Curated OER
Witch Hunt or Red Menace? Anticommunism in Postwar America, 1945-1954
Students investigate what constitutes an "un-American" activity and why Soviet espionage was such an important issue in the 1940's and 1950's. Joseph McCarthy's impact on American anticommunism is examined in this lesson. There are three...
Curated OER
Build It With Lincoln Logs!
Students use primary sources to analyze advertisements, prices, and styles of Lincoln Logs from Carson Pirie Scott catalogs from 1952 to 1960. Students then compare modern-day toy to Lincoln Logs of the 1950s by analyzing differences in...
Social Studies School Service
“Duck and Cover” (Civil Defense)
Bert the Turtle models for viewers the 1950s Civil Defense Duck and Cover strategy that was supposed to protect citizens from a nuclear blast. After viewing the video, watchers are asked to consider the motivations of the producers of...
University of Oklahoma
Barbie™: Blessing or Curse? - Style, Format, and Genre
Barbie has been an iconic figure in the lives of girls since the 1950s, but her existence has been full of controversy. A lesson plan on style, format, and genre explores that controversy by looking at three texts with different...
State Bar of Texas
Brown v. Board of Education
You walk each day over 20 blocks to school as a 9-year old because the color of your skin does not allow you to attend a school in your own neighborhood. Scholars use the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education to investigate...
Biology Junction
Protein Synthesis
Watson and Crick built the first model of DNA in the 1950s, and our understanding of DNA since then continues to grow exponentially. Scholars learn about protein synthesis by observing a presentation and completing a worksheet. Both walk...
Penguin Books
Core Curriculum Lesson Plans for The Lions of Little Rock
Schools in the 1950s and 60s looked very different from the schools we know today. An educator's guide explores the civil rights movement and, specifically, the process of integrating schools. Questions cover key themes in the novel and...
University of Richmond
Renewing Inequality: Family Displacements through Urban Renewal 1950-1966
What is progress? Who bears its cost? High schoolers consider the questions as they review data on families displaced by urban renewal projects in the 1950s and 1960s. An interactive, curated data project asks historians to consider the...
Curated OER
Civil Rights Time Line
Students create a time line about important events in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Carolina K-12
Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare
In the 1950s, how did the Red Scare and the actions of Senator Joseph McCarthy affect the American people? Your young historians will analyze primary source documents on the Red Scare, participate in a "find the...
PBS
Latinos at the Ballot Box
Latinx people have had a profound effect on voting patterns, going back to the 1950s. Using video clips from the PBS series "Latino Americans," scholars work to assemble a timeline of the interesting history. Then, pupils consider the...
Teaching Tolerance
Using Photographs to Teach Social Justice | Confronting Unjust Practices
A powerful photograph of the Freedom Riders of 1961 launches an examination of the de jure and de facto injustices that the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s addressed. Young historians first watch a video and read the Supreme...
Newseum
Civil Rights News Coverage: Looking Back at Bias
Not all southern newspapers covered the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Young journalists investigate how The Lexington (Ky. Herald-Leader and The Jackson (Tenn.) Sun re-examined their coverage of the movement. After...
Newseum
'The Press and the Civil Rights Movement' Video Lesson
Scholars watch a video featuring journalists who covered the civil rights movement, then respond to questions on a viewing guide. The video features interviews with participants and original news footage from the 1950s and 1960s. In...
Learning for Justice
Mary Church Terrell
Excerpts from an 1898 speech by civil rights activist Mary Church Terrell offers young scholars an opportunity to investigate how Black American women fought for civil rights long before Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement of the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
"Sí, se puede!": Chávez, Huerta, and the UFW
"Sí, se puede!" Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta believed organizing farm workers and changing their working conditions were possible. Scholars examine provisions of the Bracero Program, videos, and the United Farm Workers' (UFW) work....
National Woman's History Museum
Gloria Steinem, Feminism and “Living the Revolution"
Excerpts from Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and from Gloria Steinem's "Living the Revolution" provide high schoolers an opportunity to study the feminism of the 1950s and 1960s, sometimes called the "Second Wave of Feminism."
Alabama Learning Exchange
African American Civil Rights Movement
An excellent resource defines the African-American Civil Rights Movement from the early 1900s through the legacy left in modern times. Every major date, event, and key player is described under clear overarching categories. The NAACP,...
Curated OER
American Pop Icons
Young scholars analyze art and decide if the images are an attempt to celebrate or criticize American Popular Culture of the fifties and sixties and discuss how successful "Pop Art" mirrored society. Students also discuss the difference...
Curated OER
1950's Popular Culture
Students gain a basic understanding of Capitalism and Communism, the ideologies that fueled the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Curated OER
Baby Boom and the Culture of the 1950's
Eleventh graders explain the causes, course, and consequences of the United States' role in World War II.
Curated OER
Jazz In America - Lesson Plan 6
Fifth graders explore cool jazz and how it reflected American culture in the 1940's and 1950's.
Curated OER
Chapter 9: The Cold War Years
Students take a quiz on The Cold War Years of the 1950's and 1960's. This 20-slide presentation covers a variety of world-wide and domestic topics, and includes slides which give hints as to what the correct answers are.
Curated OER
The Brief American Pageant: The Cold War Begins
With the beginning of the Cold War came numerous social and political changes around the world - many of which are featured in this series of maps and graphs. This short but informative slideshow will help to bridge the gap between a...
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