Experience the Challenge of Being Pete Gray

The construction of skyscrapers is no simple undertaking, involving the careful coordination and planning of many different people. The third lesson in this series explores this detailed process by first teaching children about the main...

A key challenge in teaching kids how to read informational text, particularly primary source documents, is finding suitable resources and then developing questions that guide readers. Never fear, help is here in the form of a series...

In this primary source analysis learning exercise, students respond to 25 short answer questions that require them to analyze a photograph from the Tennessee State Archives.

Winston Churchill is a larger-than-life figure, designated by the BBC as the most important figure of the twentieth century. Yet, his political career began long before World War II, and it was marked with failure. A well-rounded...

Photos can challenge stereotypes. To gain an understanding of the big picture, groups examine a series of photographs and analyze how a photographer's choices can shape a viewer's reaction to an image. For the first set of photographs,...

A social justice lesson focuses on the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia which struck down laws that prohibited marriages between African Americans and white Americans. The lesson begins with class members examining a photograph of...

Contains the text of a Lewis M. Clement's 1887 statement to the U.S. Pacific Railway Commission, which gives a clear and succinct accounting of the costs incurred and the problems encountered in building the Central Pacific Railroad.

Contains a series of letters published in May and June, 1869, in the "New York Tribune" written by Albert D. Richardson, one of the first people to travel on the transcontinental railroad from coast to coast.

What makes an event newsworthy, worth a reference in a news magazine or textbook? Who decides? These are questions Marilyn Nelson asks readers of her poem "Making History" to consider. To begin, class members list details they notice in...

Students examine a historical photograph to gather information and draw conclusions.