Curated OER
General Lesson Plan for Documentary Lens
Use this general lesson guide to inform your instruction surrounding a documentary. The lesson is made up of five activities. The activities are intentionally general because they are designed to adapted for specific films. While the...
Curated OER
The Memory Play in American Drama
Students take a closer look at a memory play. In this American drama lesson, students read Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie and analyze it as a memory play. Students discuss the linear and non-linear aspects of the play prior to...
Curated OER
World War I: Overview of the Great War
Ninth graders read first hand accounts of soldiers' lives during World War I, examine historical timeline of major events during war, and research and listen to clips of popular music of the time.
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Tools of the Historian: Frame of Reference
Students discuss the term point of reference and describe their own point of view. They compare the relationship between sources and the historical context. They identify examples of how point of reference can affect one's interpretation.
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Understanding Self and Others
Students investigate other people's perceptions and interpretations of the world. They write a letter, taking into account another's historical point of view. The students also compare and contrast differing points of view through...
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Experience the Challenge of Being Pete Gray
Students view films, photographs and engage in an empathy-building exercise to become familiar with Pete Gray, the first one-armed major league player. They read an interview and write an essay about Gray's career.
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Historians Interpret Sources
Learners read excerpts from the historian Conover Hunt writing about John F. Kennedy and from primary source documents using the handout: Historical Sources and Historians. Students discuss and identify source types, evaluate sources,...
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Seeing Is Believing
Students research and describe the stories of Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They analyze historical sources from different points of view and present an analysis of two historical contexts.
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The Civil War Soldier's Experience
Students examine the social experiences of the soldiers on the battlefield. Using various viewpoints, they compare their daily life experiences and motives for fighting for the Confederate, Union and African-American soldiers. They...
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Government: War Powers Limitations
Students examine historic examples of authority during wartime. They interpret the Fifth Amendment. They debate the merits of the Patriot Act.
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Lake Billy Chinook
Students explore aerial photographs and maps of Round Butte Dam. They examine the land modifications necessary to create a dam. After reading a book about building a dam, students compare the environmental impact of Lake Billy Chinook to...
Curated OER
Fun-Factory - NOT!
Middle schoolers design a solution to a problem based on the Industrial Revolution. In this design lesson plan, students come up with architectural designs and present them to teachers in a simulated factory.
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Washington Irving in Context
Students examine the various roles Washington Irving had in his lifetime. Examining the situation in Europe and the United States, they are encouraged to relate Irving's experiences to different events. They examine themselves in many...
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The Changing Experience of Colonial Childhood
Students research how childhood was depicted in art in the 17th through 19th centuries. In groups, they research pieces of art and write a paper explaining how the portrayal of students in art changed at the end of the 18th century.
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Getting to Know the Kwakiutl Indians
Third graders identify who the Kwakiutl Indians were and where they lived. They describe the way of life of the Kwakiutl and identify the natural resources used by the Kwakiutl, and describe the Kwakiutl's beliefs about nature.
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Get Ready to Rumble
Students use the Internet to examine earthquakes. They discover the theory of tectonic plates and analyze faults throughout the world. They also examine the science of seismology to explain how earthquakes are measured.
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Michigan's Two Regions
Third graders use internet websites to compare/contrast the upper and lower pennisulas of Michigan. They read articles the characteristics of each area. Also, 3rd graders view pictures to investigatge the region, incuding the Straits of...
Curated OER
Unit 2: Post-Revolution: The Critical Period 1781-1878
The post-Revolutionary Period of 1781-1787, also known as the Critical Period, is the focus of a series of lessons that prompt class members to examine primary source documents that reveal the instability of the period of the Articles of...
Film Foundation
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: What Is a Movie?
Watching is not the same as seeing. Transform viewers from passive watchers to active students of film with this 34-page packet, filled with lessons and activities that use Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to examine the technology, the...
Shakespeare Uncovered
Women’s Roles in As You Like It
“There is nothing that becommeth a maid better than soberness, silence, shamefastness, and chastity, both of body & mind.” This line, from Thomas Bentley ‘s The Monument of Matrons published in 1582, typifies the way women were...
University of Wisconsin
Teaching Things Fall Apart in Wisconsin: A Resource Guide for Educators
“There is no story that is not true, . . .” And uncovering the truths in Things Fall Apart is the focus of a 68-page resource packet designed to provide instructors with a wealth of materials that enhance understanding of Chinua Achebe’s...
Curated OER
Trekking to Timbuktu: A Center of Trade
Students conduct online research regarding the origins of the city of Timbuktu and discover why it became such an important place. Students write about the city's origins until it became a part of Mali.
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William Apess and the Mashpee "Revolt" of 1833
Prompt your class with the following question: What was the status of American Indians in Massachusetts during Jackson's presidency? To answer this question, class members will read a series of primary source documents (attached),...
The New York Times
Teaching the Vietnam War with Primary Sources from the New York Times
Use the New York Times database of primary sources to teach a unit on the Vietnam War. The resource consists of a variety of primary sources as well as a lesson plan showcasing how to teach a lesson using them. Pupils analyze the sources...