K20 LEARN
Government Power: Do the Actions of Government Effect Me?
What does the government have to do with getting a driver's license? Including the calorie count for a meal on a restaurant menu? By discussing these kinds of questions and researching how concepts behind federal, state, and local...
K20 LEARN
Bill of Rights: Do I Have a Right?
Aliens have taken over the United States! Citizens can only keep two rights laid out in the first 10 amendments of the Constitution and must figure out which ones are best. Young scholars research the importance of each amendment and key...
K20 LEARN
Identity Theft: Don't Let This Happen to Your Grandma!
Class members consider how people steal online identities as they discover the essential elements of identity theft and consumer fraud. Pupils demonstrate learning by creating a poster or video about how to avoid identity theft.
National Endowment for the Humanities
African-American Communities in the North Before the Civil War
Middle schoolers may be surprised to learn that before the American Civil War there were more slaves living in New York than there were in Kentucky! Young historians examine maps and census data to gather statistics about...
K20 LEARN
Analyzing The "I Have A Dream" Speech
The famous words of Martin Luther King still resonate with scholars today. An enlightening instructional activity helps pupils examine the "I Have a Dream" speech in more depth and learn what impact it had on the civil rights movement....
K20 LEARN
Government and Your Right To Vote: Voting Rights In America
Gaining voting rights was difficult over the course of decades, but the debate over who should actually be allowed to cast a ballot remains. Scholars explore the history of the struggle, including the fifteenth and nineteenth amendments,...
K20 LEARN
Blue or Gray? Perspectives on the Civil War
Using primary and secondary sources, such as letters and diaries from soldiers and civilians, learners consider why people fought in the American Civil War. A role-playing Historical Mingle activity, as well as discussion questions and...
Center for Civic Education
Ronald Reagan and Executive Power
Article II of the United States Constitution grants Presidents executive powers in areas of international conflict, domestic and foreign policy. Using examples drawn from Ronald Reagan's presidency, class members are asked to consider...
National First Ladies' Library
Trouble in Little Rock: The Desegregation of Central High School
Middle schoolers study one aspect of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States; the battle over desegregating the public schools. They study the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas by producing a newspaper,...
K20 LEARN
Plessy v. Ferguson: An Individual's Response to Oppression
After generating research questions rated to segregation, groups are given a primary source document (Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes, Plessy v. Ferguson, etc.) and craft a presentation that details the key elements of their assigned...
John F. Kennedy Center
Musical Harlem: How Is Jazz Music Reflective of the Harlem Renaissance?
Bring jazz music and the Harlem Renaissance to light with a lesson that challenges scholars to research and create. Pupils delve deep into information materials to identify jazz terminology, compare types of jazz and jazz musicians,...
WE Charity
Exploring the Four Leadership Styles
What is your leadership style? Tweens and teens independently complete a Four Leadership Styles worksheet. Once completed, they use a leadership code to identify their prominent leadership style. Class members gather by style, brainstorm...
Holly Middle School
Leadership 101
A four-week leadership class is designed to help scholars develop the skills they need to become effective leaders. Pupils study the habits of highly effective people and apply these concepts to leadership. They investigate paradigm...
eNet Learning
10 Minute Leadership Lessons
Forty pages offer 21 lessons to encourage leadership among kindergarten through eighth-grade scholars. Hands-on activities use the experiential learning model while exploring personal traits, getting to know peers, teambuilding,...
National Park Service
Lesson 2: Hope
There's hope in music. Pupils discover what gave enslaved people hope by examining lyrics and music during their time of bondage. A series of prompts helps individuals investigate songs of enslaved people. The cumulative assignment...
DocsTeach
The Impact of Westward Expansion on Native American Communities
Although Westward Expansion is often romanticized, its impact was devastating on Native American communities. Primary source documents, including pictures of United States troops invading indigenous lands and Native American tribes, tell...
DocsTeach
Patent Analysis: Joseph Glidden's Barbed Wire
Barbed wire may have made cattle farming easier, but it brought to an end the free-roaming days of the plains. No longer could Native American groups continue their nomadic lifestyle, and the days of cowboys herding large groups of...
DocsTeach
What Else Was Happening During the Civil War Era?
Examine a time of political division and upheaval— not unlike our own—using firsthand accounts. While study of the Civil War often takes center stage in the classroom, the 1850s and 1860s were a period of profound change in other areas...
DocsTeach
The Civil War: Celebrate or Commemorate? Debate Definitions
Match game for the win! Build learners' historical vocabulary using an interactive matching game. Class members match each term to its definition with a tap. A writing prompt rounds out the lesson, leading to further discussion on how...
National Park Service
The Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March: Shaking the Conscience of the Nation
Travel back in time to examine how tragic events can spur positive change. Scholars explore the impact of the Selma Voting Rights March, including the tragic loss of life and the later signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Academics...
DocsTeach
The SS Quanza and European War Refugees
World War II not only resulted in major loss of life, but it also displaced thousands of people. An eye-opening activity uses primary documents to explore the refugee crisis during World War II. Scholars compare the event to modern-day...
Minneapolis Community Education
Everyday Leaders Guide
Leadership skills are a key component of service-learning. A 31-page booklet provides facilitators and participating partners with an explanation of service-learning, information about the principles and practices of responsive...
Tean Truth
4 Ways Leaders Approach Tasks: Leaders Motivation
Attitude is everything when approaching a task. That's the takeaway from a worksheet that asks teens to consider the four ways leaders approach tasks.
Tean Truth
Who Do You Admire and Why?
A five-question worksheet asks learners to consider who they admire, the qualities this person has that they admire, and why they find these characteristics admirable. To conclude, pupils select three of the qualities they admire in...