Curated OER
Places Where Women Made History
Using places can help students identify with the history-making women associated with them.
EngageNY
Listening Closely and Taking Notes in Expert Groups: Colonial Trade Podcast
The twelfth instructional activity of this unit builds on the skills developed in the previous instructional activity, as fourth graders continue their quest to become experts on colonial trade by listening to interviews with historical...
National History Day
Helping Life and Aiding Death: Science, Technology, and Engineering at Work during World War I
Science, engineering, and United States history? Pupils research collections of artifacts from the Smithsonian to learn about historical scientific innovations. At the end of the lesson, they write an essay to discuss technology's...
EngageNY
Listening Closely and Taking Notes: Colonial Trade Podcast About the Wheelwright
Voices from the past. Young scholars listen to a podcast interview with a historical re-enactor as they continue their research in the eleventh instructional activity of this unit on colonial trade. Applying their close reading skills,...
Curated OER
Exploration of Utopias and Dystopias
If you are considering adding or expanding a unit on utopian and dystopian literature you simply must check out this fabulous resource. Packed with plans, activities, project-based and 21st century learning opportunities, the unit...
Curated OER
MLK: using Nonviolence to Make Positive Change
Students read about Martin Luther King and discuss the rights and responsibilities of citizens. In this Martin Luther King lesson, students recognize the vocabulary words associated with freedom and nonviolence. Students view...
Center for History and New Media
The Impact of the Jim Crow Era on Education, 1877–1930s
Even though American slaves were officially emancipated in 1865, the effects of slavery perpetuated throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Middle and high schoolers learn about the ways that discrimination and the Jim Crow laws...
Curated OER
Finding James Fort
Welcome to Jamestown! Third and fourth graders read and analyze primary source documents about Jamestown or Fort James. They read and analyze descriptions of Fort James from primary sources. They access a website to explore more...
Curated OER
The Middle Passage
Students examine historical documents and the role they played in history. They read excerpts from the book The Middle Passage by Olaudah Equiano to receive a first-hand description of the difficulties during the middle passage and...
Smithsonian Institution
Looking at a National Treasure: George Washington
Young scholars explain the definition of a portrait. They identify the visual clues that Gilbert Stuart included in his portrait of George Washington. They compare the reproduction to other images of Washington. They discuss the...
Curated OER
Word Processing/Spell Checking
Students practice typing historical document that contains intentional spelling errors, and use spell checking assistant to correct errors before printing final document.
Curated OER
Forty Acres? The Question of Land at the War's End
Should land be redistributed to former slaves after the Civil War? This essential question guides a lesson on the Reconstruction Era, as learners analyze primary sources (linked), recording responses on a worksheet (linked). To model the...
Curated OER
Equaino
Students describe and discuss reasons that slaves were treated with indignity. While reading passages from the author Olaudah Equiano, students stop periodically to discuss major points about The Middle Passage. They investigate...
Curated OER
"Adding It Up" at James Fort
Students discuss jettons and their archaeological importance at Jamestown. They then practice using historic counting sheets and artifacts to understand the calculating methods of the early 17th Century, and identify their similarities...
Curated OER
Old Stone House Lesson Plan
From stagecoach to railroad tracks, your class will discover how advancements in travel in the United States during the nineteenth century played an integral role in the industrialization and development of American society. The main...
Curated OER
Photography in the Holocaust
Students analyze photographs for the use of propaganda. They explore the idea of having photos used as historical documents. Students realize the importance of having photos to tell stories.
New York Historical Society
The Vietnam War: 1945-1975
Do pupils know that the Vietnam War spanned a period of 30 years? A war that long is bound to leave devastating effects. Help young historians develop a comprehensive understanding of the war through multiple units on the subject that...
Curated OER
The Mayflower Compact: Freedom Contract
Students read historical documents. In this freedom instructional activity, students discuss the freedoms they have, such as whom to play with at recess, and how the pilgrims must have felt when they landed in America. Students read The...
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...
ProCon
Illegal Immigration
Should immigrants who illegally reside in the United States be eligible for citizenship? With information about undocumented immigrant population estimates, sanctuary cities, and unaccompanied immigrant children, pupils consider the pros...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Harriet Beecher Stowe Sends Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Victoria and Albert, 1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe's plea for abolition is not only laid plain in her acclaimed novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, but in her written correspondence as well. High schoolers read a letter written by Stowe to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria to...
Channel Islands Film
Arlington Springs Man: Lesson Plan 1
Learning to craft quality questions is a skill that can be taught. Class members use the Question Formulation Technique to learn how to create and refine both closed-ended and open-ended questions. They then view West of the West's...
New York State Education Department
English Language Arts Examination: August 2014
Tired of searching for complex passages suitable for high school level assessments? A challenging examination includes numerous complex text excerpts as well as question items to match them. Learners analyze literary elements, author's...
University of California
Impact of the California Missions on Native Americans
While the Spanish claimed to bring civilization to California indigenous peoples, in reality, they also brought violence and forced assimilation to European values. Primary sources, such as the reports of Catholic priests and Europeans...