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Lesson Plan
National Park Service

Remembering Pearl Harbor: The USS Arizona Memorial

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young historians use primary source materials to investigate the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the USS Arizona. After reading background articles and studying maps and images of the attack, class members consider whether...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

U.S. Foreign Policy and the Iran-Contra Affair: Was Oliver North a Patriot, a Pawn, or an Outlaw?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
If you had to write a song about Oliver North, would it be a ballad or a dirge? If you had to put him on a trading card, would he be a hero or the bad guy? Young historians decide for themselves after examining documents from the...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

To What Extent Were Women's Contributions to World War II Industries Valued?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Women rose to the challenge when the nation's war effort called them—but were sent home when the GIs came back from World War II. Young historians consider whether the United States valued women's contributions during the war using a...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Guatemalan Coup of 1954: How Did the Cold War Influence American Foreign Policy Decisions?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Was it all about the bananas—or the fear of a communist threat? Young historians use a history lab to examine documents from the American-led 1954 Guatemalan coup. Using graphics, government documents, and speeches, they examine the...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire: Is Anyone to be Punished for This?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The stories of bodies falling to the pavement and girls dying in their seats echo to the present day. The New York City Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire—which killed 147 people, mostly young women and girls—galvanized the labor movement...
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Lesson Plan
PBS

Decoding Media Bias

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Alternative facts? After watching the We The Voters film, "MediOcracy," viewers compare how cable news outlets CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC report the same story about politics or public policy. After a whole-class discussion of their...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

The Vietnam War Timeline: Understanding the Nature of a Controversial Conflict

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The story of the Vietnam War is often told through images. Young historians analyze images and primary sources —including the Vietnamese Army's Seven Commandments poster and photos of the daily life of soldiers—to construct a timeline of...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

The War in Vietnam - A Story in Photographs

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The Vietnam War was the first war to come into American living rooms with its images of American soldiers fighting in jungles far, far away. Young historians analyze and curate photos from the conflict, deciding how they would create a...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Cultural Diplomacy and the Smith-Mundt Act

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
During the Cold War, the United States used everything from bookmobiles to radio stations to improve its image globally. Using documents from the programs, including photographs and official memos, individuals consider how the United...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Cultural Diplomacy and Propaganda During the Cold War

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
There's a fine line between diplomacy and propaganda. Young historians consider that boundary by examining documents from the Cold War, including memorandum about the lunar program and Peace Corps in addition to a propaganda film. Using...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Civil Rights or Freedom? When Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement Clashed

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
When Martin Luther King Jr. took a stand against the Vietnam War, interests collided. With a letter from Jackie Robinson to Lyndon B. Johnson, the baseball legend urges the president to remain firm in his resolve for civil rights. Young...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Analyzing a Letter from Ruth Bader Ginsburg

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Before her career as a Supreme Court Justice, the Notorious RBG was a legal activist for women's rights. Using a letter from then-Professor Ginsburg, young historians carefully examine a letter from Ginsburg to a member of Congress...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Analyzing a Letter to Congress About Bloody Sunday

For Teachers 7th - 11th Standards
The brutality of Bloody Sunday—when non-violent protesters who supported voting rights for African Americans were beaten by police—captured a nation. Young historians examine the letter of one horrified American to Congress to consider...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Continuity or Change? African Americans in World War II

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
While World War II was a pivotal moment in history, historians debate its importance to the civil rights movement. Class members consider the implications of segregation and the war using a series of documents and a jigsaw activity....
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Franklin Roosevelt's Proposal for Reforming the Supreme Court: 168 Days of National Debate

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Was it overreach or wise executive functioning? Scholars have long debated Franklin Roosevelt's court-packing scheme when he attempted to stack the court with justices friendlier to his New Deal measures. Now, learners pick up the...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

The Federal Theatre Project: Analyzing Conflict Among Relief, Art, and Politics in 1930s America

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
In the effort to soothe the suffering of the Great Depression, New Deal programs funded a variety of approaches - including a theater project that proved controversial! Using documents such as oral histories, as well as photographs of...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Dust Bowl Story

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Images of the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression are haunting in the suffering they show. Young historians use photographs—both iconic and lesser known—to tell about the human experience during this time. A series of photographs, as...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Understanding the Great Migration

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
What would make someone leave home and travel thousands of miles to find another one? Young historians look at letters, demographic data, and artwork to answer the question for the Great Migration, or the movement of thousands of African...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: 19th Century African-American Writer and Reformer

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Although some African American abolitionists—such as Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass—are well known, others, like Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, remain in the shadows of history. Harper was a poet and activist who played an...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Northern Racism and the New York City Draft Riots of 1863

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Just how racist were some people in the North during the American Civil War? Using excerpts of the Conscription Act, as well as graphic images of lynchings, young historians consider why white people in New York City rioted and killed...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Speaking Up and Speaking Out: Exploring the Lives of Black Women During the 19th Century

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young historians investigate the often-hidden history of free and enslaved African American women before the Civil War. Using a collection of primary and secondary sources, including speeches, diaries, and poems, they evaluate the often...
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Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Nineteenth Century Reform Movements: Women's Rights

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
It's hard to imagine a world where women were marginalized from the seats of power. Yet, there are women today who remember what it was like to not be allowed to vote. Using a DBQ of images and other primary sources, such as political...
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Interactive
DocsTeach

Bibb Mill No 1 Child Labor Photograph Discussion

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
There's no way a child can operate heavy machinery ... right? Pupils examine a photograph of a child operating a loom at mill to learn about child labor and its impacts. Prompts provoke thoughtful discussion or fuel a writing exercise.
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Lesson Plan
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Smithsonian Institution

Strength in Solidarity: Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Campaign for Fair Food

For Teachers 8th - 11th Standards
Not all food is created equal. The lesson dives into the world of migrant farm workers to show their struggles to earn livable wages and better working conditions. Academics learn why the Coalition of Immokalee Workers was created and...