The Western Migration Lesson Plan: Socratic Seminar

What is the American Dream and how is it achieved? This lesson focuses in particular on the rise of the American Dream during the 1950s and includes a variety of primary sources for class members to interact with as they explore this...

What would make someone leave home and travel thousands of miles to find another one? Young historians look at letters, demographic data, and artwork to answer the question for the Great Migration, or the movement of thousands of African...

Tackle ethics in your high school history classes with a Socratic seminar about torture as a means for obtaining information. The plan allows for pupils to take the reins during the seminar. On the first day, class members read several...

Mexican Repatriation: the forgotten deportation of American citizens. The resource focuses on the deportation of Mexican American citizens during the Great Depression. Young historians read documents, complete a free-write, and fill out...

Prepare your pupils for full-fledged political discussions with a scaffolded seminar process. Before talking about the topic, class members have a couple of days to respond to a question in writing, using the two listed reading...

New to the socratic seminar format? Check out a resource that not only provides the rationale for the procedure and step-by-step directions, but also provides a list of suggested topics, rules and model statements.

Key in the struggle to gain the rights of democratic citizenship was the April 1963 arrest of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil disobedience. To deepen their knowledge and understanding of events during the civil rights movement,...

Students read and discuss Socrates's "Crito" and examine the arguments he made supporting his own death penalty. They consider the still-relevant debate between the rights of the individual and the rule of law.

Learners explore the different experiences of the African-American migration to the West in an open-ended dialogue discussing the quote, the narrative, and the ultimate results of the western migration.

Using a variety of online resources, learners study life and society in California during the gold rush. They use a map to identify area where gold was located, explore pre-selected websites, describe mining practices, and create an...