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Freedom by the Fireside: The Legacy of FDR's "Four Freedoms" Speech
Students read and analyze Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union Address. They listen to recordings of speeches by F.D.R., answer discussion questions, and participate in a debate.
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Life in Old Babylonia: The Importance of Trade
Students read maps and artifacts for information indicating the existence of a trade network in Old Babylonia and beyond. They list goods imported to and exported from Babylonia. They indicate trading centers on a map of ancient...
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"Leap, Plashless": Emily Dickinson & Poetic Imagination
Students read and explore one of Emily Dickinson's nature poems, "A Bird Came Down the Walk-" through interaction with a variety of art forms. Clips of a hymn to hear meter and the viewing of bird images exposes them to the language and...
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"Shooting An Elephant": George Orwell's Essay on His Life in Burma
High school readers examine George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant" for examples of symbolism, metaphor, connotation, and irony. They analyze how these literary tools convey the writer's main point and contribute to the persuasive...
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Angkor What? Angkor Wat!
Students investigate one of the largest religious structures in the world, Angkor Wat, a temple in Cambodia. The temple's place in Southeast Asian history, its history and the migration of ideas of both Hinduism and Buddhism is examined...
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Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Benjy's Sense of Time
High schoolers explore iam Faulkner's novel, "The Sound and the Fury" to investigate his use of time and how this quality relates to the novel's form and content. They grapple with questions of perception, history, and chronology through...
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Life in the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Prints and the Rise of the Merchant Class in Edo Period Japan
High schoolers explore Jananese history through the use of the woodblock print called "ukiyo-e" prints. The audience attracted to the prints, their interests and tastes as well as how the prints reflected the life of the merchant class...
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Portraits, Pears, and Perfect Landscapes: Investigating Genre in the Visual Arts
Students define genre in the visual arts, particularly in Western painting and explain the differences between subject and genre. The genre of a variety of works of art is identified.
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Following the Great Wall of China
Students investigate the building of the Great Wall of China during the Ming Dynasty and utilize the story of the wall to examine some of the history of China.
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The Emergence and Evolution of the Cuneiform Writing System in Ancient Mesopotamia
Students explore the parallel development and increasing complexity of writing and the growth of civilization in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys in ancient Mesopotamia.
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"World enough, and time"-Andrew Marvell's Coy Mistress
Discuss tone and imagery with Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress." In an attempt to get his fair lady to consummate their relationship, he write a poem urging her to seize the day! Introduce the author to your high school class,...
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Shaping the View: Symmetry and Balance
Students explore the symmetry and balance in the composition of a variety of art works and note how the viewer's eye is guided to the important components of the image. How these elements affect the tone of the painting and communicate...
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In Depth with the Full Spectrum
Students explore the basic color wheel and the ways that artists use color to guide the viewer's attention through a painting's composition. A creation of a sense of depth in a two dimensional space and the effect of color on mood and...
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Color Me Happy: Color, Mood, and Tone
Students examine how artists use color to set the tone of a painting. They analyze and discuss various paintings, complete a chart comparing the artists' color schemes and tones, and write a paragraph comparing two images.
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"The Proper Application of Overwhelming Force": The United States in World War II
Students examine the role that the U.S. played in bringing about victory in the two major theaters of the war in the Pacific and Europe. How the various military campaigns contributed to the war's successful conclusion forms the focus of...
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Turning the Tide in the Pacific, 1941-1943
High schoolers explore the overall strategies pursued by the Japanese and the Allies in the initial months of World War II. What each side hoped to accomplish what what actually happened forms the basis of a comparison made in this...
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Turning the Tide in Europe, 1942-1944
Students explore the overall strategies pursued by the Americans and their British allies in the initial months of World War II in Europe. By examining military documents, students examine the decision to invade North Africa instead of...
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Victory in Europe, 1944-1945
High schoolers examine the overall strategy pursued by the Allies in the final moths of World War II in Europe by examining military documents and consulting an interactive map of the European theater.
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Victory in the Pacific, 1943-1945
Students examine the military campaigns of the Pacific theater, tracing the path of the Allied offensives. The lesson presents what the Allies were trying to accomplish and why.
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An Early Threat of Secession: The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Nullification Crisis
Students examine the controversies over slavery's expansion and how the federal tariffs further entrenched the dividing line between northern and southern interests.
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A House Dividing: The Growing Crisis of Sectionalism in Antebellum America
Students explore the debates over American slavery and the power of the American federal government for the first half of the 19th century and how the regional economies and political events produced a widening split between the states.
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Slavery's Opponents and Defenders
Students explore the wide-ranging debate over American slavery and the lives of its leading opponents and defenders and the views they held about America's "peculiar institution."
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: Popular Sovereignty and the Political Polarization over Slavery
Why did Stephen Douglas support the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Why did Abraham Lincoln oppose it? Young historians examine how the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 affected the political balance between free and slave states and explore how...
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Abraham Lincoln, the 1860 Election, and the Future of the American Union and Slavery
Students examine the political alternatives regarding the spread of slavery and the preservation of the American union facing the American people in the decade leading up to the 1860 presidential election.