Smithsonian Institution
A Life in Beads: The Stories a Plains Dress Can Tell
Young learners discover how the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes preserved native culture through the making of traditional dresses, identifying the resources used to make the dresses and discussing behind the meaning behind some...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
An African American Represents Alabama during Reconstruction
The era after the Civil War saw a flourishing of African Americans exercising their rights. Using graphic organizers and Internet research, pupils consider the legacy of Benjamin Sterling Turner, who sat in Congress. Afterward, they...
Prestwick House
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee's classic tale of Scout Finch's experience with prejudice and racism, To Kill a Mockingbird, provides the text for a 23-clue crossword puzzle.
Curated OER
The Russian Revolution
Students explore the Russian Revolution through dramatization. In this Russian Revolution lesson, students participate in drama workshops prior to writing and presenting one-act plays featuring figures of the revolution.
Curated OER
Genealogy Research
Personalize history through genealogy. Get your scholars examining their family's past by utilizing resources at your local genealogical society. Learners complete family pedigree charts and choose to do one of the following: research...
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
Analyzing the Inaugural Address
Get high school historians to step outside their own shoes by responding to JFK's inaugural address from the perspective of a civil rights activist, a soviet diplomat, or a Cuban exile. After a class discussion about the address,...
Curated OER
Farewell to Manzanar
Examine human resilience across two texts with a detailed unit. Over the course of a week, learners will conduct a close reading of excerpts from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar. The resource includes clear procedures for reading and...
San Antonio Independent School District
Breaking Down the Declaration of Independence
Are learners heavy sighing at the idea of reading a primary source, written in a language that is difficult to understand and in cursive? Look no further, because the resource breaks down the Declaration of Independence in an...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Contributors to the Common Good
Students research historical figures whose contributions had a positive impact on humanity. Their charts include major events, contributions, and changes and are enhanced with drawings of monuments representing the person's life.
Curated OER
Before We Travel, We Research
Young scholars conduct research on a historical site in preparation for a field trip. In small groups, they conduct research, and present the information to the class in the form of a PowerPoint presentation or poster.
Curated OER
Preserving History for Illuminating Today's Values and Traditions
Students use the processes of oral history and the latest technology to engage in historical inquiry and the preservation of the past. The work in cooperative groups or individually to discover and capture the past by interviewing family...
Curated OER
Telling the Stories the Past Tells Us
Students create historical stories based on factual evidence. In this Telling the Stories the Past Tells Us lesson, students write historical stories using strategies such as characters, plot, setting, and voice. Students analyze several...
Curated OER
Bill of Rights: Shapers of Meaning
High schoolers review the Bill of Rights as a class. In groups, they use the internet to research the contributions made by historical figures in forming these rights. They create a poster showing the information they collected and...
Curated OER
Analyzing and Evaluating Holocaust Literature
Learners examine the history of the Holocaust through literature. Using different pieces of literature, they critique the items in terms of being historical accurate and its value in telling the stories of the Holocaust. They create a...
Smithsonian Institution
Hidden George Washington: Word Search with a Twist
Learners identify significant people, places, events and milestones in George Washington's personal and professional life. They complete crossword using facts about George Washington.
Curated OER
History Talks
Students engage in a lesson that deals with a historical figure from the area of Mississippi. Then questions are asked of them using a game show format that is followed with additional ones used for brainstorming for more ideas of inquiry.
Curated OER
Will the Real Samuel Adams Please Stand Up
Students participate in a "To Tell The Truth" game show activity in order to determine the role of Sam Adams in the Revolutionary events that took place in the Boston area. They ask questions of three students posing as Sam Adams to...
Curated OER
Primary Sources in the Classroom: A Gold Rush Perspective
Learners develop and hone their historical inquiry and analytical abilities. They draw up a list of 20 essential items they would have to bring to survive one year as a Gold Rush stampeder.
Curated OER
1984: How Much Fact in Fiction?
Students compare and contrast the society in Orwell's 1984 with modern society. In this 1984 lesson, students research the historical climate in which Orwell wrote the novel. Students create a comparison chart of privacy issues in the...
Curated OER
Freedom is Not Free, Lest We Forget
Students explore the causes of the American Revolution. In this American Revolution lesson, students describe the major and important people of the Ameican Revolution. Students watch videos fill out timelines do Internet research to...
Curated OER
American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
Students explore daily life and its influences in the late 1700s for two families in different colonies- Delaware and Massachusetts by becoming historical detectives. After gathering information from artifacts to make inferences about...
Curated OER
All Aboard- Central Pacific Railroad
Second graders explore the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. In this U.S. history lesson plan, 2nd graders discuss vocabulary and events that occurred in the 1860s pertaining to the construction of the Central Pacific...
Curated OER
An Ancient Revolution: The Written Word
Young scholars examine the Bible, one of the earliest written sources, as a compilation of narratives, and search the resources on the HERITAGE DVD-ROM for historical "proof" as well as create their own stories and scripts based on...
Curated OER
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Students work in groups to imagine, research and simulate a dinner party involving an author, a fictional character, and a significant historical figure as dinner guests. The activity uses Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and the time...