Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Great Migration: An Oral History

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students research the factors which contributed to the great migration and write a well organized research paper using multiple sources. They incorporate quotations into their paper, both direct and paraphrased, in accordance with MLA...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The My Lai Courts Martial of 1970

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research the My Lai Massacre and trial. Students discuss the events and the trial, reviewing the constitutional amendments and concerns related to the massacre. Students write an analysis of photographs related to the incident.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Compare the United States Government with Other Political Systems

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students explore the U.S. form of government and illustrate other forms of government found throughout the world. They explain the similarities and differences between the U.S and other governments.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Slave Revolts: Armed Resistance to Slavery

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students discuss the fear of slave rebellions in the South. They discuss the reasons behind this fear. Students draw a timeline showing slave resistance between the 1712-1831. They answer questions regarding slave revolts. Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A President's Home and the President's House

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students identify specific examples demonstrating how present-day White House reflects duties, powers, and privileges of the office of President, and compare and contrast Thomas Jefferson's Monticello with the White House.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Myth and the Reality: Pioneering in the Midwest

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Young scholars examine the myth and reality of settlement in the Upper Midwest during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Super Spreadsheets

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students develop a spreadsheet containing statistical data. They describe and interpret the data to make conclusions. They review the differences between an unorganized spreadsheet verses an organized one.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Beowulf

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students read selections from Beowulf and summarize the poetry selections in their own words. Students discuss the poem, then create a modern version of Beowulf by using their own words and their own poetic form.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Whose Buffalo?

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders examine how the Plains Indians vied with white commercial buffalo hunters for the millions of Great Plains buffalo. They create an illustrated broadside supporting the interests of either the Indians or the commercial...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I Heard It Through the Grapevine

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students write a first-person narrative from the perspective of a runaway slave, or a historical character of the period, and present their story orally.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Price of Power

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Explore the current political debate over regulating power plant emissions. Critical thinkers research, formulate, and present arguments regarding selective catalytic reduction systems for coal-burning plants.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Opinion Poll-arities

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore the mathematics behind opinion polls, as well as provides a framework for interpreting trends in opinion poll graphics.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Keep Heritage Alive

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Youngsters share ideas about cultural and/or spiritual rituals by participating in a fishbowl discussion, which explores the ways rituals have changed over time. They write reflective essays about their own cultural traditions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

History Fair

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students create a History Fair. They examine the National History Day Competition and are encouraged to participate.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Facing the Ghosts of Our Past

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
A reading of a New York Times review of the movie Beloved launches research into how the Civil War affected the lives of people living during this period. Creative thinkers select a person from an included list of historical figures and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Developing Dialogue

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Why do people argue?  Use the article "A Holiday Medley, Off Key" to discuss the struggles that interfaith couples face when choosing to celebrate certain holidays. Then, in small groups, encourage learners to write dialogues that...
Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Mastering the Mighty Melville

For Teachers 11th - 12th
“Bartleby the Scrivner” as an existential forerunner to The Office? Dense and often dark, Herman Melville’s stories abound with Biblical allusions and complex symbols. If you are considering using Melville’s novels or short stories with...
Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Exploring Animals in Literature

For Teachers K - 3rd
Celebrate Be Kind to Animals Week while teaching empathy and allegory with creature-related texts
Lesson Plan
Akron Art Museum

Storytelling Resist

For Teachers K - 5th
The illustrations of Ezra Jack Keats in The Snowy Day inspire young artists to examine shapes in illustrations and to use these shapes to create their own watercolor resist painting.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Christmas Bells

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students read and analyze the anti-slavery poem, "Christmas Bells" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They discuss the content and form of the poem, write an essay, write an original poem, examine how this anti-slavery poem was converted...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Creative Convincing

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young writers will love examining  Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type for examples of good persuasive writing. Generally, when we write persuasive pieces, there are common words we use. Encourage your writers to...
Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Alabama Tenant Farmers and Sharecroppers, 1865 to Present

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
The tenant farming and sharecropping systems that developed in the South after the Civil War, the reasons for their development, and the eventual decline of these systems are the focus of this two-day plan.
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Industrial Revolution

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Could you live without your phone? What about cars, steel, or clothing? Class groups collaborate to produce presentations that argue that either the telephone, the gramophone, the automobile, the textile industry, or the steel...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

An Early Threat of Secession: The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Nullification Crisis

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the controversies over slavery's expansion and how the federal tariffs further entrenched the dividing line between northern and southern interests.