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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ethnographic Film: Representations of the Other in Media

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine how film represents different cultures. They think critically about these representations and how they affect people who are watching them.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Science Mystery: The Vinland Map

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research proof regarding the authenticity of the Vinland map. In this geography lesson plan, students hold a debate based on their research findings. They discuss which side won and write a short essay about their opinion on the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What's Important?

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students, through teacher modeling and guided practice, explore four steps/rules of summarizing. In groups, they read a short passage and then, by applying the summarization rules and skills, write an effective summary of it.
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Website
Other

Radford University: Prelude to European Settlement of Virginia

For Students 9th - 10th
This site traces the early voyages of explorers from Portugal and Spain who were trying to find new resources.
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Lesson Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: America in Class: Early Visual Representations of the New World

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A instructional activity that examines how Native Americans were portrayed by artists in the sixteenth century, whose aim was to convey their appearance to a European audience, and thereby encourage investment in future New World...
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Handout
Internet History Sourcebooks Project

Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: John Cabot: Voyage to North America, 1497

For Students 9th - 10th
Letters from Cabot to different people in his life that explain his exploration and his discoveries.
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Handout
Texas State Historical Association

Texas State Historical Association: Early European Exploration and Development

For Students 9th - 10th
A chronological timeline of early European exploration and development in Texas spanning from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
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Website
University of Groningen

American History: Essays: Europe's North South Conflicts Reach the Americas

For Students 9th - 10th
An essay detailing early English and French exploration and settlement in the New World to challenge Spanish control.
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Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The First Europeans

For Students 9th - 10th
The first Europeans to arrive in North America -- at least the first for whom there is solid evidence -- were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is...
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Graphic
Curated OER

Etc: Early Explorers of the Atlantic Coast, 1492 1620

For Students 9th - 10th
A map of the Atlantic coast of North America from the Labrador Peninsula and Gulf of St. Lawrence south to the Santee River in the Carolinas, showing the European explorations and settlements in the region between 1492 and 1620. The map...
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Native Cultures in the Americas

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
This lesson is part of a project-based, hands-on unit in which children discover the native cultures that existed in the Americas prior to the arrival of explorers. The young scholars will "become" part of their assigned culture through...
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Website
Mariners' Museum and Park

Mariners' Museum: The Ages of Exploration: Age of Discovery

For Students 4th - 8th
This Age of Discovery page presents naval artifacts and explorers of the 15th century to the early 17th century. It looks at European explorers who journeyed to North and South America, the search for the Northwest Passage, and...
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Article
A&E Television

History.com: Hispanic History Milestones: Timeline

For Students 9th - 10th
The American Hispanic/Latinx history is a rich, diverse and long one, with immigrants, refugees and Spanish-speaking or Indigenous people living in the United States since long before the nation was established. America's Hispanic...
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Graphic
Curated OER

Etc: Dev of Colonies and Early Western Explorations, 1700 1775

For Students 9th - 10th
A map of eastern North America showing the early development of the European colonies and westward exploration to the Mississippi River. The map shows the routes of several early explorers with dates of exploration, including La Salle,...
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Handout
State Library of North Carolina

N Cpedia: John W. Kinchelo, Iii: American Indians at European Contact

For Students 9th - 10th
Native Americans inhabited the New World long before European explorers began establishing settlements on the land. This entry addresses the challenges the natives had to face upon Europe's arrival, trials in relationships, and how...
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Graphic
Curated OER

Etc: Early Voyages of Spaniards in the West Indies, 1512 1580

For Students 9th - 10th
A map of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean showing the voyage routes of the early European explorers in the region between 1512 and 1580. The map shows the routes of Alonzo de Ojeda to Darien Colombia, Balboa to the Pacific, Juan Ponce de...
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Handout
Other

Texas Bob: The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca

For Students 9th - 10th
An English translation of Cabeza De Vaca's first-hand account of his journey and quest to claim territory from Florida to Mexico for Spain.
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Website
A&E Television

History.com: Amerigo Vespucci

For Students 5th - 8th
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian-born merchant and explorer who took part in early voyages to the New World on behalf of Spain around the late 15th century. By that time, the Vikings had established settlements in present-day North...
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Website
Walled Lake Consolidated Schools

Loon Lake Elementary School: Vasco Nunez De Balboa

For Students 9th - 10th
A brief biography of Spanish conquistador, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, featuring his successful voyage for Spain to the western coast of South America in the early sixteenth century.
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eBook
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: French and Dutch Exploration in the New World

For Students 9th - 10th
Outline text explaining how the French, Dutch, and English explorers began to make inroads into the Americans in the late 1500s and early 1600s.
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Graphic
Curated OER

Educational Technology Clearinghouse: Maps Etc: Sir John Lederer's Marches, 1672

For Students 9th - 10th
A facsimile of an early map (1672) showing the three routes taken by explorer John Lederer from the headwaters of the York River inland to the Appalachian Mountains between 1669 and 1670. The map is oriented with north to the right, and...