Curated OER
Escritores de la historia de Chicago
Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin' town! Involve your Spanish class in a mini research project about a major event in the Windy City's history. They can choose the event (or you can assign one), and then they complete an eight-page packet...
Curated OER
Carl Sandburg's "Chicago": Bringing a Great City Alive
Carl Sandburg composed poetry that conveyed a time and place in American Literature and history. Learners identify the literary techniques he uses to describe the historical and cultural context of living in Chicago. They define the...
Smithsonian Institution
Borders and Community: Early 20th Century Chicago Neighborhoods and Ethnic Enclaves
Chicago is one city, four neighborhoods, and countless nationalities. The instructional activity explores the ethnic division of Chicago in the early twentieth century. Academics read primary sources, analyze maps, and tour an online...
CFR Washington
Urbanization and Wildlife
Urbanization and how it affects wildlife is the focus of a presentation that uses statistics to make a case for concern and change.
Polk Bros Foundation
Chicago: Choices and Changes
Chicago, a city that is ever changing. A thought-provoking lesson, geared toward third-grade social studies, explains how the city of Chicago has changed over time. It discusses important leaders to the founding of the city, like Daniel...
Curated OER
The blues highway: An integration of music with geography
Students analyze the movement of the blues from rural Mississippi to urban Chicago and how place and the environment affected the development of the blues. They define the blues, where it originated and how and why it moved to Chicago....
Curated OER
Urbanization As Seen Through Late 19c - Early 20c Architecture
Incorporating the cultures, architecture, and ethnic populations of several American cities (namely Chicago and New York), this presentation displays vivid photographs of buildings and people in 19th - 20th century urban America. The...
DePaul University
Chicago Changes
Scholars determine statements as fact or opinion in a practice page consisting of two reading passages followed by multiple choice and short answer questions. Fact and opinion passages detail information about Chicago and Ethiopia.
Curated OER
A Changing Society: Industrialization and Urbanization
Students participate in activities that teach them about the Gilded Age of industrialization and urbanization. In this social changing lesson plan, students answer questions, watch videos, have discussions, read texts, and more to teach...
Curated OER
The World's Fair of 1893: A Tribute to Agriculture and Advertising
Students identify connections between agriculture, advertising, and mail order catalogues during 1890s as expressed at World's Fair of 1893. Students interpret photographic exhibit and discuss how reactions of rural fair visitors...
Smithsonian Institution
Art to Zoo: Life in the Promised Land: African-American Migrants in Northern Cities, 1916-1940
This is a fantastic resource designed for learners to envision what it was like for the three million African-Americans who migrated to urban industrial centers of the northern United States between 1910 and 1940. After reading a...
Art Institute of Chicago
Urban Space
The use of perspective is clear in Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte. Pupils study and discuss this example, marking the vanishing points and horizon line of a photocopy of the piece. They then create their own urban scene...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Isn’t It Exciting? (The American Industrial Revolution and Urbanization)
America was built on the ingenuity, work ethic, and foresight of our ancestors. Sixth graders learn about the complex Gilded Age in American history, including the prominent inventors and captains of industry, and how they all connect...
DePaul University
Chicago Changer: Jane Addams
The power of a single person to change a community is amazing. Read about about how Jane Addams witnessed people living terrible lives in Chicago and chose to do everything she could to help them. When finished, young learners identify...
DePaul University
Breaking the Food Chain
Throughout history, the growth of big cities has resulted in the destruction of ecosystems. In the case of Chicago, IL, a grassland that was once home to bison, deer, wolves, and foxes quickly became a booming city of over three million...
DePaul University
Bold Plans, Big Dreams, City Progress
Determining which statements represent fact or the author's opinion in an integral part of reading informational text. Encourage seventh graders to read a passage about Barack Obama and the city of Chicago, as well as a passage focused...
Curated OER
Chicago's Amazing Growth
Students, in groups, collaboratively explore the rapid growth of Chicago (from 350 to 300,000 in less than 40 years), and how the city changed to accommodate such rapid growth.
Curated OER
Carl Sandburg's "Chicago": Bringing a Great City Alive
Students examine the historical and cultural context in Sandburg's poem. The poetic devices of personification and apostrophe are utilized in the poem and identified by Students.
Curated OER
Urban Geo Worksheet
In this urban geography worksheet, students respond to 20 short answer questions about urban geography after they have read a related article. The article is not included.
Curated OER
What is Art?
Students become familiar with the art and architecture and history of the Chicago World's Fair. In this public arts project instructional activity, students compare and contrast fine art and public art through a study of the...
Polk Bros Foundation
Governor Deval Patrick's Inaugural Speech
“America herself is an improbable journey.” So is Deval Patrick’s journey from the South Side of Chicago to the governorship of Massachusetts. The complete text of Patrick’s inaugural speech, delivered outdoors facing Boston Common,...
Curated OER
Communities
Students examine the similarities and differences between rural, suburban, and urban communities. They read about type of community in their social studies textbook, analyze the differences between Tokyo and Chicago, and complete a chart...
Curated OER
Street Cows
A light, and humorous lesson on "street cows" is here for you. Learners listen to the story, "Street Cows," which is embedded in the plan. On a map of the US and the World, they locate the cities where the "Cows on Parade" exhibit was...
DePaul University
A Garden in Lawndale
We are all capable of changing the world for the better; all it takes is a spark. Read about a group of seventh grade students in Chicago, IL who took it upon themselves to improve their community by turning a vacant lot into a garden....