Curated OER
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage: Grades 6-8
To gain a better understanding of Hispanic heritage and culture, as well as to build informational comprehension skill, learners explore facets of Hispanic American History. They engage in a class discussion, research three facts, and...
Curated OER
Discovering Your Heritage
Young scholars interview a family member about their heritage. They listen to and record part of their family's oral history. Students also create and label a family tree going back a minimum of two generations and compare and contrast...
Curated OER
Family Food Favorites
Third graders conduct an interview and create a class cookbook. In this family heritage lesson plan, 3rd graders read Everybody Bakes Bread and discuss a dish or recipe that is a part of their family's heritage. Students interview family...
All for KIDZ
Building Relationships: The Orphan of Ellis Island
Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource...
Curated OER
Family Tree Community Project
Fifth graders answer questions such as: Where does my family come from? What was it like for my ancestors to grow up as America developed? What differences in society were present then? What was similar to today? students conduct...
Curated OER
Linking Civilizations and Personal Heritage Through Multimedia and Art
Students explore images, symbols, and the relationship they establish with their own personal heritage. They discuss Aztec, Inca, and Maya civilizations. Students interview their family about their own personal heritage. Additional cross...
Curated OER
Family Heritage
Students research their family heritage by interviewing family members. Using their responses, they record them in an organized fashion and develop a presentation. Using the Internet, they locate an artistic representation of their...
Curated OER
Interview the Elders
Students prepare a list of questions about the past and present in regards to dealing with waste and the natural resources. They conduct interviews with tribal Elders and record their statements.
Curated OER
Why do people mover where they do?
Students read factual stories of migration to Hawaii, analyze and explain push and pull factors, interview parents about their cultural heritage, identify countried of origin of their ancestors, graph migration patterns on an world map,...
Smithsonian Institution
Dia de los Muertos: Honoring our Ancestors Through Community Celebration
Oral storytelling has been an important part of every culture. The time-honored practice uses stories as a conduit for a culture's values and customs from one generation to the next. Keep the tradition going with a family interview...
Smithsonian Institution
Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon
How do barns serve as a window to a community's past? Here are a series of lessons on the symbolism and historical context of barns throughout American history. Topics include community-building, in-depth primary and secondary...
Curated OER
Once Upon a Time
High school pupils research online to complete a family tree and explore their ancestry. They view a sketch of a family tree, and brainstorm questions to ask their parents about their heritage. They also diagram their own family tree. In...
Curated OER
Listening to History
Students consider the insight to the past that oral histories can provide. They, in groups, analyze oral histories, prepare to interview a family member on their recollections of a historical event and then write a historical narrative.
Curated OER
Celebrating the Individuals in Our Community
Students research, write and publish a biography on a community member. They interview the community member, collect and scan photos, produce and edit text and use software to puslish an online book.
Curated OER
Every Building Tells a Story
Examine images from past that depict buildings and towns from their own communities, and compare images with photographs taken at present locations, interview local architect and compare role of 19th Century architect to 21st Century...
Curated OER
Creating an Oral History--Who Tells the Story?
Explore the difficulties in compiling an oral history with this lesson. Young researchers conduct interviews and consider how point of view changes various accounts of a single incidence, resulting in conflicting information. They view a...
Curated OER
Virtual Ellis Island Museum Unit: Oral Histories
Students conduct oral histories of family members to explore their cultural and ethnic heritage after developing a set of research questions.
Curated OER
Immigration and Migration: Today and During the Great Depression
Students conduct interviews, analyze primary sources including docuements and images to gain an inderstanding of the causes and effects of he Great Depression and immigration.
Curated OER
Every Building Tells a Story
Students research heritage and culture. They examine architectural images and Charlottetown architecture. They use spatial concepts and models to interpret and make decisions about the organization, distribution, and interaction of...
Curated OER
Stereotypes and Tonto
Students identify stereotypes, especially those applied to American Indians. In this teaching tolerance instructional activity, students read an essay entitled " I Hated Tonto (Still Do)" and discuss the negative impact that...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Where I Come From
Students research the countries of their origins and examine life there today. They write family travel logs by interviewing family members about their heritages, and they visit the Xpeditions Website for online resources about their...
State Bar of Texas
Mendez v. Westminster and Delgado v. Bastrop ISD
You arrive at school only to be told you have no place there. Scholars research the Supreme Court cases Mendez v. Westminster and Delgado v. Bastrop ISD, both dealing with school segregation. Two short video clips as well as small group...
Curated OER
Keys to Our House-The White House
Students explore what it means to be an American citizen. Students investigate the history of the White House from a variety of perspectives: as a symbol, a public and private place, and changing needs.
Curated OER
Oral Histories
One of a series of lessons from Ellis Island. In this lesson, students use research from a previous lesson to conduct oral history interviews of family members to learn about their cultural and ethnic heritage.