EngageNY
Close Reading: Understanding Carlotta’s Journey
How do incidents in A Mighty Long Way provoke the author, Carlotta Walls LaNier, to make certain decisions that shape her story? Scholars engage in a close reading of the memoir, analyzing events in US history and Carlotta's personal...
EngageNY
Analyzing Experiences: Carlotta Walls
What was life like in the American South following the Civil War? Scholars watch a video that discusses the aftermath of the Civil War and the events during the Reconstruction Period. Additionally, they continue reading Carlotta Walls...
EngageNY
Launching the Text: Building Background Knowledge of the Jim Crow South
Pictures and photographs help build background knowledge about a topic. Scholars participate in a gallery walk to learn more about the Jim Crow era of US history and the desegregation of schools following Brown v. Board of Education....
Scholastic
Connecting with Ruby Bridges
When Ruby Bridges entered an all-white school in New Orleans in 1960, she also entered history. Scholars consider what the experience must have been like for the young girl using two books that document her experience as well as a double...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Fred Seibel, the Times-Dispatch, and Massive Resistance
A lesson challenges scholars to analyze editorial cartoons created by Fred Seibel, illustrator for the Times-Dispatch, during the Massive Resistance. A class discussion looking at today's editorial pages and Jim Crow Laws leads the...
New York State Education Department
US History and Government Examination: January 2011
The presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan were defined by the Cold War. Using primary source documents and scaffolded analysis questions, pupils explore the effect the Cold War had on these presidencies. A...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Change of View: George C. Wallace
Who exactly was George C. Wallace? A great lesson plan provides young historians with a hands-on activity, direct instruction, and discussion to learn about Wallace, why he was an important figure, and why he changed his mind about...
University of Richmond
Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America 1935-1940
Redlining—or the practice of racial discrimination in housing loans—directly led to today's segregated living patterns in America. Using data from the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation, classmates visualize the impact of policy on...
University of Richmond
Renewing Inequality: Family Displacements through Urban Renewal 1950-1966
What is progress? Who bears its cost? High schoolers consider the questions as they review data on families displaced by urban renewal projects in the 1950s and 1960s. An interactive, curated data project asks historians to consider the...
PBS
Ken Burns: Jackie Robinson Taking the Measure of a Man
During his first few games as the first black player in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson proved that he could withstand the wily curveball of Johnny Sain as well as the racial epithets shouted from opposing teams' dugouts. A short...
National Park Service
Teaching with Historic Places: Discover the Jackie Robinson Ballpark
Can sports and popular culture change public opinion? That's the essential question asked by a lesson plan that looks at the role Jackie Robinson's appearance at City Island Ballpark in Daytona Beach, Florida played in the desegregation...
PBS
Ken Burns: Jackie Robinson - A Journey Back to Separate but Equal Conditions
Baseball great Jackie Robinson fought for social justice. His efforts to push for equal access are detailed in an episode from from the Ken Burns: The Jackie Robinson Collection. After viewing the clip, class members engage in a...
PBS
Ken Burns: Jackie Robinson Integration or Separation?
What happens when change you imagined, the change you were promised, is slow in coming or doesn't happen at all? What do you do with the frustration and disenchantment? Class members watch two clips from the Ken Burns: Jackie Robinson...
PBS
Ken Burns: Jackie Robinson Living in Jim Crow America
Your class members may know that Jackie Robinson was the first African American man to play Major League Baseball, but they may not be aware of his efforts to achieve social justice. A clip from Ken Burns: The Jackie Robinson Collection...
UnboundEd Learning
Rosa Parks: The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
Class members listen to a passage on Rosa Parks, examine images of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and respond to questions based on the text. They then craft a free-verse poem that recounts her achievements and reveals why she is considered...
Education World
Remembering Jackie Robinson
A four-paragraph informational text details the life of the famous baseball player, Jackie Robinson. A prompt challenges scholars to write or discuss a time in their life when they were not included and how that made them feel.
Core Knowledge Foundation
Ray Charles
Introduce young learners to the read-aloud process with a short biographical passage about Ray Charles. After listening to the passage, class members respond to factual, inferential, and evaluative questions, and then create a timeline...
Maryland Department of Education
A Raisin in the Sun and Dreams Deferred
To conclude a study of A Raisin in the Sun and to prepare for a visit to the Lewis Museum, class members analyze Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem." Learners then draw connections to characters in the play and to their own experiences...
Stanford University
Ruby Bridges
A two-part lesson features Civil Rights hero, Ruby Bridges. Part one focuses on the heroic actions of Ruby Bridges then challenges scholars to complete a Venn diagram in order to compare themselves to her. Part two begins with a...
Reed Novel Studies
Gone Crazy in Alabama: Novel Study
Life isn't always sweet in Alabama. A study guide for the novel Gone Crazy in Alabama introduces readers to life in the rural South and explores one character's experiences there. In addition to answering basic reading comprehension...
State Bar of Texas
Mendez v. Westminster and Delgado v. Bastrop ISD
You arrive at school only to be told you have no place there. Scholars research the Supreme Court cases Mendez v. Westminster and Delgado v. Bastrop ISD, both dealing with school segregation. Two short video clips as well as small group...
Curated OER
Martin Luther King and Malcom X on Violence and Integration
Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were contemporaries. Both were gifted orators, both were preachers, both were leaders during the Civil Rights era, both were assassinated. But the two had very different views on violence and...
Civil Rights Movement Veterans
Timeline of Events: 1960’s Civil Rights Movement of St. Augustine, Florida
A timeline can be a powerful learning tool because it reveals a pattern in events. While few would consider St. Augustine, Florida a hotbed of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, a selection of background information and a timeline of...
Stanford University
Lesson Plan: The Children's Crusade and the Role of Youth in the African American Freedom Struggle
Young people played significant roles in the Civil Rights movement. Class members examine the contributions of Barbara Johns, Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith, and the children of Birmingham,...