Get up-close-and-personal with history using guidance for an oral history project. An engaging resource takes pupils through brainstorming through feedback for a project to interview and collect oral histories from members of their...

Students visit their school library to read a variety of folktales. While they read, they identify the trickster or hero in each and discuss how the character represents the chaos in the real world. In groups, they write their own...

Did you know that way before Hitler became a dictator, he actually spent nine months in a German jail? Provide the background for the escalating point before the Nazi party took over in World War II through the exercises in the resource....

The resource, a standalone, shows how news coverage of John Brown's Raid began when the event happened and how that reporting shaped perception in West Virginia history. The resource includes interesting anticipatory discussion...

Students explore world geography by participating in a family history project. In this U.S.S.R. lesson, students read assigned text regarding the Stalinist era of Russia and the intolerance that thrived there. Students answer a list of...

Students investigate the history of Las Vegas through conducting interviews.  In this oral history lesson, students locate and speak with older residents of Las Vegas in order to gain a better understanding of the city....

In the effort to soothe the suffering of the Great Depression, New Deal programs funded a variety of approaches - including a theater project that proved controversial! Using documents such as oral histories, as well as photographs of...

Did he die for a cause, or was he crazy? Although the resource discusses John Brown and West Virginia history, many historical figures have the same reputation. Teach learners about different perspectives and highlight the importance of...

Ninth graders compose journal entries that relate to interview topics working in pairs interviewing each other. They create ten interview questions on their own as well as deliver presentations about their interviews of one another. Each...

Scholars write letters as if they were someone who heard the story of John Brown's raid. The resource, a standalone, covers information from primary sources that is important to West Virginian history: the Harpers Ferry Letters.

Ninth graders examine the importance of family history.  In this Language Arts instructional activity, 9th graders read and discuss African oral literature with a focus on the roles of griots.  Students compare /contrast the...

Learners define folklore, folk groups, tradition, and oral narrative. They identify traditional elements in Their Eyes Were Watching God Analyze and understand the role of traditional folkways and folk speech in the overall literary...

Fifth graders analyze origin myths and the diversity of First Nations groups.  In this history lesson, 5th graders review the geography of Canada and read various origin myths.  Students illustrate one of the myths and research...

Create an artifact kit to engage your young learners. Then, assign small groups a section of chapter three. They will identify the main idea and three supporting details for their section. Then, they select one artifact from the kit that...

The stories of enslaved people are preserved forever thanks to the Great Depression. Budding historians explore slave narratives gathered by a federal government initiative to discover what life was actually like for enslaved people....

Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

Learners discuss equality and fairness by reading a Maya Angelo poem.  In this U.S. history instructional activity, students read the poem I Know Why Caged Birds Sing, and discuss how the era it was written in affected the...

Students discuss family trees and create their own family trees. They research their cultural backgrounds and make oral presentations to the rest of the class during a multicultural lunch.

Eighth graders explore the question "What Counts as History?"  In this Philosophy lesson, 8th graders pretend that they are going to interview a historian.  Students read a primary source and answer the questions that follow.

Students explore English by completing an interactive language history activity. In this word recognition lesson, students discuss word formations and the phonetic relationship between letters. Students identify the origin of individual...

Third graders discover that the Wappo tribe had no written language and explore the tribe's oral traditions and language. They create their own sentences using Wappo words. They research other Native American languages noting the...

The Crusades sounds like a glamorous time period in the Middle Ages full of glory—but was it? Scholars find and review the truth of the Crusades' influence on the world through the resource. The study guides, separated individually by...

An engaging biography of "Hoosier" poet James Whitcomb Riley serves as a springboard for study of his unique dialect-based verse. Several activities illuminate differences between spoken vernacular and formal language. Learners record...

Students study African American nonprofit organizations. In this nonprofit organizations lesson plan, students discuss African American organizations. Students research the NAACP and NUL website. Students design posters for both groups....