National Park Service
Freedom at Antietam
Explore how the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation affected everyday individuals in the Civil War era. Learners are given the opportunity to read and evaluate primary and secondary source material, and then to compose a writing...
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Costco and Zoning
Students research zoning laws in the community. They interview city planners to find out necessary steps for approval. Students collect information about facilities being proposed. They write an article on their findings.
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Bird Interdisciplinary Possibilities
Students explore birds, their territory, breeding, and seasonal movement. They research and collect information on birds through writing letters to ornithologists, reading in books, comparing web sites, and observing pictures. Students...
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Turning Literature into News
Students analyze the format and structure of various newspaper articles. Then, they rewrite events from literature into news stories about acts of kindness.
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AIDS/HIV Awareness
Students begin the lesson by examining newspaper articles about HIV/AIDS. Individually, they read a newsletter and compare it with the newspaper articles they read earlier. They work together to create a poster to make people aware of...
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Cultura: Vias de Conciencia Ambiental
Pupils discuss what house and home represent in this country and read an article from a Venezuelan newspaper about environmental awareness. They create a Venn diagram that compares and contrasts environmental awareness and responsibility.
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Africanized Honey Bees And The Press
Students investigate how honey bees and other insects are portrayed in the press. read the articles and compare and contrast the tone of each article. Have students create a list of the verbs used in each article and assess the overall...
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Why Predict?
Twelfth graders examine the process of predicting. They observe a fine art transparency, discuss their predictions about the artwork, identify the types of predictions made during a weather broadcast, and evaluate headlines from...
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The Cost of Saving
Tenth graders compare accounts provided by the two newspaper articles with the visual account provided by Sue Coe. They articulate how those accounts are alike and different. Students consider the economic choices that made the Hamlet...
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Wright Brothers Centennial: Impact of Technological Advance
Eighth graders examine the impact of powered flight on the North Carolina coast. After reading news articles, they explain how the first flight affected community pride. They develop a hypothesis about the long-term economic impacts to...
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Spinning Your Wheels
Students read various articles related to transportation and land use. They cite textual references as they engage in panel discussions, shared inquiry discussions and debates. They write a persuasive essay on the topic.
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Economic Market Pain
High schoolers read and discuss article, and write an interpretation of the message for a class newspaper.
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The Aftermath of Genocide
Young scholars read and discuss articles written about the Rwandan genocide. They participate in a class discussion, and write a letter to the U.N. or a letter to the editor of their local newspaper.
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The Final Solution
Students distinguish between concentration, labor and death camps, describe conditions in concentration camps, read and discuss Night, by Elie Wiesel, and describe methods Nazis used to disguise true purpose of death camps and...
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Are You For Real?
Students try to find newspaper and magazine articles that are informative or persuasive. They practice determining the differences between the two types of articles. They identify the devices authors use to persuade the audience.
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Lessons from the Holocaust; Hitler's Germany
Students explore Nazi Germany by completing several worksheets. In this Adolf Hitler lesson, students identify Hitler's role in the holocaust, his role in the German community and his mindset. Students read the poem "The Hangman" by...
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Getting Fired Up
Students explore first-person accounts of volcanic eruptions throughout time and use second-hand information about volcanoes. They use both types of accounts to write news articles covering the events of a historic volcanic eruption as...
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Philanthropy in History
Students understand the importance of books in past and present societies. For this philanthropic lesson, students compare Andrew Carnegie and Benjamin Franklin's perspective on the importance of everyone being able to read. Students...
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Airplane Manufacturing in Kansas
Seventh graders determine how Kansas become a producer of airplanes. In this Kansas history lesson, 7th graders read selected Read Kansas! cards and articles. Students then discuss the primary sources they read regarding Wichita's growth...
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East Timor's Declaration of Independence?
Students examine the significance of the 8/30/99 vote in East Timor, which determined the territory's independence from Indonesian rule, by analyzing an NYT article to explain actions/reactions.
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Short Story Lesson Plan
Students read and discuss the short story, "The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm," by Mark Twain. They assume the role of the main characters in the story and write a humorous letter of complaint using a business letter format. They...
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"One Giant Leap for Mankind"
Students explore the significance of the Apollo 11 lunar landing by interviewing an adult for memories of the mission. They incorporate their interviews into news articles as 'journalists' in July 1969 to document this historic 'step for...
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Evaluating Nonfiction Texts
Students evaluate nonfiction text. In this evaluating nonfiction lesson students read two pieces of nonfiction text and respond with a short free-writing piece. Students discuss the content and focus on the accuracy.
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Progressives Perspectives
Eleventh graders consider the case for Progressive politics. In this Progressive Era lesson, 11th graders read excerpts from The Jungle as well as articles about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Students also analyze images...