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Smithsonian Institution

Lexington and Concord: Historical Interpretation

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Learners view and analyze three different images related to the Battle of Lexington and Concord. They also answer a variety of questions in a graphic organizer to help keep the information straight.
Interactive
DocsTeach

Patent Analysis: Joseph Glidden's Barbed Wire

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Barbed wire may have made cattle farming easier, but it brought to an end the free-roaming days of the plains. No longer could Native American groups continue their nomadic lifestyle, and the days of cowboys herding large groups of...
Activity
Novelinks

Touching Spirit Bear: Directed Reading Thinking Activity

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
What experiences lead people to change and how do they do it? After reading about Cole's encounter with Touching Spirit Bear, readers complete the second out of a series of five activities to predict future events in the text. The...
Lesson Plan
History with Peters

A Clear Signal for Change: Multiple Interpretations and Nat Turner’s Rebellion

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Was Nat Turner a hero or a violent criminal? Using primary sources and images that discuss the rebellion of enslaved people he led in antebellum Virginia, scholars consider the question. Then, they create memorials to Turner and...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Patent Analysis: J.W. Davis and Levi Strauss's Fastening Pocket Openings

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Commonplace today, the zipper and button construction of blue jeans was a major innovation. Using the patent for the J.W. Davis and Levi Strauss innovation, individuals comb an image of the fly for clues. Afterward, they discuss its...
Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Creating Narrative

For Teachers 5th
Plot, setting, characters, and conflict are common to both drama and narrative stories. Kids create narrated tableaus that show their understanding of the plot, setting, and conflict of a story they've recently read. The lesson...
Unit Plan
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Slave Narratives: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and the Columbian Orator

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Young historians practice in-depth, quality analysis of primary source texts in this three-lesson unit, which examines excerpts from the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Caleb...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Food and Dialect

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
The dialect words for types of food from across the British Isles get pupils thinking about native dialects and how they differ from Standard English. Class members create a dialect dictionary and discuss the difference between accent...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding the Bush Tax Cut Plan

For Teachers 9th - 12th
The class examines the new tax cut plan proposed by President Bush. They practice calculating income tax rates and interpreting the data. Then they research topics that are of interest to them related to taxes.
Lesson Plan
National History Day

“War Is Hell. We Know it Now.” American Soldiers in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Understanding the soldier's experiences during World War I sometimes takes a newscast. Learners see the importance of understanding multiple points of view with a newscast project surrounding the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Compare and...
Lesson Plan
Serendip

Understanding and Predicting Changes in Population Size – Exponential and Logistic Population Growth Models vs. Complex Reality

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Salmonella poisoning impacts over 200,000 people in the United States each year. Scholars learn about the growth of these bacteria using multiple approaches. Then they apply the same growth calculations to endangered species and think...
Lesson Plan
Syracuse University

Ancient World Writing System

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
Most twenty-first century pupils don't know how to interpret cuneiform. Examining images of cuneiform and papyrus writing and using a chart and Venn diagram, young historians extrapolate what life may have been like for people who lived...
Lesson Plan
Syracuse University

World War I

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
World War I was known for its gruesome battlefields and horrific injuries. Using photographs from a battlefield surgeon's scrapbook, scholars see first-hand what life was like in the trenches. After creating a timeline of the war using...
Lesson Plan
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University of Pennsylvania

Decoding Propaganda: J’Accuse…! vs. J’Accuse…!

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Reading snail mail is a great way to go back into history and to understand others' points of view. The resource, the second in a five-part unit, covers the Dreyfus Affair. Scholars, working in two different groups, read one letter and...
Lesson Plan
Facing History and Ourselves

Laws and the National Community

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
When it comes to the law, is justice always served? Teach scholars about how law sometimes enables prejudice of entire groups of people with a unit on World War II that includes a warm-up activity, analysis of primary sources,...
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Curated OER

Build Your Dream Science Lab

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Would your ideal science lab be filled with bubbling beakers and zapping Tesla coils? Or would it contain state-of-the-art computer technology and data analysis? Dream big with an innovative lesson that connects math and language...
Activity
MacArthur Memorial

In Their Shoes: WWI Through the Eyes of Early Participants

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Several social activities provide showcase the perspective of many prominent figures in World War I history. Students read an assigned case study about a memorable person and complete several activities to further understand this...
Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Get Your Techno On

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Desert regions are hotter for multiple reasons; the lack of vegetation causes the sun's heat to go straight into the surface and the lack of moisture means none of the heat is being transferred into evaporation. This concept, and other...
Lesson Plan
The New York Times

Reader Idea | Thinking Like a Historian About Current World Events

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Check out this fantastic research project where learners work to see the modern world through the eyes of a historian and analyze a contemporary event of their choice. An in-depth reflection on the project is given by the project...
Lesson Plan
Ford's Theatre

How Perspective Shapes Understanding of History

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The Boston Massacre may be an iconic event in American history, but perhaps the British soldiers had another point of view. Using primary sources, including reports from Boston newspapers and secondary sources from the British...
Lesson Plan
Historical Thinking Matters

Social Security: 3 Day Lesson

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
What does social security reveal about the political and social culture of the 1930s? After beginning with a brief introductory video on the impact of the Great Depression and how various Americans, such as Huey Long and Francis...
Interactive
DocsTeach

To What Extent was Reconstruction a Revolution? (Part 1)

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Some scholars consider the Civil War and Reconstruction a second American Revolution. Class members weigh in after examining primary sources, including a Congressional resolution calling for the Fifteenth Amendment and the credentials of...
Lesson Plan
Center for History Education

Colonial Tea Parties

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Most people know of the Boston Tea Party, but it was only one of similar protests throughout the colonies. Using a case study from Maryland, learners explore primary sources, including images and newspaper accounts of similar tea...
Interactive
DocsTeach

Effects of Food Regulation in the Progressive Era

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Moldy canned goods, exploding ketchup, and filthy conditions: These were some of the issues the reformers of the Progressive Era targeted with legislation such as the Pure Food and Drug Act. Using images of food factories and documents...