Interactive
Curated OER

Intellectual/Social/Cultural Movements: 1870s - 1914 (5)

For Students 9th - 12th
In this online interactive American history worksheet, students answer 12 matching questions regarding late 1870's-1914 America. Students may submit their answers to be scored.
Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

History in Literature - The House of Dies Drear

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Hook your learners with a great project. They research the underground railroad and civil rights movement through literature, view the video The Underground Railroad: Escape from Slavery, and read the book House of Dies Drear in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Political Reform in the Late 1800s

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders examine the type of political reform in the 1800s. In groups, they analyze the Pendleton Civil Service Act and two other economic acts. To end the lesson, they take a quiz and discuss the impact of the acts on the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Caught Between Worlds: Frontier Life as Reflected in Captivity Narratives

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students analyze captivity narratives written between the 1600's and 1800's. In this narrative lesson, students think critically about the interaction between Native peoples and the settlers to understand the cultural beliefs held by...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Westward Expansion: Chief Joseph's Words Of Surrender

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students explore westward expansion in the United States as it relates to Native Americans and the novel Holes. Students read a passage from Holes and discuss how westward expansion affected the Native Americans. Students compare and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Persistent Paths: Trails, Tracks and Turnpikes Across the Alleghenies

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers study maps to determine barriers associated with the Pennsylvania mountains and the Native Americans.  In this investigative lesson students study the routes used by Native Americans, explain physical features of the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Rise of Segregation

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders describe the foundation for legal segregation in the South and identify three key African American leaders' responses to discrimination. They also find and copy the definition of sharecropper and answer a variety of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Immigrants to Kansas: Why Did They Come

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students explore U.S. History by researching Kansas. In this immigration lesson, students discuss the benefits of immigrating to a state like Kansas in the 1800's while writing their thoughts and research in a reporter's notebook....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Victorian America: Reflections of Life in Death

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners, after viewing a video and researching the changes in society during the Victorian period, assess a prediction-confirmation guide to consider how changes in burial customs in the late 1800's reflect the changes in society as a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Field Trip to Living History Farms

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Young scholars tour "Living History Farms" in Iowa. In this field trip preparation instructional activity, students observe ways Native Americans began growing crops in the 1700's as well as how the farm changed in the 1800's. Upon their...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Myth of the West: Lonely But Free I’ll Be Found

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Tumbling tumbleweeds! Scholars work with video clips, primary and secondary documents, and song lyrics to uncover life in the Old West. They examine song's lyrics to uncover myths told in the 1930s about life in the Wild West. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mapping the New World Lesson Plan

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Young scholars compare two maps of the same area from different time periods. In this American History lesson, students look at two maps of the English colonies from 1636 and 1651. They discuss why the maps changed and predict maps from...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Matthew Henson

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Discuss the work of Matthew Henson, an African American who traveled to the North Pole with Robert Peary. After reading the story "Matthew Henson" by Maryann N. Weidt, learners answer questions by drawing inferences and conclusions,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Westward Expansion and the Frontier

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students explore U.S. history by researching a historic map. In this westward expansion lesson, students discuss the mystery of the western U.S. in the early 1800's and the impact expansion had on Native Americans and agriculture....
Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Transforming the West: Did the Reality Match the Expectations for Kansas Homesteaders?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
They expected good soil and hearty crops ... but they found buffalo chips and grasshopper plagues. Using an advertisement encouraging famers to go west, budding historians examine primary sources including letters, photographs, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Kanaka Village at Fort Vancouver: Crossroads of the Columbia River

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars study the interaction between Native American and European cultures in the Pacific Northwest in the 1800s. They focus their study on the Hudson's Bay Company and Fort Vancouver.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Changing Union

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders analyze a document and make assessment and historical prediction based on the text. In this establishment of American government lesson, 4th graders analyze a poem and discuss the climate of the Union in the early 1800's....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to Reform Movements of the 1800s

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders consider the impact of reform movements of the 19th century. In this Progressive Reform lesson, 11th graders examine documents and images associated with women's suffrage, prohibition, and labor reform. Students respond...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Women in Science

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students study the roles that women have played in science throughout history. They work in small groups while visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Worksheet
Curated OER

Turnpikes and Canals Worksheet

For Students 6th - 8th
In this United States history activity, students utilize a word bank of 10 terms or names in order to answer 10 fill in the blank questions about the nation's early history. A short answer question about turnpikes and canals is also...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Overland Trails To The West

For Teachers 5th
After observing a map of trails that settlers took in the 1800s, your class will write a journal with the perspective of a settler. In their journals, they must describe the trail they traveled, geographical features they saw, states and...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Ballots, Bloomers and Boycotts

For Teachers 4th
Students compare a controversial issue or policy in need of reform in their classroom to the suffrage movement of the 1800's. They research important figures in the suffrage movement, produce written pieces and complete worksheets.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Railroads and Settlement of the Great Plains

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Enhance your American literature unit with this resource, in which readers access the Nebraska Studies website and read about "Railroads and Settlement." They search for a photograph of some aspect of the railroad from the Prairie...