Curated OER
Teaching with Primary Sources Across Tennessee: Debunking Civil War Photographs
Young scholars analyze photographs and texts using primary source analysis. In this primary source activity students determine whether the photographs and text are truthful.
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Waldseemüller’s Map: World 1507
Learners take a closer look at historical maps. For this primary source analysis lesson, students examine the first world map produced by Martin Waldseemuller. Learners complete the included map analysis worksheet and then write letters...
Curated OER
Tools to Live By
Third graders compare life in the early 1900's with the life today. In this technology lesson, 3rd graders research about the development of a certain technological tool. They collect data and report findings in class.
Curated OER
Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map!
Learners evaluate the different types of historical and geographical information that one can gather through close study of historical maps from the 16th through the 19th centuries. They create their own maps.
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On the Oregon Trail
Learners work with primary documents and latter-day photographs to recapture the experience of traveling on the Oregon Trail. Working in groups, they write a scene for the movie that is historically accurate and based on the kinds of...
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Immigration to the Golden Land: Jewish Life in America
High schoolers examine waves of Jewish immigration during three time periods and analyze a variety of primary sources, including letters, memoirs, and laws, to gain insight into both the American immigrant experience and American society...
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A Soldier's Letters
Learners explore the role letters play in a soldier's life and learn background information about Vietnam in the 1960s.
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Immigration and Migration Today and During the Great Depression
Students conduct oral history interviews and research primary resources to explain changes in immigration and migration over time.
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Cosmic Wheels
Young scholars build a scale model of the Solar System and determine the time other planets take to travel around the Sun in comparison to the time of the Earth's revolution. The velocity of the planets are also determined in this lesson.
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Not Just A Man's War
Students write 2 letters from a woman who may have lived during the Civil War and 2 letters from her relative which include factual information that they have research using the Internet and other resources, along with other activities.
Curated OER
Analyzing Poetic Devices: Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" and Theodore Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz"
Students examine how Robert Hayden and Theodore Roethke incorporate poetic devices to convey meaning in the poems, 'Those Winter Sundays,' and 'My Papa's Waltz.' They listen to audio clips, explore websites, and write an analysis of the...
Curated OER
"Jazz is About Freedom": Billie Holiday's Anti-lynching Song Strange Fruit
Working in small teams, learners analyze a variety of primary source materials related to lynching (news articles, letters written to or written by prominent Americans, pamphlets, broadsides, etc.) in order to assess the effectiveness of...
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Gwendolyn Brooks
Students examine the contributions of the author Gwendolyn Brooks. They create a journal, read and discuss poems by Brooks, write a poem about themselves, and create a timeline of their own lives.
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Language Arts: Putting Together a Position Paper
Students are able to identify the target audience for their writing. They are able to create an appropriate format for their papers. Students are able to focus on the developing clear arguments and supporting all key points with facts.
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Family Interviews: The Grandparent/Elder Project
Learners explore key concepts/facts in 20th Century history, develop interview questions, and produce master list of questions that can be used in project. Students then interview grandparent, great-grandparent, or other elder about...
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Bill of Rights
Twelfth graders list, describe, and illustrate the specific rights guaranteed to individuals and how they are secured. Then they examine landmark Supreme Court cases, such as, Airport Commissioner vs. Jews for Jesus, New Jersey vs. TLO,...
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A New Candidate for Animal Farm
Students create an advertising campaign in which a candidate from Animal Farm will run for an upcoming election. In this follow-up activity to George Orwell's Animal Farm lesson, students explore propaganda, rhetoric, and satire as they...
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Exploring Islamic Lands
Students examine the lives of Islamic teens. In this global studies lesson, students explore selected Internet sites to discover the attributes of Islam, the cultural traditions of Islam, and information regarding Middle Eastern...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Impact of a Poem's Line Breaks: Enjambment and Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool"
Young scholars analyze the Gwendolyn Brooks use of enjambment in her poem "We Real Cool." In this poetry analysis activity, students define common poetic devices and the examples of enjambment in the poem. Young scholars discuss the poem...
Curated OER
The Immigration Experience
Students research the reasons people immigrated to the United States. In this United States history lesson plan, students explore the causes and effects of immigrating. Students engage in a role-playing scenario , watch a video, and...
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Black Separatism or the Beloved Community? Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
High schoolers interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources. For this African American history lesson, students compare and contrast the tactics employed by Malcolm X and Martin...
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All Aboard The Campaign Train!
Learners explore campaign politics. In this political campaign lesson, students investigate multimedia sources in order to examine the structure of political parties and platforms from previous presidential elections. Learners then...
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Inventions Change the World: The Enigma Machine
Third graders explore WWII by analyzing technological advances. In this invention lesson plan, 3rd graders discuss the use of the Enigma machine which decoded private German messages that communicated with U-boats. Students utilize a...
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2010 History Under Siege Quiz
For this online interactive Civil War worksheet, students respond to 10 multiple choice questions about endangered Civil War battlegrounds. Students may check their answers immediately.