This first in a series of four resources is designed for instructors to use Octavia E. Butler's Kindred in their classes. The packet includes an overview of the unit, a day-to-day calendar, links to background articles, and reading...

America was founded by dreamers, and the American dream still resonates in our country today. Track the American dream from its Puritan beginnings to its optimistic descendants with a instructional activity that focuses on speeches...

Walk, jog, or run across America. Maps of individual states, visual progress, competition, and rewards, seem to be great motivational ideas. Make sure that the distances that each class has to walk or run are the same, because getting...

In this set of five lessons, students analyze the important of food traditions, identity, and history. Students analyze how food traditions contribute to family identity, investigate family food traditions through interviews, and compare...

Students view the film 'Black Robe,' which further develop students' abilities to see an event or era of history from multiple perspectives. After the movie, they utilize worksheets imbedded in this plan to write about what they've seen.

Students, assessing a variety of sources, explore the growth of inventions that were brought about by the Industrial Revolution. They analyze labor practices and philosophies within the history of the United States. A timeline is set in...

Fifth graders examine the impact of Benjamin Franklin's ideas on the goods and services available in Colonial America as well as analyze the importance of Franklin to modern society. While listening to "How Ben Franklin Stole the...

Each slide has a grid to be filled in by a student or team. In order to have that spot active, the student must answer a question about the general history of America and national holidays correctly. There are 10 pages, and each has...

What important facts about Dr. Seuss influenced the Read Across America movement...? This is the driving question of a research project that requires scholars to find information about Dr. Seuss' life and work. Class...

Using this interactive map activity, from A Biography of America, explore how the "New West" evolved during the late 20th century, transforming from the wild, untamed Old Rocky Mountain West into a smaller, more accessible "New West."...

Young scholars explore the social policies of early America. In this etiquette lesson, students read George Washington's "110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation." Young scholars identify expectations for...

How can primary sources bring history to life? Scholars create detailed lesson plans on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in American history. The 17th installment of a 22-part program exploring American history examines...

Young scholars explore events and causes that led to American Revolution and examine popular pro-Patriot renderings and texts of these issues created both at that time and in later years. Students then prepare and deliver oral...

Class members compare the ways the subject of immigration is treated in The Tempest, Act I, scene ii, Act II, scene i and Act III, scene ii with patterns in American history. After tracing their own family’s journey, a series of...

Coyotes in Chicago? Yip. Middle schoolers demonstrate their ability to identify details that support the idea that coyotes are adaptable creatures.

From indentured servitude to involuntary race-based servitude, slavery has taken many forms in American history. Class members examine three manumission petitions that reveal how the rights of African Americans and African American...

Bring a time machine into your classroom with this writing instructional activity, in which young writers project themselves back in time and have a variety of choices from that point forward. They either write a conversation with a...

Just how do we live in a global society? Scholars investigate an AP review video to see the transition in the latter half of the 20th century to a global economy. The final video of nine installments helps them examine and analyze the...

Students use NASA satellite data to compare water vapor over the United States.  In this data analysis lesson students use an Excel spreadsheet to map their data. 

Is gun violence a big issue in America? Pupils explore gun deaths by type, race, and age group in a Math at the Core: Ratios interactive. The class tries to determine whether America is a safe place to live and use bar graphs and pie...

Students explore how the population decreased in native cultures.

The 1960's marked shifts in American culture, politics, and policy. Your class groups up to research a series of primary source documents resulting in a timeline and a 15 minute oral presentation. Active learning all the way.

Free Trade and Sailor's Rights! Pupils dive into America's first declared war, the War of 1812. They analyze the presidencies of Jefferson and Madison through diary entries and historical reasoning. To conclude the lesson, they use their...

Students investigate what constitutes an "un-American" activity and why Soviet espionage was such an important issue in the 1940's and 1950's. Joseph McCarthy's impact on American anticommunism is examined in this activity. There are...