Historical Tool Time

What would Ben do? Jumping off from the pseudonymous letters Ben Franklin fooled his older brother into publishing when he was still a teenager, young literary lovers dive into acting, writing, and addressing a local issue with wit and...

Campaign ads target both timely issues and general themes. Presidential campaign ads from 1952 and 1988 provide class members an opportunity to compare how the topics ads choose to address can dramatically influence election outcomes.

Students discuss current events in the world today. After choosing one to focus on, they identify the themes of Geography present in them and practice using new vocabulary. They use the internet to find all of the themes present in...

In this historical events learning exercise, students analyze a political cartoon about bank failure and respond to 2 talking point questions.

Learners propose a theme for an upcoming program on the History Channel, select a historical theme for the investigation, resarch topics that support the theme, and write a proposal to the producers of a television program.

Travel through Europe with ten-year-old Teddy Roosevelt in this writing activity, which uses the picture book My Tour of Europe: by Teddy Roosevelt, by Ellen Jackson. After reading the book, readers compare it to passages from The...

If your class is reading the historical fiction novel, Out of the Dust, then you are in luck. Here are a few slides that will help you provide historical context for the book, as well as define main characters, setting, symbolism, and...

Upper graders explore musical film and the Bohemian lifestyle common in Europe during the turn of the century through the musical Moulin Rouge. After listening to (or viewing) songs from the movie, they discuss the Bohemian era and how...