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Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

Civil War Photography: Photography as a Primary Source

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Can we learn a thing or two about history by looking at pictures from the past? As young historians view 2-D and 3-D primary source photographs, they respond to a series of worksheets that guides them toward unveiling clues about the past. 
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Lesson Plan
Historic New Orleans Collection

Exploring Primary Sources: Music in New Orleans

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
Looking for a new and exciting way to teach young historians the art of primary source analysis? Jazz up your lesson with a resource that asks class members to analyze photos, travel documents, and letters written by some of New Orleans'...
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Lesson Plan
Briscoe Center for American History

Identifying Primary Source Documents

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Who is Mary Maverick and why is she important? the focus of this, the second in a series of five lessons that are designed to introduce middle schoolers to how historians use primary source documents to understand the past, is on how to...
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Lesson Plan
Southern Poverty Law Center

Evaluating Reliable Sources

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
A lesson plan instills the importance of locating reliable sources. Scholars are challenged to locate digital sources, analyze their reliability, search for any bias, and identify frequently found problems that make a source unusable. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

William Apess and the Mashpee "Revolt" of 1833

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Prompt your class with the following question: What was the status of American Indians in Massachusetts during Jackson's presidency? To answer this question, class members will read a series of primary source documents (attached),...
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Activity
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Council for Economic Education

Business in the Middle Ages: Working in a Guild

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
Long before modern labor unions, guilds worked to ensure that workers had a fair wage. But, in medieval Europe, they also cooperated with the government. Using a simulation and primary source analysis, young scholars become hatters in...
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Lesson Plan
Briscoe Center for American History

Applying the SOAPS Method of Analyzing Historical Documents

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Young historians use the SOAPS (Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject) method of questioning to determine the historical value of primary source documents. The third in a series of five lessons that model for learners how...
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Activity
Staples Foundation For Learning

The President’s Desk

For Teachers 4th - 12th Standards
What stories can a desk paperweight and picture frame possibly tell us about the president of the United States? Pupils are transported to the desk of President John F. Kennedy through an engaging interactive site. The guide offers a...
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Lesson Plan
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Library of Congress

Determining Point of View: Paul Revere and the Boston Massacre

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
If you're teaching point of view, this is the lesson for you! First, decipher the writer's point of view from a primary resource, then compare and contrast the primary source with a secondary source to explore the Paul Revere's engraving...
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Lesson Plan
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

Making a Patriot Inquiry: Are Independence, Freedom, and Liberty the Same Thing?

For Students 5th - 12th Standards
As part of a study of the American Revolution, class members engage in an inquiry-based lesson that has them watch a scene from the play Slave Spy, examine multiple primary source documents, and then discuss the similarities and...
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

Thomas Day's Letter to His Daughter, Mary Ann

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Why is a letter a better way to learn about a person than a different primary source? Explore Thomas Day's ideas and advice to his daughter in a letter from 1851, which details the struggles of the American South before the Civil War....
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Activity
News Literacy Project

News Goggles: Lionel Ramos, Oklahoma Watch

For Teachers 4th - Higher Ed
Given all the recent criticism of the news media and coverage, it's crucial that young people are given the tools they need to evaluate what they see, hear, and read about current events. A video interview from "News Goggles" introduces...
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Lesson Plan
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Westward Expansion: Image and Reality

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
As your young historians study Westward Expansion, practice in-depth primary source analysis with the documents and guidelines presented in this resource. They will examine a lithograph and excerpts from two letters written by a Nebraska...
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Activity
Curated OER

Current Event Project

For Teachers 4th - 12th Standards
One of the best ways to make history relevant and engaging is to analyze current events before they become history! Check out these project guidelines for a current event research paper, outlining the major required sections of the...
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Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Captioning the Civil Rights Movement: Reading the Images, Writing the Words

For Teachers 2nd - 8th Standards
Scholars boost their knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement with a activity that challenges writers, readers, and historians to analyze primary sources and caption their observations. By way of reading, writing, discussion,...
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Lesson Plan
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Bonneville

Informative Writing: Where Does Energy Come From?

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Get energized about all the different sources of energy. A research project has scholars investigate a renewable or non-renewable energy type of their choice. They write a report on their findings and decide on a way to publish their work.
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Studying the Life of Henry Bibb

For Teachers 4th - 5th Standards
After reading primary and secondary source materials about the life of Henry Bibb, individuals identify a core democratic value Bibb demonstrated and give examples drawn from their readings.
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Conducting Research: Analyzing a Variety of Sources to Capture Information about My Insect

For Teachers 5th Standards
From picture to words. Scholars analyze a picture of an ant and then list two facts they observed and any questions that may arise. Expert groups from the previous instructional activity then look at a diagram about either an ant or...
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Printables
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We are Teachers

Read Like a Detective

For Teachers 1st - 12th Standards
Encourage your young readers to become true detectives in their next literary adventure! Here you'll find an attractive display that will prompt your learners to constantly be looking for clues, asking questions, making cases about the...
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Unit Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
How do barns serve as a window to a community's past? Here are a series of lessons on the symbolism and historical context of barns throughout American history. Topics include community-building, in-depth primary and secondary source...
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Lesson Plan
National Park Service

A Tale of Two Men

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Theodore Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores were both born in 1858, and both came to the Dakota territory in 1883, but they influenced the developing country of America in different ways. Elementary and middle schoolers apply written and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Discovering Japan Through Cooperative Research

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Search a variety of sources to create a multimedia or book project about Japan. Learners use the independent investigation method to plan and conduct research about Japan. They use the information they discover to create a computer book...
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Lesson Plan
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Founding Documents

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Teach the class about the predecessor to Declaration of Independence—the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Using the foundational documents, scholars examine the two writings to consider how they are similar and how they are different. A...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Triangular Trade

For Teachers 5th - 7th
This lesson has it all, primary source documents, an interactive trade game, clear teacher background information, and sailing to the West Indies chance cards. You will play, trade, and live out the experiences of early colonists in...

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