Lesson Plan
PBS

A Veterans Day Thank You Note

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
This Veterans Day inspire scholars to say thank you to a veteran. Here, learners discover key details about a specific war using an interactive timeline, and then write a thank you letter offering their gratitude to someone who risked...
Unit Plan
PBS

Lesson Plan: Divided Opinions

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
To gain a more in-depth understanding of the tumultuous 1960s, young historians examine video clips, listen to music, examine images, and interview survivors. Once they have a foundation of information about the period, class members...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Hidden Messages in Spirituals

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Slaves laboring in the cotton fields of the old South singing joyously may have convinced overseers that their workforce was happy and content, but in truth, these spirituals contained secret codes. After viewing a short video about...
Lesson Plan
American Documentary

Confucianism in a Changing Society

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
The Last Train Home, a 2009 documentary about China's migrant factory workers, provides viewers with an opportunity to explore how China's emergence as a global manufacturing force is challenging Chinese traditional values like...
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Harlem Renaissance

For Teachers 7th - 12th
A reading of Walter Dean Myers' "Harlem" sets the stage for studying the literature, art, and music of the Harlem Renaissance. The lesson begins with a review of the social, political, and economic conditions of the 1920s and 1930s that...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Decoding Media Bias

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Alternative facts? After watching the We The Voters film, "MediOcracy," viewers compare how cable news outlets CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC report the same story about politics or public policy. After a whole-class discussion of their...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Compare State Voting Laws Today with Laws of the Jim Crow Era

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Georgia's law S.B. 202 is at the center of a lesson plan that asks young scholars to examine what critics say are Georgia's attempts to limit voting access to Black voters. Groups then investigate the voting laws in their own state, as...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Jackie Robinson's Complicated — and Important — Legacy

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Americans tend to lock their heroes in history, holding these icons to a particular event or time. Jackie Robinson is such a hero, remembered by most for becoming the first African American to play in the Major Leagues. Young historians...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Race and Vaccine Hesitancy in the US

For Teachers 9th - 12th
What does race have to do with COVID vaccine hesitancy? That is the question young scholars pursue in a video lesson that looks at the impacts of such things as the Tuskegee Experiment, the unauthorized use of Henrietta Lacks's cancer...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Remembering Nelson Mandela

For Teachers 6th - 12th
To learn more about Nelson Mandela, young historians watch a 20 minute video that traces his life from boyhood in a small South African village, to his work as an activist opposed to Apartheid, his imprisonment, and to his leadership as...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pandemic Poetry

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Links to other pandemic poems are provided in the optional extensions
Lesson Plan
PBS

Exploring Identity and Intersectionality in Poetry

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Just as Kermit the Frog notes, "It isn't easy being green!" it isn't easy occupying "multiple Identity spaces." Class members read and discuss poems by writers detailing what it is like when their identities are "oppressed."
Lesson Plan
PBS

Connecting Post-Civil War Mob Violence and the Capitol Hill Riot

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Anti-democratic violence is not new in the United States. Learners watch videos and then compare and contrast the 1873 Colfax and the 1898 Wilmington massacres. They then watch a video about the Capitol Hill insurrection of 2021 and...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Amid Rising Economic Inequality, Does America Need a Third Reconstruction?

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young political scientists investigate the Poor People's Campaign protest held in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 2022. They research how the event was reported in various news outlets and consider their stance on whether...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Explore Art and Movement Inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Panel 58 from Jacob Lawrence's "Migration Series" of paintings provides middle schoolers with an opportunity to sharpen their observation and analytical skills. After engaging in a warm-up activity that introduces the concepts of...
Activity
PBS

Write a New Year Poem Inspired by Amanda Gorman’s "New Day’s Lyric"

For Students 6th - 12th
Here's a new take on a new year. After watching and discussing the video of Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman performing her "New Day's Lyric," young poets craft poems that reflect their feelings about the past year and their resolutions...
Lesson Plan
PBS

History of Juneteenth and Why It’s Now a National Holiday

For Teachers 6th - 12th
June 19 is now a United States federal holiday. Young historians examine the background of the first Juneteenth celebrations and why on June 15, 2021, Congress finally approved "Juneteenth National Independence Day" as a federal holiday.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech as a Work of Literature

For Teachers 6th - 12th
To appreciate the oratory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, scholars examine the rhetorical devices and influences that make the speech so famous. They examine background information, conduct a close reading of the...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech as Visual Text

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young historians watch a video of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his "I Have a Dream" speech and answer questions that test their knowledge of the event. After discussing the fact sheet, they reread the speech, select a phrase or...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

House Plays

For Teachers Pre-K - K
Preschoolers identify the different types of homes people live in though discussion and presentation of nursery rhymes, which include "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater," and "There Was An Old Woman." They get together in groups, and each...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plant Seeds

For Teachers Pre-K - K
The concepts of a year, and the changing of the seasons are very important concepts to reinforce with young learners. Here, pre-kindergartners and kindergartners begin to understand the concept of one year, the passing of time, and the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fun with Bikes!

For Teachers Pre-K - K
An important and engaging lesson plan on bicycles and bicycle safety that will enlighten and educated your class. Learners are shown the most important bicycle safety rules. After a discussion about what they already know about bicycles,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Happy/Sad Puppets

For Teachers Pre-K - K
Help young children identify their feelings and learn appropriate ways for expressing them. This lesson will help them understand that happy and sad are two different feelings, learn to distinguish and express different feelings, and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Family Day

For Teachers Pre-K - K
Here's a great way to encourage your kids to celebrate their families. A Family Day event is planned. After a big class discussion on families, preparations are made for the big event. Invitations are created, decorations are made, and...

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