Considering a unit study of American Musical Theatre? What better way to start than at the very beginning. Eight pairs of cards provide class members with background information about the genre from 1893 through 2004. The cards are...

Carl Sandburg composed poetry that conveyed a time and place in American Literature and history. Learners identify the literary techniques he uses to describe the historical and cultural context of living in Chicago. They define the...

By The Great Horn Spoon is a fantastic novel for introducing learners to life during the California Gold Rush. First, kids research and analyze American folk songs, then they connect to the text as they listen to symphonic pieces written...

Why is a letter a better way to learn about a person than a different primary source? Explore Thomas Day's ideas and advice to his daughter in a letter from 1851, which details the struggles of the American South before the Civil War....

This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...

Duke Ellington, jazz, and jive kick-off a fun and creative lesson on responding emotionally to music. The class will learn about jive talk used in the 1920s and the life and music of Duke Ellington. They'll listen to a selection of his...

What were the virtues and values that helped form America? Pupils watch and discuss a video, read biographies of early Americans, chart the differences between early American religious movements, write journals and letters, draw, and...

Students trace James Brown's rise from "Little Junior" in Depression-era Augusta, Georgia, to the "Minister of the New Super Heavy Funk" and create a collage that captures his impact on American music.

The Harlem Renaissance brought forth many American art forms including jazz, and the writings of Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Using a carefully curated set of documents from the Library of Congress, pupils see the cultural...

Challenge readers of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath to create a museum exhibit that uses artifacts to focus on one issue raised by the award winning story of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the Joads.

A great writing exercise should have it all. This one requires learners to think critically about cause and effect, compare and contrast, and summarizing. They compose responses to five short answer questions regarding Spanish and...

Learners develop an understanding of the role of a musician, composer, and conductor. In this musician lesson, students examine the District of Columbia quarter and see that Duke Ellington is on the reverse side. They define performer,...

Practice writing paragraphs with this scaffolded worksheet. The "hamburger" model is used on the second page, following some examples and guided practice on the first page. Give beginning writers concrete, tangible support as they embark...

Students watch the series "Unforgiveable Blackness". They examine the media's response to Jack Johnson in the film. They role-play the role of reporters to compose poems of headlines.

Fifth graders wrote essays, interviewed family members, took photos of their activities, and tape recorded narration to accompany the photos.

Take poetry off the page and put it into terms of movement, physical space and, finally, music with this series of three lessons from the Smithsonian Institution. This resource introduces students to two poetic forms that originated as...

  Did you know that 50% of all Americans can trace a relative who traveled through Ellis Island? Relive these journeys with your class and then provide sentence strategy templates for them to use to compose their own informative...

“. . .different men often see the same subject in different lights. . .” but the great orator Patrick Henry used all the skills at his command to craft a speech to convince listeners to see things as he did--that liberty was worth dying...

In this creative music activity from Scientific American, students learn about musical notation and then design their own notations. Great web resource links are alsp provided

Students research the political traditions of the United States at the national and state levels. After discussing various symbols, students compose essays about the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

Students explore cubing as a graphic organizer to better explain the key concepts of the Civil Rights Movement and take positions on key concepts regarding the Movement.

The student will compose sentences using adjectives that describe windmills.Review adjectives. Write a noun on the board and have students name the appropriate adjectives. 2. Hand out worksheets and review directions for making windmill...

Students write persuasively through description and word choice while reviewing a topic of interest to them.

In this reading worksheet, students read each line and at the end of the line they write "correct" if the line is correct and if there is a word that should not be there, they write that word. Students complete this for 15 lines and then...