Lesson Plan
Arizona State University

Southwest Culture Through Art: Unit and Lessons

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This unit on Southwest American culture planned for sixth graders features six lesson plans on the following subjects: small group collage, exploring concepts, artifacts, pottery, petroglyph rock art pins, and architecture. (Click on...
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Curated OER

National Park Service: Russell Cave: Prehistoric Cultures

For Students 9th - 10th
Russell Cave in Alabama holds clues to the many groups of inhabitants that represented cultures in America over the past 10,0000 years. Read an overview of the cultures themselves before looking into the cultures in more detail. Find...
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

For Students 9th - 10th
Site explains the federal law that was passed in 1990 that protects Native American cultural items: the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act(NAGPRA). The site answers FAQ on the NAGPRA and keeps online databases of...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian: Infinity of Nations

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about ten North and South American Native American nations by playing the Infinity of Nations Culture Quest game. Examine Native American crafts and artifacts that are part of Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian,...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian: Ancient Mexican Art

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the Ancient Mexican history of art and the influences that their daily lives and culture had on the art. View many pieces from the Collection of the National Museum of the American Indian.
Graphic
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian: Infinity of Nations

For Students 9th - 10th
Exhibtion of artwork and artifacts from geographic regions across the Americas highlights the historic significance and diversity of material culture produced by Native Americans, past to present. With examples of textiles, ceramics,...
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Cabeza De Vaca

For Students 9th - 10th
Explorer Cabeza de Vaca is considered the first true Chicano writer, having been born in Spain and then absorbed into the Native American culture, highlighting this new culture in his writings. Click on "Cabeza de Vaca Activities" for...
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Exploring Borderlands: Americo Paredes

For Students 9th - 10th
This passage highlights the contemporary contributions to Chicano history and culture by Americo Paredes, through various mediums. Click on "Americo Paredes Activities" for related artifacts and activities.
Activity
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian: A Song for the Horse Nation

For Students 9th - 10th
This exhibit from the National Museum of the American Indian explores the close relationship of Native Americans and their horses through art, pottery, textiles, artifacts, and photographs. It traces this relationship from the 15th...
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Utopian Promise: Mary Rowlandson

For Students 9th - 10th
After immigrating to the New England colonies, being captured by Wampanoag Indians, Puritan and author acclimates herself to the Native American culture as a form of survival and documents her time kept captive. See "Mary Rowlandson...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: A Vision of Puerto Rico

For Students 9th - 10th
A virtual look at a wide-ranging mix of art and artifacts that visually represent Puerto Rico's culture and history. With thematic overviews of everyday life on the island, music, families, and religion along with many useful educational...
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Exploring Borderlands: Gloria Anzaldua

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource features Gloria Anzaldua, a "hybrid" or Chicana author from Texas, who writes about the Chicano culture and draws particular attention to the women to empower them. Click on "Gloria Anzaldua Activities" to explore connected...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian: Collections

For Students 9th - 10th
Search the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, which include a representative sample of this Smithsonian Institution's object and historic photo collections.
Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: Artifacts and Fiction: Workshop in American Literature

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This workshop, which is divided into eight segments, teaches how to use primary source artifacts from a variety of genres to support the teaching and learning of specific pieces of literature. The genres include visual arts, political...
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Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian: Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art

For Students 9th - 10th
Explore Mexican Folk Art by looking at different types of material and what they are used to make. Choose from clay, metal, leather, paper, plant fibers, stone, wood, and more.
Graphic
Other

Ohio History: Virtual First Ohioans

For Students 9th - 10th
This award-winning resource from the Ohio Historical Society presents Ohio's first cultures: PaleoIndian, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, and Late Prehistoric Period cultures. Click on each period for additional information and great...
Graphic
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of the American Indian: Creation's Journey

For Students 9th - 10th
A virtual tour of two exhibits that were created for the National Museum of the American Indian but students from four American Indian schools. The exhibits display a wide variety of American Indian artifacts with descriptions of each...
Interactive
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Within These Walls

For Students 4th - 8th
If these walls could talk! Explore American History through one house that has experienced over 200 years of history. This interactive site has pictures of artifacts, primary sources, and music from 1757-1945. Be a detective and guess...
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Other

Labor Arts: Solidarity Forever: A Look at Wobbly Culture

For Students 9th - 10th
An excellent collection of artifacts that highlight the aims and aspirations of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Members of the IWW, known as Wobblies, played a unique role in the American labor movement. Artifacts include...
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Other

Native Peoples of America: Adena

For Students 9th - 10th
An informative look at the Adena culture and their burial mounds, food resources, and artifacts found in the burial mounds.Find links to additional information on the web about this early Native American culture.
Website
Other

Jews in America: Portal to Jewish American History

For Students 9th - 10th
Complete with music from Aaron Copland, the Center for Jewish History provides an interactive website that traces the history of Jews in the United States from 1654 until today. Authors provide a searchable gallery of photographs,...
PPT
Virginia History Series

Virginia History Series: Indians of Virginia [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Amazing visual presentation about the history of Indians in Virginia. included in this comprehensive slideshow are startling pictures and maps tracing the Native American culture from prehistoric times through the 1600's.
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Other

Musee Du Quai Branly: Indigenous Art of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania

For Students 9th - 10th
Examine a collection of artifacts produced by indigenous cultures Africa, America, Asia, and Oceania in three-dimensions. Includes location maps and helpful commentary.
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Teachers: The Grapes of Wrath

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A Library of Congress instructional activity on "The Grapes of Wrath," through which students discover how cultural artifacts from the book support its themes and see connections "between the social, cultural, and literary contexts of...