Curated OER
Girl Scout Cookie Lesson Plan
Middle schoolers make a chart of the main categories and supporting details from the article," When chips are down, Girl Scouts order more." They compare their chart with that of a classmate. Students organize their ideas in a logical...
Curated OER
Latin American Culture
Students explore sites are about the culture and life of the people of Latin America and Latin Americans in the United States. There is information about Latin American music, dance, art, and heritage.
Curated OER
Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraits
Young scholars compare and contrast historical and contemporary photographs of important figures in African American history. In this photography analysis lesson, students learn key photography vocabulary and use a Venn Diagram to...
Curated OER
Making Native American Vests
Students listen to the story Brother Eagle, Sister Sky and observe Native American clothing worn by the characters in the book. Students create a vest out of a pre-cut brown paper bag and decorate with Native American symbols.
Curated OER
Life of a Navajo Weaver
Learners explore Native American weaving patterns and dance movements. In this Native Americans lesson, students view examples of weaving patterns on the Internet and compare the patterns to a Native American dance. Learners demonstrate...
Curated OER
Changing Places
Learners investigate the Chinese-American immigration experience. In this assimilation lesson plan, students watch "Becoming American: The Chinese Experience" and then participate in classroom activities regarding the topic. The...
Curated OER
Folk Art: Bird of Paradise Quilt Top
Students examine a "Bird of Paradise Quilt Top" to discover what the themes and patterns tell about mid-nineteenth-century America. In this American Folk Art lesson plan, students discuss the possible creator of the quilt and the...
Curated OER
The Cotillion or One Good Bull is Half the Herd, a Black Arts Movement novel by John O. Killens
Students study late twentieth-century African American satirical literature as well as its cultural antecedents. they analyze and discuss, within the contexts of race and gender, the social criticism of the middle classes presented by...
Penguin Books
Core Curriculum Lesson Plans for The Lions of Little Rock
Schools in the 1950s and 60s looked very different from the schools we know today. An educator's guide explores the civil rights movement and, specifically, the process of integrating schools. Questions cover key themes in the novel and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Two-School Dance
Who's ready for the dance? When two middle schools combine for a dance, your learners' job is to calculate the ratio of girls attending. Provided with three different solutions, you can choose from setting up a ratio, linear equation, or...
Curated OER
Is It Fact or Opinion?
Distinguish between fact and opinions in this nonfiction reading lesson plan. Middle schoolers read 'The Diary of an Early American Boy' and work in groups to analyze the text. They record the facts and opinions for the text.
Curated OER
Children of the Earth and Sky
Fourth graders explore the culture and traditions of Native Americans. After reading "Children of the Earth and Sky," students discuss the lives of Native American children in relation to their own. They create replicas of Hopi...
Curated OER
Naya Nuki's Journey
Students read "Naya Nuki Shoshoni Girl Who Ran" by Kenneth Thomasma. Students chart Naya Nuki's route on a map and identify the navigational signs she used to find her way home. Students also analyze the weather she encounters.
Curated OER
The John Travolta Syndrome
Students examine the influence of music and film on contemporary fashion. For this popular culture lesson, students research select films featuring John Travolta. Students research selected time periods in American history as well....
Curated OER
Historical Fiction
Students discover how to identify historical fiction. In this historical fiction instructional activity, students read the story Meet Addy: An American Girl by Connie Porter. Students listen to the first chapter of the book read aloud....
Curated OER
Women Writers and Dissent in 20th and 21st Century American Literature
Tenth graders read examples of writings by women authors showing their dissent. After completion of their reading, they brainstorm on why they believe female authors have criticized society. In groups, they use the Internet to research...
Curated OER
Frontier Life Story
Young scholars explore American frontier life. In this history lesson, students participate in a series of activities that challenge them to discover what pioneer life was really like.
Curated OER
A TRIP TO GAMBIA
Students identify some characteristics of life in Gambia by reading Hoffman, Mary. (1995). Boundless Grace, New York,NY.
Curated OER
1920s Variety Show
To better understand the cultural achievements of the Harlem Renaissance and become familiar with its major figures, class members examine a painting by Aaron Douglas and a poem by Langston Hughes and compare how the artists develop...
PBS
Crack the Case: History's Toughest Mysteries
Young sleuths don their trench coats, tip their fedoras, and grab their notepads to investigate one of four famous unsolved mysteries. After examining multiple primary and secondary sources related to their cold case, they propose a...
Curated OER
Hands of Persons Unknown
Students consider the impact of lynchings on the African American community. In this lynching lesson, students investigate the lynching of Claude Neal. Students write opinion pieces about the Claude Neal lynching.
Curated OER
The Paper Dress - Circa 1968
You won't believe your eyes when you see these dresses made out of paper. Students create paper dresses by modifying a pattern provided by the teacher, and decorate the dress using 1960's style art. What a fantastic and motivating...
Curated OER
Rock Speaks
Young scholars create primitive forms and caricatures to represent meaningful figures and/or events in their own lives, present their own works to the class, and attempt to interpret the relevant meaning from other students' work.
Curated OER
Introduction to Selected Documents from the Roxcy Bolton Collection
Students listen to a guided imagery exercise that takes them back to 1969. They brianstorm ideas to try to discover why they would not be allowed to sit at an empty table at a Burdines lunch counter in 1969.
They read letters about the...