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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

About Life: The Photographs of Dorothea Lange Going to the Promised Land

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
To better understand the migrant experience during the Great Depression, pupils analyze two primary resources: photographs by Dorothea Lange and a U.S. Map that shows the Dust Bowl. They compare and contrast Lange's images to Steinbeck's...
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Lesson Plan1:21
Federal Reserve Bank

History of Money and Banking in the U.S.

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Why was there a lack of confidence in the money and banking system of the early United States government? What historical events led to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System? Here you'll find reading materials and worksheets to...
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Lesson Plan
2
2
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
Civil War Trust

Transcribing Civil War History

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Primary sources are valuable for understanding the context of historical events, but the diction and dialect in these documents can be difficult to understand. Middle and high schoolers participation in a transcription process in which...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum

The Cuban Missile Crisis: How to Respond?

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
For 13 days, the United States stood on the edge of nuclear War. The Soviet Arms buildup in Cuba is the focus of an activity that asks groups to analyze how the governmental role each of John F. Kennedy's advisors played went on to...
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Lesson Plan
Civil War

Civil War Medicine: Fact or Fiction

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Young historians compare the presentation of medical care during the Civil War in passages from fictional and nonfictional texts. They examine passages from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen, and...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
NPR

Female Olympians Lesson Plan

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
For every strong and determined female Olympian, there are millions of young girls watching and becoming inspired. Middle and high schoolers learn more about record-breaking and history-making Olympian women with a presentation from the...
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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
PBS

Using Primary Sources: Wide Open Town

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
A picture speaks a thousand words, no matter how old! Scholars use political cartoons from the era of Prohibition and the Temperance Movement to analyze what, a primary document (in this case, a bootlegger's notebook) is telling them...
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Lesson Plan
Digital History

The Boston Massacre

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What better way to get your class interested in history than to embody important historical characters and make events come to life? Stage a realistic mock trial of the British soldiers accused of murdering five Bostonians after the...
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Lesson Plan1:21
Federal Reserve Bank

Is the Fed Public or Private?

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
The Federal Reserve System as a decentralized central bank can be a difficult concept for learners to grasp. Help them get a firm handle on this concept using this resource, in which class members work as a group to identify the...
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Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

Map the Civil War

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Mapmaking was a very important element in successfully planning attacks on enemies during the Civil War. Guide pupils through the process of pacing to find the average length of their steps, measure the distance between one object to the...
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Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

Genealogy

For Teachers 6th - 9th
The Civil War is undoubtedly a part of America's history, but could it be part of your pupils' history as well? Middle schoolers conduct research to discover a connection between their ancestors and the American Civil War. Whether they...
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Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

Creating a Historic Site

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
A historic site marks a place where a relevant historical event occurred, no matter how many people know about it. Small groups choose their own historical sites, including a place where a class member was born, or even a football field...
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Lesson Plan
Civil War Trust

Civil War Personalities Lesson Plan

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Caring, trustworthiness, and responsibility—these are only a few character traits in focus of a lesson based on stories from the Civil War era. Class members explore several influential lives while reading biographies that highlight...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
University of California

Equal Rights? The Women's Movement from Suffrage to Schlafly

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
If you've never heard of the Equal Rights Amendment, it's probably because there isn't one in the United States Constitution. Delve into the contentious history behind the ERA, its founders and supporters, and reasons for its political...
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Lesson Plan
3
3
Alabama Department of Archives and History

"Scottsboro Boys": A Trial Which Defined an Age

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Here's a must-have resource. Whether your focus is racism, the Great Depression, the "Scottsboro Boys" trial, or part of a reading of To Kill A Mockingbird, the information contained in the seven-page packet will save hours of research...
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Birmingham, Fall 1963

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Can any good come from acts of evil? The 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the eventual outcomes of the tragedy, are the focus of a lesson that asks groups to examine primary source documents...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Strange Fruit: Lynching in America

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
To continue their study of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the beginning of the civil rights movement, class members watch the YouTube video of Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" as an introduction to an examination of lynching in...
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Dueling Telegrams: 1963 Verbal Power Play Between Wallace and JFK

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Information, inferences, and innuendos. Text and subtext. Class members examine telegrams exchanged between President John F. Kennedy and Alabama Governor George Wallace, studying both what is stated and what is implied by the diction...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Stanford University

Civil Rights or Human Rights?

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Young citizens consider the American civil rights movement as part of the global struggle for human rights. After using a timeline activity to learn about the major events in the civil rights movement, class members study Malcolm X's...
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Lover of Literacy

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This, the sixth in a series of 10 related resources, examines the life and works of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an African American author, born in 1825, who advocated literacy for both free and enslaved African Americans.
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Lesson Plan
North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies

Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: African Americans in Revolutionary Times

For Students 5th - 11th
What's missing from most studies of the American Revolutionary War is information about the role African Americans played in the conflict. To correct this oversight, middle schoolers research groups like the Black Loyalists and  Black...
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Lesson Plan
Country Music Hall of Fame

Ray Charles and Country Music

For Teachers 3rd - 12th Standards
Ray Charles used the pain and adversity from his life to influence an entire genre of American music. Learn about the musician's daily life, struggles and success, and powerful musical style with a thorough resource.

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