National Endowment for the Humanities
Understanding the Context of Modernist Poetry
Students examine the historical, social, and cultural context of modernist poetry. They explore websites, complete a chart, compare/contrast rural and urban life, watch a video of early New York, and complete a writing assessment...
University of Iowa
Every Atom: Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”
Discussion questions for Walt Whitman's "Son of Myself" ask class members to reflect on the beauty that can be found in labor, the sense of identity that transcends divisions, and on the many riddles in Whitman's poem. ...
Annenberg Foundation
Social Realism
Many American writers in the late nineteenth century wanted their writing to reflect real life. Individuals watch and discuss a video, read and explore author biographies, write a journal entry and a poem, and complete a multimedia...
Curated OER
Other Voices - Latino and Chicano Literature and Identity in America
Twelfth graders analyze "Dedication" and "Child of the Americas" using a double-journal format. They compare responses and infer meaning from the connotations of select images in the poems write a paragraph describing the importance of...
Curated OER
Oh Say Can You See?
Students discover the meaning of patriotism through literature, songs, and poetry. They also identify patriotic symbols and activities such as the flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Star Spangled Banner, the bald eagle, and monuments.
Annenberg Foundation
Utopian Promise
Scholars learn all about the Puritans in the third installment of a 16-part lesson series. After watching a video, they read and discuss biographies of Puritans and Quakers from American history, write journal entries and poetry, and...
Annenberg Foundation
Native Voices
The Navajo people build their dwellings with the doors facing the rising sun in the east to welcome wealth and fortune. Pupils learn about the traditions of the Navajo people in the first part of a 16-part unit. They explore American...
Curated OER
Landforms
Students study how landforms affect all aspects of a community. Students work in groups to identify landforms from other works of art. In cooperative groups Students select a work of art depicting a particular land form and create a poem.
Reed Novel Studies
The Light in the Forest: Novel Study
"Make new friends but keep the old" is a wise saying. However, True Son, a main character in The Light in the Forest, struggles doing just that. Once living among the white people, he was taken into an Indian tribe for several years....
Curated OER
Stephen Crane - Surrealism and the Antihero
Learners analyze the work of Stephen Crane as a lesson on surrealism and an antihero. For this surrealism lesson, students complete discuss activities for the topic. Learners then analyze Crane's poetry, his use of surrealism, and the...
Curated OER
A Nation of Many Cultures
Young scholars create a presentation about themselves to share with the class. They include information from their family and their heritage. They compare and contrast their culture to their classmates.
Curated OER
A Taste of the Caribbean
Learners are introduced to the foods and traditions of the Caribbean. In groups, they brainstorm their own definition of culture and review the physical and political geography of the Caribbean. They spend time sampling different foods...
Curated OER
Longfellow Meets German Radical Poet Ferdinand Freiligrath
Students, after researching the backgrounds to both Longfellow and Freiligrath, examine and analyze selected works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow via his association with the German radical Ferdinand Freiligrath. They discuss and draw...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Two Views, Making of African American Identity: V. 2
Two poems that explore the struggles of African Americans in the early-twentieth century. Links to both poems by Fenton Johnson are provided, and illustrate the struggles experienced as black man in white America in the 1910s
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Race Problem, Making of African American Identity: V. 2
A poem, an address, and a painting that illustrate black political struggle in late-nineteenth-century America. This series of resources characterize "the Negro Problem" as "a concrete test of the underlying principles of the great...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Mexican Muralism: Los Tres Grandes David Siqueiros, Diego Rivera
Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Jose Clemente Orozco-known as Los tres grandes-cultivated an artistic style that defined Mexican identity following the Revolution. They crafted epic murals on the walls of highly visible, public buildings...