Why is it important to preserve historical documents and artifacts? Examine the role of primary source documents and the availability of these documents on the Internet. Middle and high schoolers write a journal about the nature of...

Learn about the ancient Near East through a close examination of ancient artifacts. Lead your class into analysis by first observing an artifact as a class. Pupils can then work in pairs to analyze the other artifacts and compile a list...

Sixth graders assess how a Native American's environment and the geographic region where they lived influenced their food, clothing, shelter and the overall culture of a tribe. They study the impact of conservation, family, rural life,...

High schoolers complete research to enhance their reading of "The Grapes of Wrath". Using the text, they identify and locate cultural artifacts and discuss their symbolic connotations. As a class, they create a museum exhibit of the...

Arm your class members with the six C's of primary source analysis—content, citation, context, connections, communication, and conclusions—and help them to establish a solid system for analyzing historical sources of...

Seventh graders define metacognition, Bloom's Taxonomy, and artifacts. They, in groups, try to identify a mystery artifact using the Artifact Analysis sheet. They present their findings to the class.

As an introduction to the hypothesis and testing method of investigation, young history detectives engage in a special investigation of a family artifact. After watching a short video that demonstrates the method, they develop a...

A picture really can speak a thousand words—no matter how old! Scholars become history detectives as they learn how to analyze historical photos and evidence to uncover the past. The fun hands-on activity makes history come alive through...

Junior archaeologists examine types of artifacts from the Bronze Age on the internet. In collaborative groups, they create a story about a ship from this period and then construct a model of the ocean floor after their ship has sunk....

The Buttonhook by Mary Jo Salter is the focus of a unit that explores the immigration experience to Ellis Island. First, scholars bring in an artifact that represents their heritage. A group-exercise allows them to share and discuss...

Being a historian requires serious sleuthing. They examine primary source documents and look for evidence, for clues that reveal who wrote the document, when, and why. After watching two historians model the process, young history...

After class members brainstorm a list of current social and political issues, groups each select a different topic from the list to research. Teams create a portfolio of at least 10 examples of stories about their issue, stories that...

How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...

Fourth graders examine the artifacts obtained from an excavated Siouan village site. They make inferences about the people who once lived there based on the artifacts and complete a Research Team Report.

Students investigate the cultures of Native Americans and Euro-Americans through their clothing.  In this photograph analysis lesson, students observe historic photographs and analyze the style of clothes people wore and how it...

Scholars use the E.S.C.A.P.E. (Evidence Source, Context, Audience, Purpose, Execution) strategy to analyze a historical source to determine why mistakes happen in news stories. They then apply the same strategies to contemporary flawed...

The struggle for women's rights is not unique to this generation, or even to the 20th century. Class members explore the conflicting opinions of Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel Hubbard Bell, regarding women's pursuits of higher...

Students create a "back story" for a character from Measure for Measure.  For this Measure for Measure lesson, students read the text closely as they look for clues about where the character came from and how he or she became what...

Propaganda is often used to shape public opinion. Scholars investigate the persuasive techniques used by the pro- and anti-suffrage movements. Groups compare how these devices were used during the suffrage movement with how the same...

Any classroom study of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved requires careful planning and scaffolding. A primary source set that includes a video, illustrations, photos of artifacts, and a broadside of the Fugitive...

Learners discuss the United States Postal Service and choose an artifact from one decade. In this art lesson, students research how the artifact chosen relates to Chicago and the United States. Learners create their own postage stamp...

Students begin their timelines with the first narrative that they read and add to the timeline as they go. They create a list of history topics and themes that are important to the story. Students add these as sub-headings to the...

As learners continue to examine a short story of their choice, they take some time to look at analysis completed by others on the same story. In the eleventh lesson in a series of fourteen, pupils explore various sites for literary...

Fifth graders listen to a read aloud of David Mc Cauley's book Motel of the Mysteries. They discuss an unknown artifact and decide what it might be used for. They research other artifacts and play "What's that Relic?"