Curated OER
Urban Growth in Industrial America
High schoolers examine the correlation between urbanization and industrialization. In this 19th century American history lesson, students investigate census data from the late 1800's to find out how urbanization and industrialization in...
Curated OER
The West in Brochures
Students explore the daily life of the American Cowboy in the 1800's and compare it to the life of the Native Americans.
Curated OER
The History of Rock and Roll: Part 8 - The 70's Have a Nice Day - Lesson 2
Students identify the characteristics and elements of large scale rock productions. They examine the similarities between the American Vaudeville shows and the large-scale rock theater productions of the 1970's.
Curated OER
History in Literature - The House of Dies Drear
Hook your learners with a great project. They research the underground railroad and civil rights movement through literature, view the video The Underground Railroad: Escape from Slavery, and read the book House of Dies Drear in their...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask
Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...
Curated OER
Political Reform in the Late 1800s
Eleventh graders examine the type of political reform in the 1800s. In groups, they analyze the Pendleton Civil Service Act and two other economic acts. To end the lesson, they take a quiz and discuss the impact of the acts on the...
Curated OER
Caught Between Worlds: Frontier Life as Reflected in Captivity Narratives
Students analyze captivity narratives written between the 1600's and 1800's. In this narrative lesson, students think critically about the interaction between Native peoples and the settlers to understand the cultural beliefs held by...
Curated OER
Westward Expansion: Chief Joseph's Words Of Surrender
Students explore westward expansion in the United States as it relates to Native Americans and the novel Holes. Students read a passage from Holes and discuss how westward expansion affected the Native Americans. Students compare and...
Curated OER
Persistent Paths: Trails, Tracks and Turnpikes Across the Alleghenies
High schoolers study maps to determine barriers associated with the Pennsylvania mountains and the Native Americans. In this investigative lesson students study the routes used by Native Americans, explain physical features of the land,...
Curated OER
The Rise of Segregation
Eleventh graders describe the foundation for legal segregation in the South and identify three key African American leaders' responses to discrimination. They also find and copy the definition of sharecropper and answer a variety of...
Curated OER
Immigrants to Kansas: Why Did They Come
Students explore U.S. History by researching Kansas. In this immigration activity, students discuss the benefits of immigrating to a state like Kansas in the 1800's while writing their thoughts and research in a reporter's notebook....
Curated OER
Victorian America: Reflections of Life in Death
Learners, after viewing a video and researching the changes in society during the Victorian period, assess a prediction-confirmation guide to consider how changes in burial customs in the late 1800's reflect the changes in society as a...
Curated OER
Field Trip to Living History Farms
Students tour "Living History Farms" in Iowa. In this field trip preparation lesson, students observe ways Native Americans began growing crops in the 1700's as well as how the farm changed in the 1800's. Upon their return from the trip,...
PBS
Myth of the West: Lonely But Free I’ll Be Found
Tumbling tumbleweeds! Scholars work with video clips, primary and secondary documents, and song lyrics to uncover life in the Old West. They examine song's lyrics to uncover myths told in the 1930s about life in the Wild West.
Curated OER
Mapping the New World Lesson Plan
Students compare two maps of the same area from different time periods. In this American History activity, students look at two maps of the English colonies from 1636 and 1651. They discuss why the maps changed and predict maps from the...
Curated OER
Matthew Henson
Discuss the work of Matthew Henson, an African American who traveled to the North Pole with Robert Peary. After reading the story "Matthew Henson" by Maryann N. Weidt, learners answer questions by drawing inferences and conclusions,...
Curated OER
Westward Expansion and the Frontier
Students explore U.S. history by researching a historic map. For this westward expansion lesson, students discuss the mystery of the western U.S. in the early 1800's and the impact expansion had on Native Americans and agriculture....
Center for History Education
Transforming the West: Did the Reality Match the Expectations for Kansas Homesteaders?
They expected good soil and hearty crops ... but they found buffalo chips and grasshopper plagues. Using an advertisement encouraging famers to go west, budding historians examine primary sources including letters, photographs, and...
Curated OER
The Kanaka Village at Fort Vancouver: Crossroads of the Columbia River
Students study the interaction between Native American and European cultures in the Pacific Northwest in the 1800s. They focus their study on the Hudson's Bay Company and Fort Vancouver.
Curated OER
The Changing Union
Fourth graders analyze a document and make assessment and historical prediction based on the text. In this establishment of American government lesson, 4th graders analyze a poem and discuss the climate of the Union in the early 1800's....
Curated OER
Introduction to Reform Movements of the 1800s
Eleventh graders consider the impact of reform movements of the 19th century. In this Progressive Reform lesson plan, 11th graders examine documents and images associated with women's suffrage, prohibition, and labor reform. Students...
Curated OER
Women in Science
Pupils study the roles that women have played in science throughout history. They work in small groups while visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Curated OER
Overland Trails To The West
After observing a map of trails that settlers took in the 1800s, your class will write a journal with the perspective of a settler. In their journals, they must describe the trail they traveled, geographical features they saw, states and...
Curated OER
The Railroads and Settlement of the Great Plains
Enhance your American literature unit with this resource, in which readers access the Nebraska Studies website and read about "Railroads and Settlement." They search for a photograph of some aspect of the railroad from the Prairie...