As a practice writing test, fourth graders use the West of the West's documentary Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island and two print resources as source materials for an informative article that identifies information that is...

Picture this. Class members follow in the footsteps of W. Eugene Smith, Dorothea Lange, James Nachtwey, and Lewis Hine by creating their own photo essay about a local event or issue.

A lesson centers itself around the topic of family roles. A whole-class discussion uses puppets and posters to go in-depth into the following character traits; caring, responsibility, respect, and cooperation. The discussion closes with...

The beginning of the 20th century began with a shock: the assassination of President McKinley. The man who would take his place—the youngest American to ever become president—led quite a life before stepping foot in the Oval Office. An...

As part of their study of the history of the Channel Islands, class members craft an informational article to post on a bulletin board that features the Chumash ancestral tradition of tomol paddling.

Would it have been you? Scholars investigate the horrors of the Holocaust during World War II. They view, interpret, and analyze the video The Holocaust to gain insight into who exactly was impacted by the events Europe. They then...

The effects of rising sea levels on Isle de Jean Charles, located off the coast of Louisiana, are documented in Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee's poignant short video. Viewers are asked to consider not only the plight of residents but also what...

Music is the focus of the reading adventure pack. After reading, pupils complete hands-on activities. Scholars use household items to make shakers and cymbals. They listen to eclectic music by turning on the radio, borrowing music from...

Let's Look Around! is the theme of a unit that offers a plethora of challenge activities. Enhance your scholars' learning experiences and reinforce concepts with activities such as writing a book about farm animals, an...

To broaden their understanding of both the short term and long terms effects of the Civil War, class groups examine primary source materials and then assume the role of a family member and draft a letter to a soldier describing life at...

5 Broken Cameras, the award-winning documentary nominated for a 2013 Academy Award and winner of the Sundance 2012 Directors Award is the focus of a resource packet that includes a lesson plan, discussion guide, reading lists, background...

The second lesson in a unit on set design focuses on the importance of historical and stylistic research. Working in teams created in the previous session, groups consider what resources they will use as they consider design concepts for...

Excerpts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and from John Fante's Ask the Dust, as well as a variety of primary source documents provide the background for an examination of the migrant experience from 1920-1945.

Working in groups, middle and high schoolers describe and discuss photographs depicting working conditions experienced by child laborers in the 19th century. They then write a persuasive paragraph supporting an amendment to regulate the...

Could you live without your phone? What about cars, steel, or clothing? Class groups collaborate to produce presentations that argue that either the telephone, the gramophone, the automobile, the textile industry, or the steel...

Students create presentations of digital sonnet illuminations along with sonnet research. In this Sonnet lesson, students view  images, colors, and listen to sounds of their own choice to illuminate Shakespeare...

Being a historian requires serious sleuthing. They examine primary source documents and look for evidence, for clues that reveal who wrote the document, when, and why. After watching two historians model the process, young history...

Eighth graders access the TDC database and view the Brady photos, which depict Abraham Lincoln throughout various times in history. They analyze the photos and discuss the reasons for the changes in President Lincoln's appearance over time.

Fourth graders examine nature paintings from a Utah museum for their physical characteristics. In small groups, they observe museum postcards and discuss the season, precipitation, temperature, and geometric shapes pictured. Focusing...