Curated OER
Working for the Common Good
Students explore the concept of nation building. In this Peace Corps lesson, students examine primary source documents from corps volunteers in the Dominican Republic to determine what it means to work for the common good.
Concordia College Archives
History and Musical Aesthetics
What are the musical elements that characterize a school's fight song or its alma mater? Class members listen to examples of fight songs and alma maters from various schools, play a listening game, and then create a list of the...
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...
iCivics
Hey, King: Get Off Our Backs!
Young historians explore the reason American colonists were unhappy under British rule. Class members complete hands-on activities and participate in a group discussions to understand why colonists drafted the Declaration of Independence.
US Holocaust Museum
Ripples of Genocide: Journey through Eastern Congo
Could you locate the Democratic Republic of Congo on a map? Scholars investigate the genocide taking place in Eastern Congo. Groups explore web-based evidence as well as the Ripples in Genocide source to take a closer look at the issue....
Tennessee State Library & Archives
Vietnam War
A picture can speak 1000 words. Scholars research the Vietnam War through the lens of a camera. Examining photos from the collection of Christopher D. Ammons allows open interpretation of life during one of America's darkest conflicts....
Curated OER
Red is the Word!
Through the use of stories, artwork, and the KidPix program, youngsters explore the color word red, and engage in activities around the word. Teaching kindergartners about the color words can be so much fun. This could be adapted for any...
Curated OER
German Immigrants Contributions to the Upper Midwest
Young scholars explore contemporary lifestyles, cultures, traditions are influenced by the contributions of the German settlers of that region. They research these influences and design a brochure to entice potential immigrants to the...
Curated OER
Inside the Mind of the Unreliable Narrator
Create interdisciplinary connections and promote high-level inferences by studying unreliable narrators.
Curated OER
Nuremberg Verdicts: Sixty-Seven Years Later
It’s courtroom drama at its best! Let the power of this historic event propel a study that will have your kids glued to the history screen.
Curated OER
Putting a Face on History with Photographs
Use the Library of Congress to draw your students into history through photographs.
Curated OER
Socratic Seminar on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail
Key in the struggle to gain the rights of democratic citizenship was the April 1963 arrest of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil disobedience. To deepen their knowledge and understanding of events during the civil rights movement,...
Curated OER
African Americans Seen Through the Eyes of the Newsreel Cameraman
Fifth graders become familiar with the role of African Americans during WWII. In this WWII lesson plan, 5th graders watch a newsreel and discuss its use as a primary source. Students answer questions about the newsreel.
Curated OER
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Students reflect on the events that lead up to the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960s. In this history lesson plan, students explore the conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union revolving around missiles in...
Curated OER
The Chinese Expulsion Act of 1880
Students examine the Chinese Expulsion Act of 1880. In this History instructional activity, students explore the issues of immigration and exclusion surrounding the Chinese Expulsion Act. Students will use a variety of primary sources to...
Curated OER
Personal Stories and Primary Sources: Conversations with Elders
Students learn from their elders. In this oral and social histories lesson, students analyze primary sources to develop an understanding of the America in which their grandparents grew up. Students conduct interviews with elders in...
Curated OER
The Story of How Deerfield Came to Be
Eleventh graders explore how the native peoples had lived in the Connecticut Valley for nearly 10,000 years, prior to the English settlement and how their culture and life ways were markedly different from that of the English settlers.
Curated OER
The Minerva Mosaic of the Library of Congress
Students analyze the Minerva mosaic. In this Library of Congress lesson, students conduct primary source analysis of the mosaic as they interpret the symbolism and mythology featured in the mosaic.
Curated OER
Citing Sources
Practice citation skills with this activity, which takes learners to the Library/Media center. There, they will view a Powerpoint presentation and practice collecting data in both print and non-print sources. All necessary materials are...
Curated OER
Analyzing the Lewis and Clark Journals
Students examine and interpret Corps of Discovery journal entries as primary documents/sources providing insight into the Lewis and Clark expedition's journey. They present information they have documented on included activity sheet in...
Curated OER
The Great Depression in North Carolina: Experiences of the People
Students explore the Great Depression. In this research skills instructional activity, students interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary sources. Students write their own WPA interviews after they...
Curated OER
Choices and Commitments: The Soldiers at Gettysburg
Students investigate the Gettysburg Campaign and the major actions for each day of the battle. They read primary source documents, write a diary entry, analyze the Gettysburg Address, and write a persuasive speech regarding an issue in...
Curated OER
Louisiana's Indian Tribes At the Time of the Louisiana Purchase
Learners research primary readings concerning first hand accounts of the Indian tribes living in and around Louisiana's River systems. They complete a brief character sketch of each tribe characterized in the digital readings. These...
Curated OER
Life on the Trails
Fourth graders explore U.S. Geography by completing a worksheet. In this west coast geography lesson, 4th graders discuss the Santa Fe and Oregon-California trails and the people who traveled them in the 1800's. Students define...