Houston Independent School District
Creating a Successful Project
Guide your learners step by step through the process of designing an original, independent student project. This resource includes a wealth of worksheets and materials, including student project checklists, timelines, primary and...
Mr. Roughton
The Travels of Marco Polo
Were the stories of Marco Polo's travels and interactions with the Mongols actually true? Using an excerpt from the book The Travels of Marco Polo, your young historians will answer guiding questions to discuss the accuracy and...
Historical Thinking Matters
Rosa Parks: 3 Day Lesson
How can evidence and perspective challenge even the most well-known of stories? Through primary and secondary source analysis, think-alouds, and discussion, young historians evaluate the historical narrative of Rosa Parks across multiple...
K12 Reader
The Greatest President
Who is the greatest US president? George Washington? Abraham Lincoln? FDR? Find out the opinions of your young historians with this cross-curricular writing prompt that engages them in researching the accomplishments of these influential...
Curated OER
Research Paper Project
Break down some of the most foundational components of writing a research paper, such as incorporating and formatting citations, creating a thesis statement, and using quotes effectively, into manageable tasks for your young writers.
TCI
Picking Rusty Gold: Why Do People Buy and Sell Antiques?
Your historical sleuths will work to research the in-depth history of chosen artifacts and will use their research to design a fictional advertisement for an early 20th century item.
Learn NC
Buffalo Soldiers
"Stolen from Africa, brought to America,/Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival." Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldiers" provides high schoolers an opportunity to explore the rich history of the Rastafarians in Jamaica and the Buffalo...
EngageNY
Taking Notes Using a Graphic Organizer: Inferring About the Importance of Religion in Colonial America
Improve class understanding of colonial times by reading an informational text and filling out the accompanying graphic organizer. Class members work with a partner to read, take notes, make inferences, and synthesize information.The...
EngageNY
Taking Notes Using a Graphic Organizer: Inferring About Work and Play in Colonial America
What was life like in colonial America? Follow this lesson and your pupils will find out what people in colonial times did for work and for fun. Ask learners to compare and contrast the two texts and explain what the reading helped them...
EngageNY
Research: Identifying Categories for Our Research About the Wheelwright
Here is a fine lesson on reading and understanding expository text designed for 4th graders. With a partner, learners read a passage of text about a machine called a wheelright. This machine was commonly used in the colonial period....
Education World
A Walk Through The 20th Century
Learners review the people, places, and events of a particular decade of the 20th Century. They write a report about that decade and create a booth of memorabilia, music, dress, pictures and other artifacts representing the time period.
Curated OER
Night Compare Contrast
Using a constructivist approach and a graphic organizer, small groups work together to begin a paper, comparing and contrasting the novella Night and the movie Life is Beautiful. Assuming that your learners have studied both of these...
Curated OER
Understanding and Using Primary and Secondary Sources in History
Explore primary and secondary sources in this historical analysis lesson. Young researchers define the terms primary source and secondary source. They read a primary source document provided by the teacher and answer questions about the...
Novelinks
The Wednesday Wars: KWHL
What do you know about the Vietnam War? What do you want to find out? How to do you plan on finding this information? To gain an understanding of the backdrop of The Wednesday Wars, class members create a KWHL chart and then begin...
Student Handouts
Graphic Organizer: Reference Citations
Pupils practice researching sources and logging citation information with this graphic organizer. After posing a general topic, groups of students are asked to devise general questions about that topic, and to research sources that they...
Curated OER
Who is on that Bill? Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers
Students, who are adult learners, participate in an Internet scavenger hunt in order to assimilate information about the biography of Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers. They look at the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers...
Curated OER
History Personified
In 1856 Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts over the head with a cane. This event, which highlighted the acrimonious debate over the expansion of slavery, is the focus of a paper...
Curated OER
Cemetery Restoration Project
Who is buried in this tomb? Trek to a local cemetery, take pictures of markers, explore records, and conduct interviews to bring to life the stories behind the stones. Use Olympus and Tool Factory to coordinate and gather information...
Curated OER
Too Large to be a Lunatic Asylum: South Carolina’s Mental Health
Eighth graders examine the history of South Carolina's mental institutions. In this South Carolina history lesson, 8th graders discover details about asylums built in the state in the 1800's. Students analyze primary sources about mental...
Curated OER
Podcasting
Middle schoolers explore play writing. In this literacy and technology instructional activity, students choose a familiar historical event and write a play with the corresponding setting. Middle schoolers write text and dialogue,...
Curated OER
Video Biographies
Who was Alexander The Great? How did Abraham Lincoln’s early life influence his political life? Learners select a historical figure to use for video biography. After developing research questions and collecting information, pupils search...
PBS
Conceptualizing an Experiment
Students analyze information from a variety of sources in order to create a hypothesis about the origin of an interesting family artifact. They create alternative hypotheses based upon available information in order to understand that...
PBS
Classification
Students explore classification skills used in scientific research. They classify a variety of objects in order to compare and contrast. In addition, they analyze previously collected data in order to place items into meaningful groups.
PBS
Scavenger Hunt
Learners conduct field research of a historical site in order to discover a more complete understanding of a time period. They visit a site of historical significance and complete a scavenger hunt about the area.