Population Connection
A Demographically Divided World
Did you know that birth and life rates vary across the world? The resource, the second in a six-part series, discusses just how demographics differ across countries and why it might be the case. Scholars complete worksheets, watch...
BBC
Royal Patronage
The relationship between European royalty and the artists, scientists, and philosophers they support has been a building block in the artistic and technological progress throughout the world. Learn more about patronage throughout the...
What So Proudly We Hail
The Meaning of America: Self-Command
Even for one of the most accomplished men in American history, there was room for improvement. Challenge high schoolers to use Benjamin Franklin's Project for Moral Perfection to analyze text, make inferences, connect to historical...
University of California
Impact of the California Missions on Native Americans
While the Spanish claimed to bring civilization to California indigenous peoples, in reality, they also brought violence and forced assimilation to European values. Primary sources, such as the reports of Catholic priests and Europeans...
Smithsonian Institution
John Brown’s Legacy
So who exactly was John Brown? John Brown fought for abolition during the Civil War. Scholars learn all about his legacy through the variety of activities in the sixth of 15 lessons, including viewing and analyzing primary source...
Curated OER
Primary Source Analysis: 95 Theses Excerpts
By reviewing and analyzing these nine selected points from Martin Luther's 95 Theses, your young historians will discern the major tenets of the revolutionary challenge made against the Catholic Church in the seventeenth century. This is...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Reader's Theater
Encourage class members to add expression and put themselves back in time during the Civil War with a reader's theater activity. The scripts include dialogue on what it was like for the Union and Confederate sides during this time.
Nomad Press
Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions: Make Your Own Plastic
When you hear Leonardo da Vinci mentioned, chances are that you think of the Mona Lisa, or flying machines—but what about plastic? Learners blend heavy cream and vinegar over heat to replicate da Vinci's early organic plastic recipe.
Macmillan Education
Christmas: #SadTree
Christmas trees can be as large and elaborate as the tree in Rockefeller Center, or as small and understated as Charlie Brown's tree in A Charlie Brown Christmas. But where did the tradition of Christmas trees come from? An engaging...
Beverly Hills High School
Congress of Vienna 1815
Europe was changing in the early nineteenth century, and the Congress of Vienna largely sought to slow and contain those sweeping changes. A slideshow presentation illustrates the details of the Congress of Vienna, including its three...
American Documentary
Religion in Culture & Politics: Women’s empowerment in Syria
What defines a woman as empowered, and how does this definition compare to the ideas and actions of a group of Muslim women in Syria? After watching a series of video clips from a documentary film about a school for girls in Damascus,...
Channel Islands Film
Cache: Lesson Plan 4 - Grades 4-5
After viewing the West of the West's documentary Cache, individuals craft either a newspaper article chronicling the discovery of the cache on San Nicolas Island, a historical narrative of the placement of the cache in the cliff side, or...
Channel Islands Film
Arlington Springs Man: Lesson Plan 4
West of the West's documentary Arlington Springs Man introduces viewers to the remarkable finds on Santa Rosa Island. Archaeologist have discovered on this small island that is part of the Channel island chain, human and pygmy mammoth...
Annenberg Foundation
Native Voices
The Navajo people build their dwellings with the doors facing the rising sun in the east to welcome wealth and fortune. Pupils learn about the traditions of the Navajo people in the first part of a 16-part unit. They explore American...
Film Foundation
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: What Is a Movie?
Watching is not the same as seeing. Transform viewers from passive watchers to active students of film with this 34-page packet, filled with lessons and activities that use Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to examine the technology, the...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Educating European Immigrant Children Before World War I
As if surviving a journey to America wasn't enough of a feat for early 20th century immigrants, they then needed to settle into American life. Learn about the ways New York public education attempted to meet the needs of its learners,...
Curated OER
Well-behaved Women [and Men] Seldom Make History
Students examine historical context. In this historical perspectives lesson plan, students read and discuss instructor-selected picture book biographies. Students then complete graphic organizers based on the challenges the main...
Curated OER
Us and Them
Learners identify/analyze a variety of strategies to explain, create artworks and write about persistent issues involving the rights, responsibilities, roles and statue of individual citizens from a global perspective. A variety of...
Curated OER
Stand Up and Sing
Students journal and respond to the question," How does society respond to change?" They create original lyrics to their own song that reflects the context of the Progressive Era.
Curated OER
Rethinking Perpetrators, Bystanders and Rescuers: The Case of Max Schmeling
The focus of this lesson is personal choice and how changing circumstances can affect one person's ethical choices. During the Holocaust, people made choices, and by placing individuals in the appropriate historical context learners can...
Curated OER
Freedom and Dignity Project
Eleventh graders explore slavery and the civil war. In groups, 11th graders discuss and slavery and identify reasons for its beginning. In groups, they role-play a character for a talk show. Students determine what slavery was like in...
Curated OER
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel
Jamie Ford’s historical novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, explores the relationship between a young Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl set against the backdrop of Seattle during World War II. The teaching...
Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
A Research Project: A Discussion of the Recreating and Populating of a Colonial Village
Primary source research, secondary source readings, and discussion provide the understanding necessary for learners to create a colonial persona, and simulate a situation appropriate for this person, time, and place. While the lesson...
Curated OER
Sacco and Vanzetti: “The Case That Will Not Die”
Studying this case within its historical context can help us better understand urgent current issues of today.