CHPCS
The United States in the 1920s: The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
Music, writing, and activism all tell the story of history! The resource uses these elements and more in a presentation to discuss the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. Your class views biographies, discusses important events, and...
ARKive
Seasons in the Woods
Winter in the cold Northwoods of Wisconsin can be hard on animals that aren't adapted to the climate. Investigate the animals that are out and about even in the coldest winter temperatures as you and your class examine animal...
Curated OER
WHERE DO I COME FROM?
Students analyze the struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties, the social and economic impact of the Great Depression, and the economic boom and social transformation of post-World War II United...
Curated OER
Social Studies, Music, The Blues, Urbanization, and Technology
Enable students to use the blues to explore urbanization, technology, and their effects on everyday life in the 20th century. Musicians were among the large number of people who, between 1914 and 1945, participated in the Great Migration...
Washington University in St. Louis
Teaching Jazz as American Culture
Jazz and the City, Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, Jazz and Gender, Jazz and Literature, Jazz and the Arts, Jazz and Film. Here's a packet of unit plans organized around themes that reflect American culture. Each unit examines how...
Curated OER
Great Gullah Story Telling Packet
Sixth graders examine the Creole language known as Gullah which is a form of speech comprised of a number of unrelated languages. They determine how slaves used this to communicate so that slave masters would not be able to understand...
Curated OER
Parallel Studies of the Afro-American and Puerto Rican Experience in America
Students compare/contrast the Afro-American and Puerto Rican experience as they migrated and assimilated in the U.S. They research and discuss the reasons for migration and the historical significance of economic autonomy and oppression.
Curated OER
Streamlines and Breadlines
Students explore the Great Depression. In this Great Depression lesson plan, students research selected websites and analyze primary sources to conduct inquiries regarding the depression, northern migration, and urbanization. Students...
Curated OER
Homeschooling Lesson: Sea Turtles
Students write down the names of common turtles and observe pictures of various types. In this sea turtles lesson, students review names and features of these animals, label and draw a picture. Students research habitat, migration,...
Scholastic
The Class Election from the Black Lagoon Storia Teaching Guide
One of my favorite things about this resource is that they use a standardized lexile to help you determine who should be reading what book. I also love this great teacher's guide for the book, The Class Election from the Black...
Curated OER
Dust Bowl Exodus: How Drought and the Depression Took Their Toll
Pupils examine the migration of refugees. In this California history instructional activity, students listen to their instructor present a lecture regarding the details of how the Dust Bowl and Great Depression led to a California...
Curated OER
The Great Migration
Sixth graders explore the uses of herbal plants. They read the book Pharmacy in the Forest and discuss the vocabulary words that pertain to the structure of a plant. Students create a summary of what they have read and watch a video on...
Curated OER
The Great Migration: Two American Tales
Students compare and contrast experiences of European immigrants and African American migrants in U.S. cities. After examining the topic, they write essays evaluating the differences and similarities of the groups' experiences.
US House of Representatives
Keeping the Faith: African Americans Return to Congress, 1929–1970
The third lesson plan in a unit that traces the history of African Americans serving in the US Congress examines the period from 1929 through 1970. After reading a contextual essay that details the few African Americans elected to...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Environment
A fiction and nonfiction text, The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry and I See a Kookaburra! Discovering Animal Habitats Around the World by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page begins a learning experience in...
Center for History Education
African Americans and the Democratic Party
Why did African American voters switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic party during the Depression Era? That is the question young historians attempt to answer as they study primary source documents from the period. The focus...
Penguin Books
Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald
A reading of Tanya Lee Stones' biography of Ella Fitzgerald lets middle schoolers get up close and personal with the First Lady of Jazz. Stone recounts details of Fitzgerald's life from her early days through her experiences as a teenage...
US House of Representatives
“‘The Negroes’ Temporary Farewell,” Jim Crow and the Exclusion of African Americans from Congress, 1887–1929
Despite some advances made during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, the period from 1887 through 1929, African Americans serving in Congress suffered severe setbacks due to Jim Crow Laws and voter suppression. Class members...
US House of Representatives
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Groups select a photograph from one of the four eras of African Americans in Congress and develop a five-minute presentation that provides background information about the image as well as its historical significance. The class compares...
Center for History Education
Blockbusting: Social and Economic Change through Real Estate
"Redlining," "Blockbusting," and "White Flight" may not be terms familiar to young historians. Here's a lesson that introduces middle schoolers to these terms and the actions associated with them. Class members examine a series of...
American Institute of Physics
African Americans and Life in a Secret City
Imagine the lure of being offered a job at a secret site, working on a secret project, and earning higher wages! Such was the approach used to recruit African Americans to Hanford, Washington, one of several sites used to develop...
Anti-Defamation League
Women's Suffrage, Racism, and Intersectionality
The Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote—as long as they were white. High schoolers read articles and essays about racism in the suffrage movement and consider how intersectionality played a role in the movement. Scholars...
Curated OER
Funerals and Burial Rites
Ninth graders research burial practices that originated in West Africa and then migrated to the South Carolina and Ohio. They compare and contrast burial practices in both places. As students collect information and data, they organize...
Curated OER
The Dust Bowl Odyssey
Great information, images, and wonderful higher-order thinking questions await your class. They'll discuss, consider, and examine multiple factors related to the Dust Bowl. A cross-media comparison is made between the historical events...