Curated OER
Cultural and Social Transformations Since 1865
Students research cultural and social issues in the areas of Westward Expansion, Immigration, and Civil Rights. They use their research to create a PowerPoint electronic book to be used by other students.
Curated OER
Responding: "Guerrilla" Art
Eighth graders examine a new kind of art that is used to respond to political and social issues. Using primary source documents, they read examples of how others have responded to various issues in the past. Individually, they create...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Effects of Name-Calling
Students examine name-calling issues by reading stories, essays and poems. After reading the selections, they discuss the problems and effects of name-calling and bullying. In groups, they present summaries of the materials read. ...
National First Ladies' Library
Women's Lives in the Victorian Era
The lives of middle-class Victorian women were circumscribed by strict standards that governed all aspects of behavior. To gain a better understanding of the Victorian Ideals for women, class members research the life of a middle-class...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Global Women and Poverty
Students conduct research and make comparisons about various global economies. Create graphic organizers to present their research findings and illustrate solutions to problems. Students discuss and debate issues based on what they have...
Curated OER
"ART ZOO 'Blacks in the Westward Movement', 'What Can You Do with a Portrait', and 'Of Beetles, Worms, and Leaves of Grass'"
Students study black history, examine portraits and portrait making and create their own portraits, and investigate their natural environment. This humanities lesson provides a text that can be used to teach lessons in black...
Curated OER
Picture Collage Book Report: Voltaire's Candide
Here's an alternative to a traditional book report for your class to demonstrate that they understand and can articulate the main character's evolution and the social themes presented in Voltaire's satirical novel Candide. Your young...
Curated OER
Peace Posters
Learners focus on a theme to create a poster or collage. In this theme based art project, students communicate their peace theme through drawings to communicate their present feeling and ideas. Learners learn the emotions conveyed in the...
Online Publications
Become a Journalist
Explore the newspaper as a unique entity with a detailed and extended unit. The unit requires learners to consider the newspaper's role in democracy, think about ethics, practice writing and interviewing, and examine advertising and news...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
I Need a Superhero
Once the class learns about the hero's journey, they'll find it in every story and movie they see! Take characters from their humble beginnings to their atonement and apotheosis with a set of lessons about the hero's journey...
Curated OER
Debating the Depression
Twelfth graders discover how to debate important social issues in a civil manner. They explain the importance of knowledge in public discourse.
Curated OER
Bands Reunited: The English Beat and Berlin
Young scholars listen to and discuss popular music that addresses political and social issues of oppression, but in a joyful way. They role play as artistic teams and plan a music video that may be used for a specific song.
Curated OER
Acting Out or "as the School Turns"
Students learn the idea of drama in their own lives; and then transfer that idea to the works of others in this series of lessons. They discuss the question of identity.
Curated OER
The Future of the Social Security System: Will it Accommodate Future Generations of Americans?
Students investigate the future of the U.S. Social Security program. They conduct research, write journal entries, meet and interview a State representative, create a web page with links, and develop a solution for the Social Security...
Curated OER
Social Sstudies: Change in Space and Time
Students examine the dynamics of change and compare and contrast it with other cultures. They cite examples of how people change over time and explain why it is necessary. Students organize a skit, Webpage, or Powerpoint presentation...
Curated OER
Art, Literature, & Environment
Students communicate their thoughts on the environment by creating picture books for middle school students. Students include their thoughts on population, deforestation, water, energy, endangered species, and waste in their picture...
Curated OER
An Issue of Loyalty: Exploring the Treatment of Japanese Americans During World War II
Students consider the meaning of loyalty. They explore the history of Japanese in the United States. and consider the meaning of citizenship. They create a presentation for the class. It can be a poster, Power Point or other...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Twinning At-Risk Students
Students at-risk in high school and primary grades pair up to read and write together. They create books modeled after authors and illustrators. They hold a parents' day to display their completed books.
Curated OER
Clothing and Social Change in America
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 plan.
Curated OER
Art to Zoo: Memorials: Art for Remembering
Students examine how people from different societies and cultures remember those whom they have lost. In this lesson students analyze memorials from around the world, create their own, and find memorials that they have in their own homes.
Curated OER
The Art of Political Cartoons in Revolutionary America
Students analyze political cartoons. In this colonial America lesson, students examine the provided political cartoons and respond to analytical questions about each of them.
Curated OER
Making Art That Matters
High schoolers plan and execute a mural, in small groups, that attempts to protest or persuade. They focus on effective definition of shape, use of symbols, and impact on their intended viewers.
Curated OER
Art to Zoo: India-Where Remarkable Differences Are Ordinary
Students "visit" India to learn about its culture and the lives of children in India. In this India lesson, students conduct research and report on the lives of Indian children in the form of a mock interview between a journalist and an...
NPR
Suffrage Lesson Plan
Has life changed for American women in the last century, or are there common themes between the lives of 21st century women and the struggle of suffragettes from the 1910s? Explore the ways media reflects the position of women...