Finding good primary source materials to support any study of history can be a challenge and time-consuming. A set of 11 primary source letters, images, and text excerpts provide young historians with an opportunity to sharpen their...

Looking for social-emotional resources? Check out this seven-page packet that includes activity and lesson ideas, as well as links to information resources that support the social and emotional development of tenth graders.

The civil rights movement: An ongoing battle for change. The activity focuses on President Johnson's speech in response to the massacre at the Selma March. Academics study the speech, complete a hands-on-activity, and discuss President...

Young scholars study four essential propaganda techniques: Simplification, Exploitation, Exaggeration, and Division (S.E.E.D.). Individuals select an example of propaganda from the past and present then compare how the key elements have...

Introduce ELA scholars to the basics of literary criticism with a 41-slide presentation that identifies eight different approaches to critical analysis. Each approach is defined, and advantages and disadvantages are listed. Also included...

To understand how personal perspectives can affect policy and politics, scholars examine the woman suffrage media map and historical artifacts to analyze arguments for and against women's suffrage. Class members then take on the role of...

Granting women the right to vote was a long time coming and took many efforts. Young historians select one woman involved in the suffrage movement to research. They compare and contrast the depictions of their subject in mainstream...

After listening to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech, young historians research information about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, possible motives for the attack, and the consequences of the attack. Scholars...

As part of a study of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, young historians imagine the feelings of those who lived during the attack by creating a word cloud of 10 words they think express the emotions of people at that time....

Young historians use the prompts on a worksheet to analyze President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech. They identify the intended audience for the speech, the devices FDR used to persuade his audience, the responses promoted, and the...

Challenges to voting rights is not a new thing. Using President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 "The American Promise" speech on voting rights as a starting point, young historians research current voting rights laws and challenges.

Class members take on the role of historical investigators to determine why it took 40 years for women in the United States to get the right to vote. Sleuths view videos and analyze primary sources and images to gather evidence to answer...

Young historians investigate how sexism impacted the 2020 United States presidential election. They examine media coverage of the six women candidates, engage in a four-corners debate reacting to statements about gender and the...

What are the effects of one's life experiences? Class members view a slam poetry reading, a speech by President Obama, and read a short story by John Steinbeck about responding to tragedies. They summarize these events and then craft a...

In the first lesson in a two-part series, high schoolers pick a social issue important to them and examine an article about the topic, the arguments and evidence used to support the writer's stance, and craft two counter-arguments to the...

After reading Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," class members compare the characteristics of Ichabod Crane and Brom Van Brunt. Next, they read an article about ghosts that supposedly haunt the campus of Oklahoma...

Which is better—Chick-fil-A or MacDonalds? High schoolers learn how to craft an argument essay by beginning an opinion statement. They state a claim, back up their claim with evidence, and consider counter calms. Scholars then create a...

It was the best of places! It was the worst of places! Middle schoolers practice their descriptive writing skills by creating an e-book about the best of/worst of topics. A series of activities about descriptive writing and worksheets...

The seventh lesson in the Lord of the Flies unit asks scholars to consider whether or not an individual can overcome the worst thing they have ever done. Groups read different articles related to the question, share their expertise in a...

A 2014 case of locker room behavior in the National Football League offers high schoolers an opportunity to get involved in the conversation of bullying and abuse. Class members read about the case and analyze quotes that reveal...

English language learners have an opportunity to closely examine the academic language in portions of Nelson Mandela's famous 1964 Court Speech, "An Ideal for Which I Am Prepared to Die," with a lesson plan that looks at key passages...

Introduce high school freshmen to the characteristics of informative writing with a 5-day lesson plan that distinguishes informative writing from other modes. Scholars learn how to search for and cite reliable resources, then research...

"Warning: Conducting this lesson may be harmful." Such statements, called "Trigger Warnings," are the focus of a two-part lesson that looks at censorship, especially the pros and cons of trigger warnings. Class members read two articles,...

Here's a lesson that adds some zip to a study of parts of speech. Class members read two versions of the same article, one loaded with evocative nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, while the other is missing this sensory language....