Curated OER
Primary Sources
Materials provided by The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, located in New York City, offer researchers an opportunity to examine primary sources and use these sources to understand the past. Class groups analyze different documents to...
Curated OER
Introduction to Primary Sources
Students explore the usage of primary sources, what they are and how they originate. Artifacts are compared and contrasted as part of this historical inquiry as questions are formulated and conclusions drawn.
National Endowment for the Humanities
On This Day With Lewis and Clark
Walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark as they discover the wonders, beauty, and dangers of the American frontier. After gaining background knowledge about Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, young explorers use primary...
Curated OER
Reading Primary Source Documents: Historical Content
Why do we read primary source documents? What can they give us that other writings cannot? Provide your learners with any of the primary sources attached here (there are seven), and have them complete the graphic organizer (which opens...
PBS
Primary Source Set: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
What did Jo write her stories with? How did the March sisters dress? A primary source set designed for Louisa May Alcott's Little Women prompts learners to look over images of household items and clothes from the 1860s before...
Curated OER
Straight to the Source
Research famous figures from history through the primary sources they created! Explore how these types of documents can enrich our study of the past with your middle and high school learners. They create picture books to illustrate...
Elizabeth Murray Project
Gender and Opportunity in Colonial America
What was life like for women in Colonial America? What restrictions were placed upon them and what opportunities were they afforded? A case study of Elizabeth Murray offers high schoolers a chance to investigate primary source...
Curated OER
Lesson 2-Profiles in Courage: To Kill A Mockingbird and the Scottsboro Boys Trial
Review one of the most memorable cases in the history of the United States. After reading To Kill A Mockingbird, young scholars read and select court transcripts and other primary source material from the Scottsboro Boys Trial of 1933....
Curated OER
The See Family
Third graders examine photographs as primary source documents. Students are broken into groups and are given photographs of the See Family.
Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Jacksonian Democracy and Indian Removal
Introduce a study of the presidency of Andrew Jackson with a lesson that uses video clips, primary source documents, group activities, and debates to examine Jackson's early life and career. The lesson focuses on the 1828 election and...
Curated OER
Land and Liberty: The Saga of Sam McCulloch
The struggles of Sam McCulloch, a free black man, to be recognized as a citizen entitled to own land in Texas are the focus of research project that ask groups to examine a series of primary source documents and piece together...
Curated OER
Oral Histories
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...
Curated OER
Create a Magic Lantern Show; Freed People in the Reconstruction South
Engage your scholars by having them create "magic lantern shows" inspired by the film Dr. Toer's Amazing Magic Lantern Show: A Different View of Emancipation. As they study the South's Reconstruction through primary...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Conflict in Alabama in the 1830s: Native Americans, Settlers, and Government
To better understand the Indian Removal Act of 1830, class members examine primary source documents including letters written by Alabama governors and the Cherokee chiefs. The lesson is part of a unit on the expansion of the United...
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Making a Patriot Inquiry: Are Independence, Freedom, and Liberty the Same Thing?
As part of a study of the American Revolution, class members engage in an inquiry-based lesson that has them watch a scene from the play Slave Spy, examine multiple primary source documents, and then discuss the similarities and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad
While many have heard of Harriet Tubman, few are aware of the many ways this remarkable woman was involved in the United States Civil War, the abolitionist movement, and the Underground Railroad. Young historians examine primary source...
Curated OER
Whose History Is It Anyway? Patterns in History
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...
K20 LEARN
Learning About The Past: Comparing Primary And Secondary Sources
Scholars find out how primary and secondary sources help us learn the past. Beginning with an anchor chart, class members discuss and write the differences between primary and secondary sources; a card sort is added to the anchor chart...
Staples Foundation For Learning
The President’s Desk
What stories can a desk paperweight and picture frame possibly tell us about the president of the United States? Pupils are transported to the desk of President John F. Kennedy through an engaging interactive site. The guide offers...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Dueling Telegrams: 1963 Verbal Power Play Between Wallace and JFK
Information, inferences, and innuendos. Text and subtext. Class members examine telegrams exchanged between President John F. Kennedy and Alabama Governor George Wallace, studying both what is stated and what is implied by the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
How to Win a World War
High schoolers are have begun to learn the art of diplomacy with each other, but do they understand how diplomacy works at a global level? The second in a series of four lessons, guides scholars in evaluating primary sources....
US Department of State
The Marshall Plan: The Vision of a Family of Nations
The European Recovery Act (aka the Marshall Plan) was designed to bring together and develop a spirit of cooperation among European nations after World War II. Class members examine the materials from the Marshall Plan exhibit and assess...
Middle Tennessee State University
A House Divided: The Civil War Home Front in Tennessee
To broaden their understanding of both the short term and long terms effects of the Civil War, class groups examine primary source materials and then assume the role of a family member and draft a letter to a soldier describing life at...