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...

Eighth graders answer questions put to them by the teacher that are intended to help them understand the different lives of slaves and indentured servants in colonial times. They make a list of Aristocrats and Farmers from their text...

Students visit the burial ground at Huguenot Street and work in groups to calculate the average lifespan for a resident in the 1700's and one in the 1800's. They analyze the grave markers for further information.

Students explore the the benefits and problems associated with a barter system in the Colonies and trace its relationship to the development of interdependence that this system creates. An experience of bartering is created in this...

Fifth graders encounter the TCI History Alive Assessment. Create a rubric together with other students. Use graphic organizers to brainstorm challenges that one would face attending school in a foreign country.

Here is an excellent set of five short lessons and activities intended to help learners not only gain an understand of current issues in Africa, but build critical thinking, synthesis, analysis, expository writing, research, and...

Young explorers, all aboard the shallop to discover how early European explorers would navigate the American coastline to find resources, map terrain, and trade with Native American tribes.

North American Indian civilizations had already been in place for over 10,000 years before the arrival of European settlers. Introduce your young historians to Indian tribes that lived in the Chesapeake region in the...

Have your high schoolers learn about the modern history of Myanmar by close-reading an article about the city and people of the city Yangon. As they'll learn, the country is going through some dramatic transitions. After...

 “Everything will end up okay if you believe hard enough.” “People create their own luck, good or bad.” Prior to reading Candide, class members respond to an anticipation guide that focuses on the issues of optimism, prejudice, and...

"Would a rational and well-regulated world include human suffering?" "If the plight of human suffering is the 'best of all possible worlds' do humans have freewill?" Class members develop their position on an issue raised by Candide,...

The contributions of African-Americans to the American Revolution are the focus of this Social Studies and language arts lesson. After reading and discussing Linda Crotta Brennan’s The Black Regiment of the American Revolution, class...

The danger of mob mentality is on display in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Get your class thinking with some challenging quickwrite questions, then assign characters from the play to be read aloud altogether. Links to worksheets...

Sit back, relax, and transport to 1787! This lesson on the Constitution begins with guided imagery of the Constitutional Convention. The class reads A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution in an...

Learners research life in Colonial America then write and stage a play about life in Colonial times. creating a variety of characters who might have lived at that time. They, in groups, generate seperate lists of characters who would...

Students research how children dressed during Colonial times. Students design and create life-sized likenesses of themselves, dressing the paper dolls in colonial dress.

Students examine the events leading up to and after the Townshend Acts in Boston. In this American History lesson plan, students engage in a class discussion and write an essay about the failure of the British Stamp Act and the Colonial...

Second graders listen to a presentation on life in colonial America in 1640. They compare early colonial life to the present and use software to write a story showcasing their research.

Eleventh graders complete background reading of Europeans and the Native American Indians. They work in groups and represent an area of European colonization and create a "character" to represent their colonists on a class talk show....

Students discuss the characteristics that make a historical resource reliable. As a class, they brainstorm a list of examples of possible historical resources and why they are important. In groups, they discover the consequences of...

High schoolers consider the impact of the Proclamation of 1763. In this colonial America lesson plan, students determine the how the proclamation affected the British Crown, the colonists, and the Indians and present their findings to...

Fourth graders are introduced to the early colonial settlements of America by observing a map, filling in a map themselves and then researching information on their own.

Fifth graders role-play a session of the House of Burgesses, an early colonial judicial body. At the end of the role-play students discuss their perceptions of the House of Burgesses.

Students investigate how American colonists felt they would be impacted by conflict with the British. In this colonial America lesson plan, students examine the Declaration of Independence, papers from the Committees of Correspondence,...