Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Real-Life History: Looking at Our Community

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Spend several days with your class exploring local history. Learners brainstorm and categorize sources of historical information as primary or secondary; collect and present artifacts from family/community; construct a definition of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Woody Guthrie: Life and Art

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Woody Guthrie will capture the imagination of even your most reluctant learners. Using his work, your class will develop their skills in non-fiction reading comprehension, interpreting primary source material, and use of multiple forms...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition: Corridos

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students create and perform Corridos which are oral tradition ballads. In this Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition lesson, students interview family members using a predetermined list of questions. In addition, students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Be a Sourceerer's Apprentice

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine and discuss various primary and secondary sources. They bring in an example of a primary source, explain how it is a primary source, and complete a worksheet about interviewing a primary source.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Japanese Family Crests

For Teachers 6th - 7th
Students create an artistic crest that represents either themselves, their group of friends, or their their family.
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Smithsonian Institution

A Life in Beads: The Stories a Plains Dress Can Tell

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Young learners discover how the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes preserved native culture through the making of traditional dresses, identifying the resources used to make the dresses and discussing behind the meaning behind some...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cultural Comparisons Interview

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students interview a family member and give an oral report. In this oral history lesson, students create interview questions relevant to an American historical period. Students interview a family member and present an oral report to the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Patriotic Arts: Influencing Canadians At War

For Teachers 3rd - 7th
Students study how war has shaped Canadian life, patriotism, propaganda, and music. They research primary source documents, novels, videos, and songs before celebrating Remembrance Day.
Worksheet
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Interpreting Photos Checklist

For Students 7th - 8th
In this interpreting photos checklist worksheet, students use the checklist to self-evaluate their presentation on the family photograph. The checklist is also used by the student's peers and teacher.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Our Changing Voices

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders examine their role in society. They search primary documents and assemble a family album.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

1950's Scavenger Hunt

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners encounter how to work together as a group to accomplish a common goal. They gain more experience in doing research using library reference materials as well as internet sources. Each group is responsible for making a bulletin...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Real-Life History

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students collect artifacts which are part of their family/community history. They gather at home and share in the classroom at a specified time when extra care and supervision might be provided.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Oregon Trail Art

For Teachers K - 6th
Students describe events that happened on the Oregon Trail and in the daily lives of Native Americans by writing a narrative essay of a family traveling through Nebraska based on Thomas Hart Benton's paintings.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Presidential Portrait: Andrew Jackson

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders examine the role of intended meaning in Ralph Earl's portrait of Andrew Jackson. They, in groups, research periods in Jackson's life and use gathered information to create their own portraits of Jackson.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Nellie Bly's Newspaper Club: Introducing the Science of Writing

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students evaluate a video about Nellie Bly, a famous reporter from the 19th century. They consider what makes a high-interest news article, write an essay in pairs and present it a literary tea.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mini Museum

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students brainstorm about the different types of museums and complete a worksheet by looking at artifacts and what they think that object did. They work together in groups to complete a KWL chart throughout the lesson.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Narration, Voice, and the Compson Family's New System

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers complete a variety of discussion and writing activities surrounding the study of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sybil Ludington's Ride - a poem

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders examine the role a teen from the Hudson Valley played in the American Revolution. They view the map of Sybil's ride and calculate the distance using the map's legend.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury: Benjy's Sense of Time and Narrative Voice

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students complete a variety of discussion and writing activities that highlight the concepts of time and narrative voice of Benjy by iam Faulkner.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Looking at Photographs

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students evaluate photographs as historical documents and photographs as propaganda.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Boston Massacre Comparison

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders become familiar with the events of the  Boston massacre and analyze the events.  In this artistic images lesson, 8th graders discuss examine pictures and discuss the viewpoint of the artist. Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Land, Liberty and the Struggle for the American Dream

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate equality by reading a historical fiction book in class.  In this civil rights lesson, students read the story Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry with their classmates and define the Jim Crow Laws that kept blacks...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Circulatory System--Part VI

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students outline a body on butcher paper. Students fill in the circulatory system using materials of various textures. Students decorate all the parts of the circulatory system with art articles, like buttons, yarn, etc.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Celebrate With Silhouettes

For Teachers K - 8th
Learners explore history of silhouettes, and help create keepsake silhouettes, frame them, or use them to make a special Mother's Day card.