President John F. Kennedy bought 1,200 Cuban cigars the night before he enacted the Cuban trade embargo in 1962. Should the United States maintain the embargo? Using the website, pupils explore the topic to prepare for a class debate or...

A revolutionary work of literature requires a revolutionary assessment project. A series of activities on Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings includes discussion questions, a plot synopsis, and a selection of both short...

Introduce your class to the Greek alphabet and language. Examine how the Greek language influenced the English language. Study the history, timeline of achievements, and the role oral history played in Greece.

Introduce your class to epic heroes with these activities for Beowulf. After watching a video clip, taking notes on heroes, and tracking characteristics of heroism throughout Beowulf, class members retell an episode of Beowulf using a...

In 1856 Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts over the head with a cane. This event, which highlighted the acrimonious debate over the expansion of slavery, is the focus of a paper...

Read a short passage about Eleanor Roosevelt while hunting for errors in verb use. To give your kids some help, count up the errors beforehand and provide struggling learners with the number of errors. 

Students examine the relationship between language and culture in the Deaf Community. They discover the history of sign language and how it has been viewed in the past. They examine the Deaf community's beliefs and values.

The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a lesson about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build, the working...

Students research historical events of the past century to recognize that society impacts the themes within art and literature. They then interview an individual to develop a biographical narrative, a collage and finally an oral...

Students explore the lives of early American Indians and settlers in Kentucky. They describe the agricultural practices of Indians native to Kentucky and develop a supply list for a group of settlers coming to the state to establish...

Read and examine primary source material in order to analyze, synthesize, and debate information about the Great Depression. Critical analysts research various source materials related to the Great Depression. They work in teams to...

Elementary learners study and research an important historical figure. They research a historical figure and use a four square organizer to take notes. They develop a timeline and poem that reflects the life of the historical figure....

Combine informational reading skills with fictional text in an innovative historical fiction lessons. After reading a fictional text related to diseases, class members read non-fictional text to gain knowledge about specific infectious...

Distinguish the difference between primary and secondary sources. High schoolers discover how to conduct an interview using an individual as a primary source, and why it is important to get a real-life perspective. They either video or...

Study historical events by combining the study of historical fiction and non-fiction. Learners read about true past events in historical fiction novels and then research non-fiction accounts of the same events. What are some differences...

Giving gifts has been a part of the human experience since modern man walked the earth. Upper graders explore the culture of gift giving in Mayan times through an artistic analysis. They analyze gift giving and palace life as seen on an...

Way before the digital age radio was the medium of popular culture. After listening to excerpts from radio programs (easily available on the Internet), participants return to the radio age by creating a two-minute sketch based on a...

Explore primary and secondary sources in this historical analysis lesson. Young researchers define the terms primary source and secondary source. They read a primary source document provided by the teacher and answer questions about...

Is history "little more than a relic," as one of the characters in "The Palace Thief" contends? Has Hundert's love of antiquity kept him from changing with the times? Readers consider how the author uses these conflicting views to...

What are some universal aspects of refugees' experiences worldwide and throughout history? Scholars read the text "Refugees: Who, Where, Why" and create two class anchor charts. Finally, they each write a paragraph that provides an...

Pictures and photographs help build background knowledge about a topic. Scholars participate in a gallery walk to learn more about the Jim Crow era of US history and the desegregation of schools following Brown v. Board of Education....

Scholars begin the instructional activity by watching a video of media history and discussing it in a Turn and Talk. They then look at the texts A Mighty Long Way and Little Rock Girl 1957 to make a connection to the role of the press in...

The ancient Greeks used performance enhancing drugs, such as opium juice, when they participated in the original Olympic Games. Pupils research a website with debate topics to decide if athletes' use of such drugs in modern sports is...

How do incidents in A Mighty Long Way provoke the author, Carlotta Walls LaNier, to make certain decisions that shape her story? Scholars engage in a close reading of the memoir, analyzing events in US history and Carlotta's personal...