TPS Journal
Sourcing a Document: The First Thanksgiving
How reliable is a painting of the first Thanksgiving if it was created 300 years after the fact? Learners assess the validity of a primary source image to determine what it can actually reveal about this event.
Curated OER
Whose History Is It Anyway? Patterns in History
Read and examine primary source material in order to analyze, synthesize, and debate information about the Great Depression. Critical analysts research various source materials related to the Great Depression. They work in teams to...
Curated OER
Lesson 8: Prithee, Pause!
High school learners examine primary source materials on history and the supernatural which relate to Julius Caesar. They then act out a scene based on different historical understandings and identify facts, theories, and similarities in...
National WWII Museum
Evaluating the US Decision to Drop the Atomic Bombs
While the use of the atomic bomb was the definitive end of World War II, the terrible weapons left new questions. Young scholars use primary sources and analytical worksheets to consider the implications of the fateful decision. Then,...
Curated OER
Primary Sources and Protagonists: A Native American Literature Unit
Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...
National Woman's History Museum
Unsung Voices: Black Women and Their Role in Women's Suffrage
Reclaim perspectives often left out of the narrative about the suffrage movement with an activity that lifts up the voices of African American women. Using primary sources and biographical details of Fannie Barrier Williams' life, young...
Curated OER
Create a Walking Tour of San Francisco's Chinatown
Take a tour of Chinatown as it was in the 1800's. Analyzing primary source images and documents, learners will gain a better understanding of the myths and misconceptions of Chinese immigrants during the 1800's. They create a pamphlet to...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Chronicling and Mapping the Women's Suffrage Movement
While women's suffrage is often believed to be the result of a single constitutional amendment, the effort of women to secure the vote spanned decades and continents. Using primary sources in online archives, class members explore the...
National Constitution Center
Federalism, the Commerce Clause, and the Tenth Amendment
How do the state and federal governments relate to each other? The Constitution has a lot to say about that! Using an interactive online tool, pupils explore the Tenth Amendment. They apply their knowledge to political cartoons and news...
Curated OER
Forty Acres? The Question of Land at the War's End
Should land be redistributed to former slaves after the Civil War? This essential question guides a lesson on the Reconstruction Era, as learners analyze primary sources (linked), recording responses on a worksheet (linked). To model the...
Curated OER
Rights and the Wyandotte Constitution
Every state uses a set of rights to establish laws and regulations. Explore the Wyandotte Constitution as it was written in 1859 and compare it with how rights in Kansas have changed, especially those that pertain to gender and race. A...
Digital Public Library of America
Ida B. Wells and Anti-Lynching Activism
A packet of 13 primary sources provides young historians with insight into the anti-lynching activism of civil rights Ida B. Wells. Included are images of Wells, her letters, a political cartoon, newspaper lynching announcements, and a...
US National Archives
WWII: Asia 1939-45 – Singapore
The fall of Singapore in World War II was shocking news for the Allied forces—but why? High schoolers explore primary source documents and videos to determine why February 15, 1942 was a wake-up call to the British Empire and its allies...
Digital Public Library of America
The Fifteenth Amendment
Fifteen primary sources provide a context for a study of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The packet captures the excitement for the changes promised by the amendment as well as the backlash against it.
K20 LEARN
Show and Tell Museum - Investigating Primary Sources: Read and Interpret Primary Sources
Scholars become detectives in a lesson that focuses on primary sources. Learners practice their observational skills by examining the teacher's artifact and visiting the Show and Tell Museum that highlihgts items from peers and...
K20 LEARN
Examining The Boston Massacre Through Primary Sources
The Boston Massacre is the focus of a lesson that explores primary sources. Scholars examine two primary source images and discuss the different perspectives on the historical event. After groups read a researched account, they perform a...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Classifying and Evaluating Primary Sources
Let's take a walk—a gallery walk. Scholars complete a mid-unit assessment relating to Unbroken by taking a gallery walk to view the various primary source mediums. They then use organizers to select three sources and respond to...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Classifying and Evaluating Primary Sources
Let's go for a walk. Learners complete the mid-unit assessment by completing a gallery walk to analyze different primary sources discussed while reading A Mighty Long Way. After viewing the sources, class members complete organizers and...
Curated OER
Using Primary Sources
Students examine primary source documents about slavery in the United States. They evaluate the documents for the evidence they provide, reliability and bias. They present their evaluation to the class.
Curated OER
Coming to America: U.S. Immigration
Analyze primary source documents relating the conditions under with prompted American immigration. Learners will analyze information in order to create a six-panel pamphlet. Much of the lesson is not available but the key objectives are....
National Constitution Center
Voting Rights since the Fifteenth Amendment
What does it mean to have the right to vote? To what extent have interpretations of the Fifteenth Amendment changed over time? Young historians examine and analyze primary source documents, an interactive website, and historical analysis...
New York State Education Department
US History and Government Examination: June 2010
Just how successful were the reform movements of the ninteenth and twentieth centuries? Using documents ranging from the writings of Mother Jones to the marriage vows of Lucy Stone, individuals consider the question in a scaffolded...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Jacksonian Democracy and Indian Removal
Introduce a study of the presidency of Andrew Jackson with a instructional activity that uses video clips, primary source documents, group activities, and debates to examine Jackson's early life and career. The instructional activity...
New York State Education Department
US History and Government Examination: August 2012
Just how far can the American government go during war time? With primary source documents, learners consider the effects on restrictions of freedom of speech, the detention of American citizens of Japanese descent, and the Patriot Act...