Curated OER
Spy on a Spider
Students view slides or live specimens to name and describe the distinguishing features of groups of arthropods, especially spiders and insects. They complete worksheets, observe webs and then search for and record where spiders can be...
Curated OER
Creatures from Planet X: Spiders
Students are given a description of some fascinating animals from "Planet X". They follow the descriptions given to illustrate one of these animals paying careful attention to introduced vocabulary such as 'appendages', 'receptors', and...
Curated OER
Facts, Feats and Folklore: Spiders
Students review and discuss a variety of sayings, folklore and superstitions about spiders. They discuss this information and choose either an interesting fact or appealing foklore tradition to illustrate.
Curated OER
Letters from the Japanese American Internment
Students make deductions about life in an internment camp by reading and comparing letters written to Clara Breed. Along the way, they consider the advantages of looking at a historical event from the multiple points of view of...
Curated OER
Fact and Opinion
In this fact and opinion instructional activity, students review the difference between fact and opinion and then identify 10 sentences as either fact or opinion.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Freedom Riders and Popular Music of the Civil Rights Movement
In this lesson plan, students will consider "The Freedom Riders and the Popular Music of the Civil Rights Movement." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Civil Rights Movement Photo Story Timeline
In this instructional activity students will be able to explain various events that took place during the Civil Rights Movement. The students will be divided into groups of 5. Each student within the group will receive an individual role...
PBS
Pbs: Jazz Music and the Crisis Over School Desegregation
Working in cooperative groups, your young scholars will learn how jazz musicians expressed the Civil Rights era in their music. This lesson focuses on the Civil Rights movement in Little Rock, Arkansas. Also, they will learn to about the...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Students "Sit" for Civil Rights
Read the book, "Freedom on the Menu" about the Greensboro Sit-Ins and use the background information and follow up activities provided to enhance the story.
PBS
Pbs: American Roots Music
If teaching a unit about the history of popular music in America, this PBS web site supporting their four-part TV broadcast of a few years ago would make a great resource. Includes lesson plans and oral histories too.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Sti Lesson 47: Get Up, Stand Up
This activity uses music from three different areas of the world and three different time periods in the 20th century to address the issue of civil rights for black populations.
English Club
English Club: History of Soul Music
Learn the history of soul music from its origins in gospel music, through Motown and Memphis Soul, to contemporary rhythm and blues. The site includes three videos: Sam Cooke singing "A Change is Gonna Come," from 1964, with images from...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Singing, Making of African American Identity: V. 3
An analysis of the role music played in the civil rights movement. The well known spiritual, "We Shall Overcome," is referenced as playing a key role in supporting this movement.
Black Past
Black Past: Jackson, Mahalia
This encyclopedia article tells the high points of Mahalia Jackson's life. She was a world-renowned gospel singer whose influence was felt in the civil rights movement.
PBS
Pbs: Jazz Is About Collaboration: Jim Crow Laws: Segregation
Engage your students in discussion about segregation and the Jim Crow laws with this in-depth lesson plan. Using jazz music, you will contrast the ways in which America's most significant contribution to the arts depended on...
PBS
Pbs: American Experience: "You Better Leave Segregation Alone" (Audio Clip)
Review this audio clip of a civil rights protest song that had a big impact on public opinion and that turned the tables on pro-segregationist whites.
Other
The Progressive Magazine
Homepage of the national magazine for peace and social justice, THE PROGRESSIVE. Read recent news regarding social justice here.
Other
Labor Arts: Labor Sings
Many songs, born of the American labor and civil rights movements, called people to action and were used to spread the messages of workers' rights and civil rights. Here you will find a nice collection of such songs. All songs in the...
PBS
Pbs Teachers: February One (Lessons on the Greensboro Sit in of 1960)
Find two lesson plans developed for a PBS documentary about the Greensboro Four, whose sit-in at a whites-only Woolworth's lunch counter was a key event in the unfolding history of the civil rights movement. The lessons ask students to...
PBS
Pbs: Independent Lens: Strange Fruit, the Film
Website on Strange Fruit, a documentary film about the history and legacy of the protest song "Strange Fruit." Includes the lyrics and audio for the song.
Black Past
Black Past: Cooke, Sam (1931 1964)
Sam Cooke's influence on music, as the pioneer in cross-over from gospel to rhythm and blues, is described in this encyclopedia entry. His music was important to the African-American identity in the Civil Rights movement.
A&E Television
History.com: Muhammad Ali: Boxing Legend ... And 2 Time Grammy Nominee
In 1964, the fighter was up for the music honor for a comedy album. Twelve years later, he was nominated again. The accomplishments of Muhammad Ali are renowned: Olympic gold medalist, heavyweight boxing champion, humanitarian, civil...
University of Virginia
University of Virginia Library: The Psychedelic '60S
This resource is a comprehensive online exhibit featuring 1960's American culture. Topics include civil rights, psychedelic drugs, rock music, social protest and cultural change.
University of Virginia
Psychedelic 60s: Literary Tradition and Social Change
This exhibition is an attempt to revisit, share, and interpret the 60s.