Digital Public Library of America
Teaching Guide: Exploring Little Women
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...
Smithsonian Institution
Conflicting Voices of the Mexican War
Americans wanted to fulfill Manifest Destiny, and this pattern continued with the Mexican War. The resource specifically teaches about the Mexican War through a variety of exercises including a research project, group work, brainstorming...
University of Wisconsin
BEAM: Background, Exhibit, Argument, Method
Thinking of assigning a research paper? Get writers off on the right foot with a lesson that introduces the BEAM research model. Writers brainstorm the background of their topic, explicate the aspects of their topic, consider the...
Curated OER
Cameras and Careers
Applying photography basics they learn for this project, first graders take pictures of an adult at work focusing on the tools used, the work site, and job responsibilities. After making a career book that includes photos and...
Curated OER
Why is It That Johnny Can't Read?
Students listen to and discuss Don Henley's song, "Johnny Can't Read" and the 10,000 Maniacs song, "Cherry Tree." They research reading literacy and find statistics, evidence, stories, facts, and sources which will support their beliefs...
Curated OER
The Countries of Latin America
Fifth graders study the geography, culture, government and economy of Latin American countries. They work in groups to fill out a profile describing their Latin American country. They listen to a reading of Latin American folktales and...
Curated OER
Learning From World War II and Connecting It to the Present
Compare and contrast World War II to the modern Iraq war with this instructional activity. After watching a film, learners use supporting evidence to support their point of view of the conflicts. Using the internet, they create a...
Digital Writing and Research Lab's – Lesson Plans
Teaching Close Reading through Short Composition/Revision
This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...
Curated OER
Reading Poetry in the Middle Grades
Bring the beauty of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost to middle school language arts. After learners read a copy of the poem, they follow an instructional sequence that focuses on sound, figurative language, and theme.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Close Reading in the Classroom
Close reading is key to the analysis and interpretation of literature. A close reading of the title and the epigraph of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” offers readers an opportunity to examine how even single words or names can...
Rainforest Alliance
Who Takes Care of the Maya Forest Corridor?
Who keeps animals safe? Who keeps us safe? Discover the helpers that make learning and growing possible through a medley of activities that focus on habitats—ours and those in the rainforest. Scholars are asked to identify one helper who...
Stanford University
Fort Sumter
The headlines screamed what everyone knew was coming: War! While Fort Sumter was considered the first battle of the Civil War, the engagement played differently in newspapers at the time. Using coverage from Northern and Southern...
Curated OER
Circular Flows
To study circular flow, learners use the plans to trace through a series of interconnected economic and financial flows to explain the workings of the American economy. They use the model developed to comprehend the effects of Federal...
Curated OER
Relationships for Students in Middle School
Boundaries are important in relationships, no matter how close the relationship is. Middle schoolers explore the ideas of boundaries and personal space with two units about relationships. After discussing the boundaries in their own...
Middle Tennessee State University
Fights, Freedom, and Fraud: Voting Rights in the Reconstruction Era
As part of a study of post Civil War era, young historians investigate the changes in voting rights during the Reconstruction Era (1863-1876), the fraud involved in the Hayes-Tilden presidential election of 1876, and efforts by Pap...
University of Pennsylvania
Using Comic Strips to Teach Multiple Perspectives
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...
Middle Tennessee State University
The Declaration of Independence: Its Legacy and Ideas in Today’s World
How is it possible that such an old document still triggers modern discussions? Teach scholars why the Declaration of Independence is still so important today using an informative resource. They watch various educational videos, work in...
Facing History and Ourselves
Responding to Difference
James Berry's poem, "What Do We Do With a Difference?" launches a lesson that asks class members to consider the ways people respond when they encounter someone different from themselves. After analyzing the poem and discussing how they...
Facing History and Ourselves
Protesting Discrimination in Bristol
Using the Bristol Bus Boycott as a case study, class members examine the strategies and levels of power protesters used to effect change. The two-day instructional activity concludes with individuals reflecting on the actions they might...
Facing History and Ourselves
Blending In and Standing Out
An excerpt from Sarfraz Manzoor's memoir about how his experiences as a Pakistani growing up in England shaped the way he though about his identify provides a stimulus for a discussion of how experiences can shape our concept of identity...
Facing History and Ourselves
Making Rights Universal
Class members continue their discussion of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). After examining an infographic the summarizes the document, groups examine four of the rights to decide if they are or are not universal, and if...
Facing History and Ourselves
Defining Human Rights
Eleanor Roosevelt leads the drive to draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To begin a study of universal rights, class members create a definition of a right and compare it to the 1947 version. They then investigate Eleanor's...
Facing History and Ourselves
Standing Up to Hatred on Cable Street
The final lessons in this section of the Standing Up for Democracy unit ask class members to consider ways they can help create a "more humane, fair, and compassionate environment" in their communities. For context, learners study how...
Facing History and Ourselves
A Contested History
Memories of and interpretations of history change—that's the key takeaway from a lesson that has young historians compare the story of the Reconstruction Era as told by the historians of the Dunning School to the view of scholars today...
Other popular searches
- Library Skills Lesson Plans
- Library Skills Elementary
- Smart Board Library Skills
- Teaching Library Skills
- Library Skills Quizzes
- Library Skills Videos
- Library Skills Grade 7
- Library Skills Plan
- Library Skills and Esl
- December Library Skills
- Research Skills Library
- Library Skills Book Choice