Activity
National Association of Teacher Educators for Family and Consumer Science

Consumerism in the Classroom: Effective Strategies for Today's Teenage Consumers

For Students 9th - 12th
Help class members become savvy consumers with a series of activities that has them analyzing marketing strategies, comparing the value of brand name versus off-brand clothing, and considering the advantages and...
Lesson Plan
Penguin Books

An Educator’s Guide to Ruta Sepetys

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Cross-Genre Comparisons to Find the Message in Hip-Hop

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students analyze two cross -genre songs written in the early 1980s for lyrical content and social commentary. They consider the artistic merit of hip hop music in today's culture.
Organizer
Student Handouts

Medieval Life Chart

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
What were the benefits and drawbacks of being a serf/knight/lord/lady/king/queen/etc. in the Middle Ages? Consider all the comparisons with your young historians using this graphic organizer.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils 2: Uncovering the Facts

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students determine what types of information can be determined by looking at fossils. In this fossil instructional activity, students examine facts about and images of the Tyrannosaurus Rex at an assigned web site. They apply their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Entertainment and Recreation in the Early Twentieth Century and Today

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders research entertainment and recreation in the early twentieth century using primary sources and the book From the Hidewood, by Robert Amerson. They compare the rural experience of the time period to the national...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Endocrine And Reproductive Systems

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Learners investigate the hormonal levels that are created with the endocrine system and tie it to the act of sexual reproduction. The lesson discusses how the respiratory system is organized as a comparison to the endocrine system which...
Lesson Plan
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Theodore Roosevelt Association

Interpreting the Past; Assessing Its Impact on the Present

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
Even though the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt ended over 100 years ago, we can still learn something from his stances and policies that is applicable today. Class members first look over a list of prevalent political issues from the...
Lesson Plan
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National Endowment for the Humanities

Life Before the Civil War

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
American life before the Civil War was very different from American life today. To show this difference in a full spectrum, learners compare two communities that illustrate the differences between Northern and Southern life. Throughout...
Activity
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National Park Service

A Peace Park

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Piece together American and Canadian culture by learning about peace parks! Scholars discuss differences between Waterton Lakes National Park and Glacier National Park as a group. The newly-informed pupils answers questions about this...
Lesson Plan
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NPR

Suffrage Lesson Plan

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Has life changed for American women in the last century, or are there common themes between the lives of 21st century women and the struggle of suffragettes from the 1910s? Explore the ways media reflects the position of women...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Organizational Patterns: Comparison and Contrast Writing

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students write an essay comparing and contrasting their school experiences. Through guided practice, they create an outline of their elementary school experience and middle school experience. Using their outlines, students synthesize...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs

For Teachers 1st
First graders compare fictional and real pigs. In this pig comparison lesson, 1st graders read a fiction text then a non-fiction text on pigs. Students complete a K-W-L chart  and fill out a Venn Diagram. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sunrise-Sunset

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Learners gather data, make and share predictions about the time of sunrise ans sunset in their area. Patterns are analyzed and shared with students from other areas.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Who's Who In America? Multicultural Achievers A to Z Past & Present

For Teachers K
Students are introduced to important people who have made contributions to society from different cultural groups. As a class, they develop a definition for diversity and work together to make a comparison chart to discover how people...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

One Room Schoolhouse

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students study pictures and artifacts of the one-room schoolhouse. For this compare and contrast lesson,students list similarities and differences in schools of today and one-room schoolhouses. Then students use this analysis to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lewis and Clark

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate Lewis and Clark. In this Lewis and Clark lesson, students search the Internet for information about Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. Students use maps to understand the explorations and decide which...
Unit Plan
Intel

Starquest

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Almost every ancient culture observed the stars and saw pictures in the patterns. Studying stars allowed them to guide travelers, determine when to plant crops, when to harvest food, and the stories surrounding the images include some of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rome's Rise To Power: The Republic

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students investigate the government structure of ancient Rome. In this government systems lesson, students compare and contrast the government of ancient Rome with the government of the United States.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Forsyth County Architecture

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What features mark a building as belonging to a particular culture, time, and place? Class members investigate the architectural movements represented in structures built in Forsyth County, North Carolina from 1880-1980 by examining...
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Games around the World

For Teachers K - 3rd
There are three little words every teacher is just dying to hear; investigate, discuss, and play. Kids love those words too, and they'll love finding out what types of things children did for fun long ago. As homework, they interview...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Family Life in the 1830s

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students compare and contrast family life today with family life in the 1830s. They conduct research on Old Sturbridge Village, read primary source documents, and develop a list of generalizations comparing/contrasting families of the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Navy Life

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students review how men were recruited into Nelson's Navy and discuss how they think recruiting is handled today. They work in pairs to research life on board a naval ship in both Nelson's Navy and today's Royal Navy using the National...
Activity
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.2

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
One way to get your class to evaluate and synthesize multiple multimedia sources is through a research project. The idea here is that class members will watch videos and listen to scientific debates in order to create a casebook about...