Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Immigrant Discrimination
For a class learning about Chinese and Irish immigration in America, here's a great starting lesson plan. It has your critical thinkers examining song lyrics, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and a political cartoon, and finally...
Curated OER
Diseases Are Real
Eleventh graders research industries that contribute to sanitation and pollution problems. They investigate the direct result of unhygienic practices including disease outbreaks or specific illnesses. They create a Power Point...
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Scotty T-Rex: Inspiring History All Year Round
Students study changes that occur in geological and historical time. They place themselves in relationship to the universe, the world, Canada, and Saskatchewan.
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Finding Our Place in Time
Learners utilize interviewing skills of an historian to research the time period of the 1970's. They use prior knowledge of the 1960's to explain the mood of the country in the 1970's.
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Did Disco Change America?
Students examine the economics of a time period along with the music.
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Bob Dylan: No Direction Home
Students hold panel discussions on selected topics about the 1960s and their impact on modern-day events. As visual reinforcement, they watch the film about Bob Dylan and research the music of the period as well as his musical...
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And Then One Night, The Making of Dead Man Walking: Classroom Content
Students examine how art and music help to define and unify a social movement and also how they can function as symbols of protest. They watch KQED program And Then One Night: The Making of Dead Man Walking and discuss what happens when...
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Patriotic Songs
First graders recognize patriotic songs of America. In this historical music lesson, 1st graders discuss the historical background of the song "Yankee Doodle" and repeat the lyrics after the instructor. Students read the lyrics to the...
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Arts of the Gilded Age
Learners study the art forms of the Gilded Age. In this integrated arts instructional activity, students research the art, music, dance, and drama of the historical era and then create their own personal projects that exemplify the time...
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Bossy Britain Upsets Colonists
Students examine the causes of dissatisfaction that led to the American Revolution. Then they make a Flap Vocabulary Book and glue on a map of the thirteen colonies and make a title page called "Road to War in it." Students also...
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Harlem Renaissance and Toni Morrison's Jazz
Students study the historical time of the Harlem Renaissance, including key events and figures. They read literature that weaves fiction and history and survey some of the references to the Harlem Renaissance in the novel, Jazz, by Toni...
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And We Were All in One Place: Youth Culture and the Rock Festival
Students explore historical youth culture events. In this youth culture lesson, students discover details regarding the Altamont, Woodstock, and Monterey concerts. Students conduct research that regarding the rock festivals and...
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Kidding Around In The 1980s
Students examine pop culture of the 1980s. In this historical time period lesson, students view a Smurfs cartoon from the 1980s and discuss its similarities and differences to cartoons today. Students work in groups to...
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History Talks
Students engage in a lesson that deals with a historical figure from the area of Mississippi. Then questions are asked of them using a game show format that is followed with additional ones used for brainstorming for more ideas of inquiry.
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Interview The Artists
Students examine athe role of art, music and film in Russian society.
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Write a Song About American History
Young scholars explore the historic background of the song, The Battle of New Orleans. Working in pairs, students research other historic events and write their own songs based on them.
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Isn't It Romantic?
Sixth graders investigate the ideas, literature, music, and art of the Romantic Movement. They apply romantic ideals to their original writing and art, analyze poetry, discuss key vocabulary, and analyze artwork from this era.
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Birth of a Nation
Fifth graders portray one of the actual framers of the Constitution. They summarize each class period with a journal entry and culminate the experience with the actual framing and signing (or not signing) of the Constitution.
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History, African Americans, The Blues
This lesson enables teachers to use blues music to explore the history of African Americans in the 20th century. By studying the content of blues songs, students can learn about the experiences and struggles of the working-class...
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Follow The Road to Riches
Students examine the various events occurring at the time of the Gold Rush. They see archival photographs and hear historians talk about this era. They create a time line in order to facilitate thinking about this region during the...
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Overcoming Censorship Through Art
Students create an art piece that expresses their opinions while circumventing hypothetical government restrictions in this instructional activity on art and government censorship. Emphasis is placed upon historical instances of...
Huntington Library
The Poetry and Prose of Langston Hughes
Eleventh graders discover the poetry of Langston Hughes. In this social issues lesson plan, 11th graders experience the views of Langston Hughes. Students read Hughes' poetry and discuss the basic theme. Students evaluate the political,...
Museum of the Moving Image
AdMaker, Nixon vs. Humphrey, “Convention” (1968)
After viewing the infamous 1968 Presidential campaign ad, "Convention," groups use AdMaker to create their own 30 second ad that features Richard Nixon rather than Hubert Humphrey.
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On Stage Tonight . . .
Eleventh graders explore the World Wide Web for information concerning the period known as "The Harlem Renaissance." They study the contributions made by African Americans in the areas of literature, art, and music during this period in...