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The Mayan Empire
Students study vocabulary associated with the Mayan Empire; its art, daily life, inventions, and religious beliefs. They examine why the Mayan culture is considered to be one of the most advanced of the ancient civilizations by...
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Getting Positioned for Fieldwork
Young scholars examine interviewing and fieldwork through a student essay and activities that help them understand the interviewer's task of examining his or her position in fieldwork through observation and questioning. They explore...
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Pre History through Modern Day Timeline
Students explore the historical sequence of cultures throughout history. They demonstrate the ability to organize events in chronological order and demonstrate how time is measured and annotated.
Space Awareness
The Sun Compass of the Vikings
Evidence shows the Vikings likely navigated by using a simple sundial to find their course. Videos, a short story, and discussion help bring this time period to life as they study European history with a hands-on experiment. Scholars...
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Discovering American Symbols
Help youngsters get to know their states and capitals, explore their own country, and study American symbolism. They take a "trip" across America collecting symbols, images, and information about each state as they go (through text and...
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Lost on Superstition Mountain
Students review the concept of responsbility and relate it to the own lives. Using the internet, they research the search for gold on Superstition Mountain in Arizona and locate it on a map. They also examine the culture of Mexico and...
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Treaty Trail: Crossing the Bitterroot Mountains
Students examine art and primary documents that depicts the Native Americans' crossing of Washington's Bitterroot Mountains to arrive at the Spokane Council. Students investigate and compare maps and other historical materials determine...
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Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: Sioux Treaty of 1868
Students study the Sioux and their lives in the Black Hills before 1868. They engage in a wide variety of cross-curricular activities which give them a good understanding of the Sioux culture.
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America's Stone Age Explorers
Students watch a Nova program examining the earliest in habitants of the Americas. In groups. they take notes on various topics covered in the program. Among the topics covered are: the Clovis people, Solutrean culture, migration...
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Sleuthing a Writer's Skills
Learners examine the author's lively text to determine how she achieved her many literary effects. They discover the author's techniques in describing people and events, in setting tone, and in establishing pace. They reflect about the...
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Political Cartoons Illustrating Progressivism and the Election of 1912
Students study a current political cartoon to introduce the ideas of symbolism, humor, exaggeration, and caricature in editorial cartoons. They study cartoons from the past to gain an understanding of the culture of 1912.
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Rooster's Night Out
Mitch Weiss and Martha Hamilton's Rooster's Night Out, a retelling of a classic Cuba folktale, launches a cross-curricular study of Cuban cultural traditions. Class members draw the characters from the book, participate in math and...
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Tale of Hungbu and Nolbu
Engage in a lesson that is concerned with the teaching of family values for helping to understand Korean culture. The values of Koreans is explored using a literature study.
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Memory Games
Researchers say that we need to hear and see new language 12 times before we remember it! Here's a plan that details a series of games that can be used as memory exercises. Bingo, Noughts and Crosses, Pelmanism, and repetitive speaking...
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'Cross the Wide Missouri
Students perform a song, identify melodies, and discuss the history of folk songs.
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Everyone Eats Bread
Students identify similarties and differences between different countries and what type of bread they eat. They examine the different cultures of countries by emailing people in other countries. They also locate the country on the map.
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People and Plants
Students examine the uses of plants from many different biomes, particularly, rain forests to uncover data about the production of new drugs and the cross-cultural sharing of foods. A rain forest food festival reinforces the concept of...
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People of the Past
Learners investigate the four groups of people that existed in the U.S. before the European settlers arrived. They predict how the people arrived in the U.S., then investigate their predictions to find out whether or not they are...
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When Art Conveys Political and Social Conflict
Twelfth graders consider art as a medium to convey information and opinions on social conflict and issues. They analyze images from the Crocker Art Museum, discuss their effectiveness in raising awareness of an issue, and create a...
San Francisco Symphony
Dear Mr. Copland and Mr. Ellington
After a teacher-led demonstration on the lives and music of Aaron Copland and Duke Ellington, learners write a letter to them which shows their understanding of how a person's life experiences can be reflected in a composer's music. They...
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Storytelling: Using the Arts to Enrich the Curriculum...
Students explore the art of storytelling and stories from various cultures. Students experience Japanese and Chinese culture as well as Greek mythology. Students create and present their own Greek mythology topic to the class.
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Universal Myths and Symbols: Animal Creatures and Creation
Young scholars examine the role of mythology in their own lives. After reading stories, they discover the various theories on the origins of the universe and compare the symbols used by different cultures. To end the lesson, they...
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One World
Students explore the urban socioeconomic and political problems in the US that caused hip hop to emerge in the 70's and 80's. Hip Hop culture is explored and related to the genre of art form.
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Ilunga's Harvest Lesson
Learners study the concept of culturally based impulse to share as opposed to watching out for oneself or family by reading and responding to "Ilunga's Harvest."