African Americans were free during Reconstruction. In this debate instructional activity, students use primary documents to support their argument as to whether African American were free during the...
Curated OER
Constitutional Resources
Young scholars explore the REpublican Era and the writing of the constitution and Billof Rights through various links and activities included in this collection.