When I Was Your Age...

To better understand the migrant experience during the Great Depression, pupils analyze two primary resources: photographs by Dorothea Lange and a U.S. Map that shows the Dust Bowl. They compare and contrast Lange's images to Steinbeck's...

It looks like a cracker, but hardtack was anything but. The staple of the Civil War soldier's diet is one of many aspects of military life that scholars consider using letters from soldiers back home and images from slavery. A PowerPoint...

Science, engineering, and United States history? Pupils research collections of artifacts from the Smithsonian to learn about historical scientific innovations. At the end of the lesson plan, they write an essay to discuss...

As part of a case study of U.S. immigration during the first part of the 20th century, class members examine a variety of primary sources that present multiple perspectives of the responses of those in favor of immigration and those...

What is family? Challenge your scholars to write an encompassing definition of what this word means to them. After reading "It May Be a Family Matter, But Just Try to Define Family," class members discuss the emotional issues surrounding...

Explore the history of immigration through photographs. Scholars will view and discuss photographs depicting the culture and lifestyle of late 19th and early 20th century immigrants. They take pictures of current examples of culture in...

Scholars view comics from two different perspectives; one paints the Alfred Dreyfus as innocent, while the other portrays the exact opposite. They solve the mystery of what happened by analyzing the source, working in groups, and...

Ninth graders investigate the country of Canada by examining their media in this geography lesson. They use the Internet to research Canadian newspapers and analyze a topic covered by both US and Canadian media sources. After comparing...

A reading of a New York Times review of the movie Beloved launches research into how the Civil War affected the lives of people living during this period. Creative thinkers select a person from an included list of historical figures and...

What does "freedom of speech" mean to your class, especially in the context of Internet communications? In round-table discussion format, middle and high schoolers address the issues discussed in "State Legislatures Across U.S. Plan to...