Good primary resources, offering different perspectives on important issues and events, are hard to find. A packet of 12 primary source images, videos, audio recordings, records, and newspaper articles related to the 1960s civil rights...

Teach middle schoolers how to develop healthy relationships with activities and lessons designed to create a kind and inclusive classroom. Pupils create guidelines to develop a safe and civil learning environment. They learn how to...

After years of boiling tension, the presidency of Ronald Regan and the rise of Mikhail Gorbechev paved a new way forward for diplomacy between the United States and the Soviet Union. Using primary source documents, including letters...

Native American Nations ... sovereign entities or removable tribes? A thought-provoking lesson explores the relationship between Native American tribes and the United States, including forced assimilation and removal from their ancestral...

Bilingual education, voting rights, and Congressional redistricting come up often in the news. Explore these topics from another view—the perspectives of Hispanic members of Congress. Activities include an article with comprehension and...

A fast-paced activity focuses on the development of technology during World War I. Young historians match images of new technologies and complete a worksheet. Scholars also read an account of the war from the perspective of an American...

Much of history is distasteful. Primary sources often reveal attitudes acceptable at the time that no longer are. But to understand controversial historical events, historians must examine primary sources that represent a wide variety of...

The stories of bodies falling to the pavement and girls dying in their seats echo to the present day. The New York City Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire—which killed 147 people, mostly young women and girls—galvanized the labor movement...

What is the connection between farming and the environment? Scholars complete a worksheet to learn about the environmental impacts of farming. Next, individuals assume the identity of someone within a farming community and role play...

Who are you? Scholars draw a shield on the front of their journals that includes four items with which they identify and discuss them with a partner. Readers then use topic suggestions from the board to write about themselves on the...

Physicists Herman Branson and Tannie Stovall provide young scholars with two very different perceptions of the status of African American physicists in the 1960s. After reading and comparing the bios of these two men, class members read...

The activities in a lesson about stereotypes teach middle schoolers about the dangers of one-perception fits-all thinking. Participants learn how to check their perceptions by identifying ways to avoid stereotyping, like getting to know...

Middle schoolers weigh in on dress codes, specifically those that apply to hair and make-up, with a lesson that uses a 2017 case from a charter school in Massachusetts. Class members read about two girls suspended for violating the...

A 2014 case of locker room behavior in the National Football League offers high schoolers an opportunity to get involved in the conversation of bullying and abuse. Class members read about the case and analyze quotes that reveal...

A close examination of John Gast's painting "American Progress" launches a study of the concept of Manifest Destiny used to justify United States' policy of westward expansion. Young historians read statements from persons with different...

Art can enhance the understanding of history. That's the big idea in a lesson that has young scholars read Randall Jarrell's poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" and an excerpt from John Hersey's Hiroshima, which provide a...

The big idea in this lesson is that implicit bias often clouds perceptions. High schoolers watch a short video, read research articles, and engage in discussions about implicit bias and how these biases lead to stereotyping. They craft...

Explore the discrepancies in Florida's vote counting process in 2000 and 2002 with this New York Times reading lesson plan. Middle schoolers study the viewpoints presented in informational text, paying attention to how word choice...

HIV mutates rapidly, making treatments challenging to find. Scholars learn about why it mutates so quickly and how scientists race to find treatments. The resource approaches the issue from both a molecular and evolutionary perspective...

Grab a pencil and get ready to compose and answer three different questions related to the Ming Dynasty. Learners read and then write about the rise of the Dynasty, the Forbidden City of Beijing, and China's ethnocentric perspective...

Examine the perspective of a rural woman through a quote from Lucy Larcom's A New England Girlhood. In the passage, she discusses the lure of factory work. Pupils read the excerpt and respond to two document-based questions.

Chapter 10 of Malcolm X's Autobiography introduces readers to Elijah Muhammad's teachings. Discussion questions focusing on syntax and diction draw attention to how Malcolm X's perspective on Mr. Muhammad changes.

To what extent can the surrounding environment influence one's behavior? Temple Grandin explores her connection to animals and her unique ability to understand their behavior with a lesson plan focusing on her book, Animals in...

Keeping animals relaxed and comfortable has numerous benefits. Explore Temple Grandin's unique perspective on animal behavior with a lesson that concentrates on a central idea within the text. High schoolers prepare for the final...