Is The Things They Carried a great book? After generating a list of characteristics of great literature, individuals measure The Things They Carried against this criteria, assess O'Brien's book, and support their stance with direct...

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior." How do you tell a true war story? Is The Things They Carried a true war story? Does it have a moral? A theme?...

Why does Tim O'Brien arrange his stories as he does? Why mention the death of several of the soldiers before detailing the events? Readers are asked to consider whether the arrangement of the stories contributes to O'Brien's presentation...

The seventh instructional activity in a ten-part unit that uses The Things They Carried as the core text, looks at the evolution of Norman Bowker, a character who "almost won the silver star for valor." Readers are asked to consider...

". . .facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around, and when you listened to one of his (Rat Kiley's) stories, you'd find yourself performing rapid calculations in your head, subtracting superlatives, figuring the square root...

"They all carried ghosts." Mitchell Sanders, Lieutenant Cross, Ted Lavender, Azar, Dave Jensen, Lee Strunk, Bob Kiley, Curt Lemon. Protagonists and antagonists? Major or minor characters? And what about Tim O'Brien? Author or character?...

What would you carry? As part of a study of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, individuals are asked to imagine they have been drafted and are going to war. In a brief essay, they name three personal items they would take with them...

"I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth." A 10-lesson plan unit using The Things They Carried as the core text begins with an audio biography of Tim O'Brien. The...

Innovation, politics, race, war...these themes are continuously evident in humanity over the course of history, and are revealed with spectacular imagery and commentary by famed documentarian Ken Burns. While primarily focusing on...

What caused the Soviet Union to collapse? What led Ronald Reagan to reach out to Mikhail Gorbachev? Did the United States ever have a working relationship with the Soviet Union? The answers to these questions are detailed in this...

The United States National Security Agency described it as one of "the great achievements in military engineering of the twentieth century. Support your classroom study of the Vietnam War with this brief but effective video, which...

Discuss the full travesty of the Vietnam War. Whether it's for history class, Memorial Day, or Veterans Day, this slide show is sure to make an impact on learners in the upper grades. Vivid images, concise language, and the complete...

Here's a quick look at the Johnson presidency. Each of his major acts are discussed with images and video web links. The Voting Rights Act, Tet Offensive, Civil Rights Act, and War on Poverty are defined.

Each phase of the Vietnam War is fully developed and defined in terms of political cause and effect and social action. Phase one covers the onset of the war in 1945 through the French defeat at Dienbienphu. Phase two discusses American...

Provide learners with an excellent resource intended on imparting knowledge on the Cold War Era. Starting in 1945 and going all the way to 1991, the Cold War Era included major historical events, such as the Berlin Wall, Warsaw Pact, the...

Young scholars consider why South Koreans fought in the Vietnam War. In this Vietnam War instructional activity, students engage in an activity through which they investigate why South Koreans fought in the Vietnam War and how their...

The Vietnam War is a fascinating topic. After reading or lecturing on this infamous war, give your class a 10-question multiple choice quiz to check for understanding. Saigon, military tactics, and major events are a few of the items...

Music tells fascinating stories when it comes to wartime protest. Researchers analyze some familiar tunes to determine what they reveal about the political and social climate of Vietnam War-era America. They also discuss ways music...

Kids compare and contrast knowledge of the Vietnam War. They consider what they know and how their knowledge has changed after listening to oral histories from the war. They compare the understanding of the war from the perspective of...

In collaborative groups, 7th graders discuss and analyze various texts relating events common to the Vietnam War era. They highlight main points in the texts and use them to create a found poem that describes a viewpoint represented in...

The Vietnam war protests affected every aspect of 20th century mainstream culture. Seventh graders watch various protests and analyze how each one could have influenced shifts in music and verse. They read the short story "Stop the Sun"...

Seventh graders read two different texts on the Vietnam War in order to analyze how different authors choose to portray a single event. They summarize each piece, considering the perspective and main idea of both.

Seventh graders learn how various historic events can be portrayed in a variety of ways. The second and third days of an informative text unit reviews content-specific vocabulary before comparing and contrast the lives of Rosa Parks and...

Create your own Vietnam War Memorial Wall. Class members select a name from a master list and using an Internet link, find images and information about an individual involved in the conflict. Images and fact sheets are then posted on the...