Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Before Rosa Parks: Early Grades Activity

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Learners read excerpts from an autobiographical work and retell scenes from the book. They consider the ways Susie King Taylor's autobiography displays character traits including courage, creativity, compassion and determination.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Conservation: California Quarter Reverse

For Teachers K - 1st
Students examine the California quarter reverse and discuss conservation measures. They discover the concept of conservation by a snack-eating experimen and relate it to John Muir's conservation interests. After evaluating the design...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Let's Make History -- Together

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students examine different pieces of art from different artists. They are to read "About the Art" before viewing. They create their own plasticine tile showing people in action from history.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Debate - Election of 1876

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders examine how Rutherford Hayes should be elected President of United States in order for the Union to continue effective Reconstruction.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Before Rosa Parks: Upper Grades Activity: Frances Watkins Harper

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze the rhetorical strategies Frances Watkins Harper used, such as tone, emotional appeal and descriptive language
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Hull of a Ship

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders engage in this introductory unit lesson. A bulletin board for the unit be started, Colonial Notebooks be presented to each student, and a pre-test on colonization be administered.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mr. Bush in Washington

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students study about George Washington Bush and write a biography about him in a small group. To gain a better understanding of him, they listen to a biography on a tape about him. They visit various sites about him to help them examine...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Press Conference With Abraham Lincoln

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders hold a press conference with Abraham Lincoln.
Lesson Plan
Huntington Library

Huntington Library: A House Divided: Slavery and the Civil War [Pdf]

For Teachers 8th
In this lesson, 8th graders look at how slavery contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War, at Abraham Lincoln's efforts to save the Union, and at what impact the Emancipation Proclamation had on the North's view of the war. Includes...
Unit Plan
Other

New York Historical Society: New York Divided Slavery and the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
Visit this virtual museum exhibit to learn about New York City's divided opinions about slavery before and during the Civil War. There are three themes covered: Pro-Southern City, Fighting Slavery, and Civil War. Students use a...
Article
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Teaching History: Beyond the Textbook: Causing the Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
An essay that looks at other, more complex reasons for the outbreak of the Civil War, beyond the traditionally accepted ones related to the Northern industrial economy versus the Southern agricultural one.
Online Course
Cosmo Learning

Cosmo Learning: The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 1845 1877

For Students 9th - 10th
In this course Professor David Blight explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, from the 1840s to 1877 through twenty-seven video lectures. The primary goal of the course is to understand the multiple...
Handout
CommonLit

Common Lit: Text Sets: The Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a collection of 29 Grade-Leveled texts (6-12)on the topic The Civil War. The American Civil War lasted for only 5 years but divided the country along bitter lines as the North fought to keep southern states from seceding from the...
Unknown Type
Louisiana Department of Education

Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: Us History: Grade 7: Sectionalism Prior to the Civil War

For Teachers 7th - 8th
This sample task contains a set of primary and authentic sources about how the differences between the North and South deepened the feelings of sectionalism leading up to the Civil War.
Handout
Other

Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy: Civil War Diplomacy

For Students 9th - 10th
An article by noted historian, Kinley Brauer, discusses the role of foreign policy for both the North and the South in the Civil War. An interesting, and often forgotten, aspect of the war.
Website
Other

Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War: Emancipation Proclamation

For Students 9th - 10th
Authors track the sentiments of Lincoln toward slavery from his pre-Civil War years through the Civil War. Site menu bar provides hyperlinks to information on the many facets of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1844 1877: The Civil War: Emancipation Proclamation

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses the background to the Emancipation Proclamation and how Abraham Lincoln came to support the abolition of slavery and the difficulties that were encountered around this issue. Explains that it did not apply to all slaves as...
Article
Henry J. Sage

Sage American History: Civil War Introduction

For Students 9th - 10th
Article introducing the Civil War. The author provides background information on the debates between the North and South eventually leading to war.
Lesson Plan
PBS

Pbs: Music, Slavery and the Civil War

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
This lesson could serve as the basis of a curriculum unit on slavery and/or the Civil War. Spirituals are analyzed, especially their cultural implications.
Unit Plan
The Newberry Library

Newberry Library: Slavery, Civil War, and the "New Birth of Freedom"

For Students 9th - 10th
Newberry Library presents primary source materials from which students learn about the arguments made for abolition before the Civil War, how the appeals against slavery were framed, and what freedom would mean for the South and the...
Activity
Read Works

Read Works: Slavery, the Civil War & Reconstruction Fort Sumter: First Shots

For Teachers 5th
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about Fort Sumter and the beginning of the Civil War. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Unit Plan
Other

North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources: Civil War Sesquicentennial

For Students 9th - 10th
North Carolina is rich in Civil War history. The Department of Cultural Resources has compiled this digital library of primary source documents to and from soldiers in honor of the sesquicentennial of the war.
Handout
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Slavery & the Making of America

For Students 9th - 10th
Using primary documents, oral histories, and other historical resources, discover how the arts of Africa, Europe, and pre-Civil War America influenced the culture of enslaved African Americans.
Website
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: 19th Century: Religion in the Civil War: The Northern Perspective

For Students 9th - 10th
An interesting look at the religious beliefs of Northerners during the Civil War. Essay discusses the main tenets of belief that basically culminated in the conviction that God wouldn't let the North win until it ended slavery. Includes...