Curated OER
Mexican American Labor in the U.S.
Students research the history of immigration, particularly from the perspective of Mexicans and Mexican Americans. For this Mexican American labor lesson, students research questions from the perspective of an assigned group. Students...
Curated OER
News From Home
Students investigate the feelings of Iranian immigrants in California by reading an online article. They write an article on immigrants' thoughts on current events in their home countries.
Curated OER
The Great Migration
Students explore the issue of immigration. They interview someone who came here recently from a place where English is not the first language, research their place of origin and answer discussion questions.
Curated OER
Gold Mountain
Young scholars read primary and secondary sources to find jobs as a Chinese immigrant. In groups they create a chart listing jobs for Chinese and write a letter about employment and living conditions to a Chinese friend.
Curated OER
Gone to Texas
Fourth graders role play as empresarios attempting to bring colonists to Texas in the 1800's. They create an advertisement that encourages the immigrants to come to Texas.
Curated OER
Case studies in journalistic ethics No. 1
High schoolers examine the importance and responsibilities of journalists through examination of illegal immigration. In this journalistic ethics instructional activity students analyze scenarios and look at the pros and cons of illegal...
Curated OER
The Land of Milk and Honey: Reasons for Migration
Fourth graders analyze migration patterns. In this colonial North Carolina lesson, 4th graders listen to their instructor present a lecture regarding the details of immigrants from Switzerland who settled North Carolina....
Curated OER
Different Strokes
Students explore a Maine community in which a sudden influx of Somali immigrants has resulted in tension between the Somalis and the local residents. They create a handbook explaining aspects of the Somali culture to an American audience.
Curated OER
COMING TO AMERICA: THE NEW IMMIGRANTS
Learners become involved in the process of interpreting history by looking at primary source documents. This promotes critical thinking skills and comprehension of concepts and their relationships to different time periods through...
Curated OER
Coming To America
Students investigate the history of America with the help of children's literature. The story is structured as a timeline that begins at the time of Columbus and progresses to the present. The teacher reads the story with the class and...
NPR
Exploring the American Dream
What is the American Dream? When did this term first gain popularity? Intermediate and advanced English language learners discuss the idea of the American Dream and conduct out-of-class interviews with those who immigrated to the US. On...
C-SPAN
Presidential Candidate Research
Don't let the young citizens in your social studies class get all their election information from inflammatory commercials and arguing pundits. Use a lesson plan from C-SPAN to guide class members through an election season with a...
Curated OER
1850s: Road to Secession
Detailing the political and social events leading up to the Civil War, this presentation provides students with maps, political cartoons, and photographs to put this time period into historical context. The Presidential Elections of...
Curated OER
Key Ingredients: America by Food
Students participate in a series of activities to explore the types of food Americans eat, how food choices differ in various parts of the country, and how the availability of various foods has changed over time.
Curated OER
The Kennedys: An American Camelot?
A life in pictures makes sense for a frontline public family like the Kennedys. Slides depict the parents and each sibling as successful, sad, or tragic. The initial slide provides two web links for information to go along with the images.
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Charisma vs. Experience
Which is more important for a president: experience or charisma? Scholars consider this as they analyze 2 political cartoons in this analysis handout. Background information gives context through a quote from The Telegraph, and 3 talking...
Curated OER
Islam in America
Learners examine the cultural and religious diversity within the United States. Using the differences, they discover they are a source of growth and change as well as conflict. They identify the changes that occur when new immigrants...
Curated OER
Immigration Explorations
Students visit John Schick's Virtual Ellis Island Museum in order to complete research and evaluate how students created their site, how they structured the site, and what sort of information and graphics they included. This list is...
Curated OER
The Eerie Canal
Learners discover bodies of water in the United States by investigating the Eerie Canal. In this U.S. Geography lesson plan, students discuss Lake Eerie and the canal that was built in order to transport goods. Learners...
Curated OER
Immigrant Role-Playing
Students role-play as immigrants coming to America during the early 1900's. They conduct Internet research printing out pictures and reading biographies. Students use the information gathered to create scrapbooks in which the write...
Curated OER
Federalism: The Nation and The States
Twelfth graders discuss the division of powers between national and state governments. Groups create a PowerPoint slide representing one of the 3 types of powers.
Teaching Tolerance
The Power of Words: Ethnocentrism and Xenophobia
Students discover articles of current events dealing with the experiences of immigrants in the United States. They brainstorm words used to describe immigrants. They answer questions to end the instructional activity.
Curated OER
In the Melting Pot
Students work in small groups, each group examining a different aspect of the immigration process (such as visas, work permits, and citizenship exams) or of illegal immigration (such as deportation), to better explain the immigration...
Curated OER
The House at 97 Orchard Street
Students examine the living quarters and belongings of immigrant families living in one tenement building spanning the years from 1830 to 1940. They explain how the national background of immigrants added to the "melting pot" of American...