Curated OER
Australian Aboriginal Art And Storytelling
Students explore Aboriginal storytelling traditions through the spoken word and through visual culture. They listen to stories of the Dreamtime told by the Aboriginal people and investigate Aboriginal storytelling in contemporary dot...
Smithsonian Institution
Conflicting Voices of the Mexican War
Americans wanted to fulfill Manifest Destiny, and this pattern continued with the Mexican War. The resource specifically teaches about the Mexican War through a variety of exercises including a research project, group work, brainstorming...
University of California
Roots of the Cold War
When and how did the Cold War begin? To answer this question, you will not find a better-organized, in-depth, activity- and inquiry-based resource than this! Executing best teaching practices throughout, each portion of this inquiry...
Personal Genetics Education Project
DNA, Crime and Law Enforcement
Civil rights meets biotechnology in a instructional activity that scrutinizes the collection of DNA of citizens who have been arrested, but not yet convicted of a crime. Real-life cases are examined in which the DNA of a relative was...
New Class Museum
Lesson: French Revolution and Visual Language of Power
Take a look at the French Revolution and neo-classic art, then compare it to current social issues and contemporary art. Kids analyze several pieces painted by Jacques-Louis David in regard to style and subject then compare them to...
National History Day
Reporting on World War I
Throughout history, newspapers have reported the events of the day as they unfolded. Using primary and secondary sources from World War I, scholars uncover how the American people learned of the events of the War to End All Wars. History...
Maryland Department of Education
Our Children Can Soar
Amazing efforts of African American leaders are celebrated in a instructional activity on civil participation. The engaging resource focuses on primary and secondary sources to analyze the impact of African American leaders such as Ella...
Curriculum Corner
7th Grade ELA Common Core Checklists
Track your class's progress on all of the ELA Common Core standards with these handy charts. Along the left side, each seventh grade identifier is listed along with the full text of the standard. As you teach, reteach, assess,...
Scholastic
Midnight Magic Discussion Guide
This discussion guide accompanies the fiction book Midnight Magic written by Avi, enforces story elements, inferences, and theme/plot. Have the class work on it over time, it will engage even your reluctant readers.
Utah Education Network (UEN)
7th Grade Poetry: Ode Poem
Walt Whitman's "Captain, My Captain" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" provide seventh graders with examples of odes. After reading and discussing these and other examples, young poets craft an ode and respond to the ode of a...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Lesson 3: On the Road with Marco Polo: From Hormuz to Kashgar
Young explorers examine the route that Marco Polo and his father traveled to reach China. They examine online maps of the Silk Road and harsh terrain of Afghanistan to determine challenges that may have been encountered during travel.
K12 Reader
Colonization: for Gold, God, and Glory
Colonization, cartography, and circumnavigation. After reading a short article about early explorations, kids use the information provided to answer a series of comprehension questions.
Curated OER
The Mystery of History-Original Sources
Students research the events surrounding the Alamo in 1863, and explore the differences between primary and secondary sources of information. They brainstorm lists of items used to research a subject and categorize them as primary or...
Curated OER
The Breaking of Charity
The danger of mob mentality is on display in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Get your class thinking with some challenging quickwrite questions, then assign characters from the play to be read aloud altogether. Links to worksheets...
Curated OER
Who Fought for the Confederacy?
Did the Confederate Army really consist of southern volunteers? Using primary sources, historians examine the story behind the "Twenty Negro Law" and realities of conscription during the Civil War. A letter and a lithograph (included as...
Curated OER
Nov. 17, 1973 | Nixon Declares 'I Am Not a Crook'
Connect events of the past to events of today. Budding historians read an eight paragraph passage describing the Watergate scandal. They then connect the Nixon scandal to sex scandals of recent times. There are six critical thinking...
Smart Museum of Art
The Making of a Superhero
Thor, Loki, Iron Man, and Captain America. As part of their study of Greek and Roman gods and heroes, middle schoolers compare the characters in The Avengers to Greek counterparts. Individuals then create their own superhero,...
American Bar Association
Putting on Mock Trials
Mock trials are a great way to teach youngsters about law and the legal system. Whether you plan to conduct mock trials in your classroom or are considering taking on the role of team coach, the information in this packet proves invaluable.
NASA
Measuring Dark Energy
You're only 10 minutes late? Do you know how much the universe has expanded in those 10 minutes? Scholars graph supernovae based on their redshift and see if the results verify Hubble's Law. If it does confirm it, the universe is...
Museum of Tolerance
Can It Happen in America?: Taking Social Action
Class members investigate the Jim Crow Laws, Executive Order 9066, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Indian Removal Act to gather information about not only the challenges encountered by diverse groups of Americans, but their...
BrainPOP
Civil Rights Lesson Plan: Tracking History Through Timelines
Use the accompanying assessment to determine your class's prior knowledge on Martin Luther King, Jr. before beginning a lesson on the famous civil rights movement leader. The resource has young historians thinking about life for African...
ReadWriteThink
Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments
A speaker, a message, an audience. After analyzing these elements in Queen Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury, groups analyze how other speakers use an awareness of events, and their audience to craft their arguments....
University of North Carolina
Anthropology
Anthropologists ask the question that everyone wants answered: what does it mean to be human? An online handout provides a brief introduction to the study of anthropology and outlines three common types of anthropology writing...
Curated OER
The Iditarod Race Compared with the Movie, Iron Will
Feel the freezing rush of an Alaskan sled dog race in this reading lesson. Using research about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, seventh graders compare and contrast the depiction in the movie Iron Will. The lesson lasts for seven days...