In this historical letter writing worksheet, students choose an aspect of 19th century American life that is of interest. Students write a letter from the point of view of a person in this time. Students exchange letters with a partner...

The final lesson of a three-part series on Kate Chopin's The Awakening has scholars investigate life as a woman in late nineteenth-century America. They research the role of women in society through the eyes of the characters in the...

High schoolers investigate Native American culture reading and writing about early Native American authors. They listen to an expert to extend their understanding of the culture.

Students discuss meaning of symbols associated with Statue of Liberty, read and analyze Emma Lazarus' sonnet, "The New Colossus," and write persuasive letter to a nineteenth-century audience to gain support for bringing statue to America.

Attitudes toward women have changed radically in the last hundred years. The first lesson in a six-part unit that uses Kate Chopin's short story "The Story of an Hour" as an anchor text begins with a shared reading of "The Role of Women...

Kate Chopin's short story, "The Story of an Hour" and John H. Young's "Our Deportment, or the Manners, Conduct, and Dress of Refined Society" offer high school juniors an opportunity to compare the role of women in the 19th century with...

Travel back in time to the 1800s and research the Old West! Elementary and middle schoolers work with a partner to complete at least four activities from a list provided by the teacher. They use these activities to present their...

Many American writers in the late nineteenth century wanted their writing to reflect real life. Individuals watch and discuss a video, read and explore author biographies, write a journal entry and a poem, and complete a multimedia...

Through this set of three lessons about Ellis Island, class members will learn about why immigrants came to the United States, find out about the difficulties that went along with coming to America, become familiar with the immigration...

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...

What does an ad reveal about a culture, or about the values of its intended audience? Class members examine a series of runaway slave ads—one of which was written by Thomas Jefferson—and consider what these primary source documents...

Students explore 19th century American artwork.  In this cross curriculum New York history and art appreciation lesson, students view a reproduction of the painting "Situation of America, 1848," and identify visual symbols and...

Students examine the historical, social, and cultural context of modernist poetry. They explore websites, complete a chart, compare/contrast rural and urban life, watch a video of early New York, and complete a writing assessment...

Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and...

Students define terms "robber baron" and "captain of industry," list positive and negative actions of one or more captains of industry/robber barons, and take and support stand as to whether particular financier/industrialist is or is...

High schoolers discover about the varying attitudes and definitions of land ownership held by Native and European Americans. They study a variety of primary documents from the nineteenth century.

Stump speeches are the focus of this exercise that combines politics and language arts. After learning about this type of speech, the class listens to Obama's 2008 presidential campaign stump speech and answers a series of questions that...

Students examine how clothing for men and women has changed over time with their changing roles in society. Students work individually and in groups to complete the tasks in this lesson.

Terror, mystery, excitement. American writers of the 19th century, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson, used these elements to create morally ambiguous tales that challenged the prevailing belief in...

Learners examine Sojourner Truth's philanthropist acts during her life. They discover that everyone has the right to be heard by their government. They compare and contrast the woman's movement and the anti-slavery movement.

Students explore the the legends and myths of the Orient, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas in this six lessons unit. Different cultures and belief systems of the inhabitants of these areas are examined through storytelling techniques.

Eleventh graders compare and contrast the type of immigrant that came to America during the 19th and 20th centuries. They write letters as if they were immigrants coming to America and what they faced and their hopes for the future.

Why do we read primary source documents? What can they give us that other writings cannot? Provide your learners with any of the primary sources attached here (there are seven), and have them complete the graphic organizer (which opens...

Describe, analyze, compare and contrast poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Critical thinkers analyze the imagery, characterization, tone, symbolism, and historical context of Jacob Lawrence, Helene Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. A...