Curated OER
We're Environmentally Friendly
Fourth graders examine written works dealing with environmental issues and resolutions during a 5 week unit. They create posters, poems, and rap songs demonstrating authorship and knowledge of the environment.
Curated OER
The Great Chicago Fire Survivors
Students examine documents describing the experiences of survivors of the Great Chicago Fire, and write condolence letters.
Curated OER
It's All Part of the Story
Learners explore storytelling through pantomime, improvisation, and dramatization. They watch an online video, discuss Native American earth stories, role-play various situations, explore websites, and present an oral story to the class.
Curated OER
Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad
Eleventh graders consider the impact of the Underground Railroad. In this slavery lesson plan, 11th graders examine primary documents as they conduct independent research to explore the role of the Underground Railroad during the fight...
Curated OER
Slavery and the Underground Railroad
Fourth graders study slavery escape routes of the Underground Railroad on maps, read an account of an escape and then write narrative essays about a fictional slave's escape.
Curated OER
Tasmanian Time Travel
Sixth graders perform research using the Internet about the Tasmanian Devil. The project can be presented in a variety of ways. The use of computer software is important for students to know, specifically Hyperstudio.
Curated OER
The Power of Journals: Going Beyond the Text
Eighth graders define and use new vocabulary and identify the reasons why Native Americans captured Europeans during the colonial period. They write their own journal entries about the topic and explain the importance of journals as a...
Curated OER
The Great Migration: Two American Tales
Students compare and contrast experiences of European immigrants and African American migrants in U.S. cities. After examining the topic, they write essays evaluating the differences and similarities of the groups' experiences.
Curated OER
Congruent Figures
High schoolers read "Congruent Figures," by Takahashi Takako. They conduct small group discussion using the role sheets and their reading logs.
Curated OER
Art or Artifact?
High schoolers analyze and discuss illustrations of the New World by John White. They examine the images, answer questions about each one, and write an essay.
Curated OER
Voyages of Discovery
Learners create individual "travel logs" for a world explorer whom they studied in history class. This lesson is an interdisciplinary activity for the Language Arts and History classroom.
Curated OER
In the Shadow of Death
Students research the initial labeling and classification of Jews through the use of images on the Web. They gather additional information about the history and effects of the Holocaust on survivors.
Curated OER
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: Teaching Through the Novel
Students are introduced to Chinua Achebe's first novel and to his views on the role of the writer in his or her society. It can be used alone or in conjunction with the related lesson Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
Curated OER
Community Celebrations
Sixth graders are introduced to cultural history and diversity that is present in the community in which they live by examining secular and sacred celebrations. Students create scrapbooks to chronicle their family's celebrations.
Curated OER
Slavery in America at the Time of the Civil War: Sources
Students discover how to use primary and secondary sources in research. For this Civil War lesson, students conduct research on slavery as they distinguish between primary and secondary sources regarding the same events.
Curated OER
Shelby County: The Regulator-Moderator War
Seventh graders comprehend the importance of the Regulator-Moderator War through John W. Middleton's memoir. They comprehend how the different motivations held by each faction began the conflict. Students are shown the map of Shelby...
University of North Carolina
Unc: First Person Narratives of the American South
A unique collection of first-person accounts, this concentrates on all the populations of the South, such as ex-slaves, enlisted men, middle-class women, displaced plantation owners. The works are sorted by the author's name. To search...
EL Education
El Education: Fanta
8th grade students in Fort Collins, Colorado each created a historical character file (HCF) as part of a Learning Expedition on slavery. Each HCF is a fictionalized account of an historically/geographically accurate character. Each file...
Cengage Learning
Heath Anthology: Mary White Rowlandson
Examines Mary Rowlandson's account of her captivity in its historical perspective. Discusses the influence of Puritan sermons and the Bible on Rowlandson's writing. Contains reading response and discussion questions and a bibliography.
EL Education
El Education: Blanca Rosenberg
This memoir-style book was created by a 5th/6th grade student in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, and tells the life story of a Holocaust survivor. Blanca Rosenberg is the biography of Blanca written in first person narrative, as told to the...
EL Education
El Education: Diseased
This fictionalized journal was created by a high school student in Denver, Colorado. It tells the haunting story, through a combination of text and images, of a young woman who is stricken with tuberculosis (and later HIV). This...