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Lesson Plan
National WWII Museum

On Leave in Paris: Maps as Primary Sources

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Primary sources—even those that seem mundane—offer a window into those who experienced history. Using a Red Cross map offered to soldiers stationed in Paris after World War II alongside worksheet questions, scholars consider what life...
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Lesson Plan
National WWII Museum

Dear Mother: Synthesizing Historical Evidence

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
It's one thing to read history, it's another to live it. Pupils examine secondary and primary sources that detail the training of soldiers before deployment. Then, they consider the impact of primary sources on how they understand the...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Using Primary Sources: The Rogue's Gallery

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
What would be in your life's scrapbook? Scholars use short video clips, primary and secondary documents, and photos to investigate a 1909 scrapbook. They analyze and uncover what the Rogue Book tells them about the past in Western...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Blue or Gray? Perspectives on the Civil War

For Teachers 8th Standards
Using primary and secondary sources, such as letters and diaries from soldiers and civilians, learners consider why people fought in the American Civil War. A role-playing Historical Mingle activity, as well as discussion questions and...
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Activity
Mr. Roughton

Cold Case Rome

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Pupils are transformed into detectives in the case to solve the motive behind the assassination of Julius Caesar. This resource includes eight engaging "exhibits" of unique primary and secondary sources for students to analyze during...
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Lesson Plan
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TPS Journal

Sourcing a Document: The First Thanksgiving

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
How reliable is a painting of the first Thanksgiving if it was created 300 years after the fact? Learners assess the validity of a primary source image to determine what it can actually reveal about this event. 
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Primary Sources

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students see how to use primary and secondary sources to investigate history. Whether it is a photograph, book, map, letter, postcard, newspaper, or official document, students can use sources to reconstruct and relive history.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Recreation Yesterday and Today

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders research entertainment and recreation in the early 20th century using the American Memory collections and From the Hidewood: Memories of a Dakota Neighborhood, a book by Robert Amerson reflecting life in Deuel County,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Slavery in America at the Time of the Civil War: Sources

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Learners discover how to use primary and secondary sources in research. In this Civil War instructional activity, students conduct research on slavery as they distinguish between primary and secondary sources regarding the same events.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding Clues from the Past: School Days

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders read primary and secondary sources as the study about schools in the early years of Kansas. For this primary and secondary source lesson, 3rd graders examine how historians use primary source documents to tell about the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

African American Experiences: Window to the Past

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students examine African life during slavery on the Internet. In this slavery lesson plan, students use the Internet to research slavery and create a scrapbook. Students review pictures of slavery and label them as primary or secondary...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Runaway Ads

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders distinguish between primary and secondary sources while creating an underground railroad presentation.  In this underground railroad lesson, 4th graders research the underground railroad using copies of primary and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Signature History

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students review the meaning and application of primary and secondary sources in research. They determine how researchers locate primary source documents before looking at signatures as a validating factor on many primary sources....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Crittenden Conway Duel

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students explore primary and secondary sources. In this primary and secondary source lesson, students investigate a crime scene. Students search for evidence around the classroom and evaluate their findings. Students write a crime report...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

My Story and History: Peeking into the Past with Paintings

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Consider how you can use a visual source, such as a painting, to learn about a historical time or event. Young learners discuss primary sources and how they differ from secondary sources, then analyze the painting Mother and Child by...
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Lesson Plan
History with Peters

A Clear Signal for Change: Multiple Interpretations and Nat Turner’s Rebellion

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Was Nat Turner a hero or a violent criminal? Using primary sources and images that discuss the rebellion of enslaved people he led in antebellum Virginia, scholars consider the question. Then, they create memorials to Turner and...
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Lesson Plan
Canadian War Museum

Comparing Primary and Secondary Sources

For Teachers 7th - 12th
 This simple two-day activity introduces learners to the differences between primary and secondary sources. The activity includes group work that explores the similarities and differences, and the advantages and disadvantages of primary...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Tools of the Historian: Primary vs. Secondary Sources

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Learners identify the difference between primary and secondary sources. They discuss the importance of evaluating all sources they might use. They read primary and secondary sources that relate to the colonial period.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sources of Information

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this sources of information worksheet, students respond to 7 fill in the blank questions regarding primary and secondary sources.
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Lesson Plan
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Library of Congress

Determining Point of View: Paul Revere and the Boston Massacre

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
If you're teaching point of view, this is the lesson for you! First, decipher the writer's point of view from a primary resource, then compare and contrast the primary source with a secondary source to explore the Paul Revere's engraving...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 12

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
How can opinions slant facts? Workshop participants learn how to examine primary and secondary sources and identify the author's point of view. They also examine how visual art impacts the meaning and rhetoric of sources. Full of...
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PPT
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Mr. Roughton

The Travels of Marco Polo

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Were the stories of Marco Polo's travels and interactions with the Mongols actually true? Using an excerpt from the book The Travels of Marco Polo, your young historians will answer guiding questions to discuss the accuracy and...
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Lesson Plan
TCI

What Are the Biggest April Fools Jokes of All Time?

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
After working in groups to analyze primary sources related to a historical hoax, learners will discuss how people managed to be fooled and work to identify one of the biggest April Fools jokes in history.
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Lesson Plan
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Center for History and New Media

Founding of the Laurel Grove School and Other "Colored" Schools in Fairfax County, 1860–1890

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The right to public education was not always so clear in American history. Readers study several primary and secondary source documents, including property deeds, maps, and photographs, about the founding of local schools during the...

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