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Activity
New Jersey Historical Commission and New Jersey Council for the Humanities

Thomas Edison: The Wizard of Menlo Park

For Teachers 1st - 6th Standards
What would change in your daily life due to a power outage? Here, learners explore the inventions brought to us by the one and only, Thomas Edison, and imagine a day without them. Scholars take part in a grand conversation and write a...
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Handout
Curated OER

Corporal Punishment

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Nineteen states legally permit school officials to physically punish children. Scholars learn more about the topic as they use the website to prepare for a class debate or discussion. Pupils read background information and discover the...
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Lesson Plan
Judicial Branch of California

The Constitution: What It Says and What It Means

For Teachers 5th Standards
Learners get the chance to act as representatives to the Constitution Convention, and must decide whether or not to recommend your state ratify the new framework. After examining the Constitution line-by-line, they consider their...
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

What Were They Thinking? Why Some Some Alabamians Opposed the 19th Amendment

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
To better understand the debate over the 19th Amendment, class members examine two primary source documents that reveal some of the social, economic, racial, and political realities of the time period.
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Worksheet
Student Handouts

Logical Fallacies

For Students 7th - 12th Standards
Help your learners grow their critical thinking and analytical skills by asking them to examine logical fallacies. After reading an example, pupils determine if two sets of premises and conclusions are logical fallacies or not and...
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Article
The New York Times

Teaching Orwell and '1984’ with the New York Times

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Doublethink and alternate facts? Big Brother and Facebook? 1984 and 2019? Sales of 1984 have surged and so has the use of George Orwell's dystopian classic in classrooms. Whether new to teaching the novel or a seasoned veteran you'll...
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Unit Plan
Crabtree Publishing

Why Does Media Literacy Matter?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Criticism of news and entertainment journalism is at an all-time high. Help 21st-century learners develop the media literacy skills they need to become critical consumers with a three-lesson guide the looks at persuasive techniques used...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Forming a Research-Based Claim: Creating Stakeholders Charts

For Teachers 6th Standards
Present the facts. Scholars create presentations of their research on DDT using their Cascading Consequences chart and a Stakeholders Impacts chart as visuals. They discuss the term stakeholders and create a Stakeholders Impacts chart...
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Lesson Plan
C-SPAN

Electoral College

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Most people are surprised to learn that American democracy is not as direct as they thought. Using a package of guiding questions, charts and curated videos, learners unpack the unique American institution of the Electoral College. The...
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Lesson Plan
Foreign Policy Association

Reform in the Middle East Online Lesson Plan

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Give your class the opportunity to take the time to examine their beliefs and misconceptions about American foreign policy in other countries. Learners begin by moving around the room to identify to others whether they agree or disagree...
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Lesson Plan
Prestwick House

Understanding Language: Slant, Spin, and Bias in the News

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
We live in a time of fake news, alternative realities, and media bias. What could be more timely than an activity that asks class members to research how different sources report the same topic in the news?
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Unit Plan
ReadWriteThink

Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A speaker, a message, an audience. After analyzing these elements in Queen Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury, groups analyze how other speakers use an awareness of events, and their audience to craft their arguments....
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Lesson Plan
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Museum of Tolerance

Music Evokes Memories and Emotions

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Dim the lights, take a deep breath, and press play to explore the emotions and memories that music elicits. Class members begin using relaxation techniques designed to create a positive listening experience. As music plays, learners...
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Worksheet
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The New York Times

Great Debate: Developing Argumentation Skills

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
"Advertising has no impact on whether people buy something." "Looting is morally permissible during national disasters and emergencies." "Gay teenagers should be allowed to take dates to the prom." Considering a class debate? Check out...
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Lesson Plan
Anti-Defamation League

Sexism and the Presidential Election

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Young historians investigate how sexism impacted the 2020 United States presidential election. They examine media coverage of the six women candidates, engage in a four-corners debate reacting to statements about gender and the...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Animal Farm: Allegory and the Art of Persuasion

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Introduce your class members to allegory and propaganda with a series of activities designed to accompany a study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Readers examine the text as an allegory, consider the parallels to collective farms and the...
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Lesson Plan
Channel Islands Film

Magic Isle: Lesson Plan 1

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
What are the factors that limit growth and expansion? As part of their study of Catalina Island, class members view the West of the West's documentary Magic Isle and research William Wrigley and the Santa Catalina Island Company. After...
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Lesson Plan
American Art Clay Co., Inc.

Ceramic Tile Wall Murals

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th Standards
Science, social studies, language arts, and art classes work together with administrators to produce a permanent, ceramic tile wall mural to install at their school. 
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Can Words Lead to War?

For Teachers 7th Standards
"Words, words, words." Despite Hamlet's opinion, words can be significant. In this inquiry lesson, middle schoolers learn how the words in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, in the view of many, lead to the American Civil War. To...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tunes for Bears to Dance to: Questioning Strategy, Discussion Web

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Readers of Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to are asked to consider the morality of the central character's actions
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Activity
National Endowment for the Humanities

A Defense of the Electoral College

For Students 9th - 12th
Each presidential election year, the debate about the electoral college rages. Michael C. Maibach's "A Defense of the Electoral College" offers young political scientists an opportunity to examine a reasoned argument for why the...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Building Arguments With Evidence: Constructing Arguments Part 2

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The second session in the two-part "Building Arguments with Evidence" lesson asks scholars to craft an argument essay on a topic of interest to them. Writers establish a claim, locate evidence, and justify their stance.
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Lesson Plan
Newseum

Propaganda Through History: Analyzing Historical Sources

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Working in teams, pairs, or individually, scholars select one resource from a gallery of historical sources and consider which examples might be considered propaganda, the techniques used to persuade audiences, and evaluate how the...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 25

For Teachers 9th Standards
After analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence they have recorded on their argument outline tool, writers draft their essay's first body paragraphs, ensuring they have properly cited their source material.

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