Curated OER
1900 America: Historical Voices, Poetic Visions
Students examine the United States at the turn of the century. Using primary source documents, they interpret them within a specific historical context. Using this information, they write a poem with metaphors and a specific meter They...
Curated OER
Mosaic America: Patterns of Racism
Seventh graders use print and electronic resources to gather and analyze information on the political system in the United States. Using the Constitution, they identify and discuss instances of racism included in amendments and laws. ...
Smithsonian Institution
Art to Zoo: Life in the Promised Land: African-American Migrants in Northern Cities, 1916-1940
This is a fantastic resource designed for learners to envision what it was like for the three million African-Americans who migrated to urban industrial centers of the northern United States between 1910 and 1940. After reading a...
Curated OER
Tall Tales and Urban Legends
Students identify and interpret what tall tales, urban legends, and cyberlore are and to find them in their own lives. They practice telling and listening to these types of tales and explore why people tell them. Students also identify...
Curated OER
U.S. Geography: The Northeast
Young scholars investigate U.S. Geography by creating a map in class. In this natural resource lesson, students create a map of the United States and research the Northeast based on their resources and recyclable materials. Young...
Curated OER
Regions of the United States
Learners present a travelogue, an alternate format to preparing their writing, of a specific U.S. geographic region that includes the aspects of population, climate, landforms, economics, culture, famous people and places and natural...
Curated OER
Family Life in America: Past, Present and Future
Ninth graders brainstorm the economic and social functions of a family. In groups, they research the roles of each member of a family in the past and compare it with their family today. In groups, they develop criteria for what the...
Curated OER
Geography, Ecology, and Folklife
Students identify how do geography and ecology influence a region's folklife. Then they investigate this question and consider how an outsider might view their own region in this lesson. Students also identify how the natural world, even...
Curated OER
Washington Irving in Context
Students examine the various roles Washington Irving had in his lifetime. Examining the situation in Europe and the United States, they are encouraged to relate Irving's experiences to different events. They examine themselves in many...
DePaul University
Chicago Changer: Jane Addams
The power of a single person to change a community is amazing. Read about about how Jane Addams witnessed people living terrible lives in Chicago and chose to do everything she could to help them. When finished, young learners identify...
DePaul University
Contrast and Evaluate Fact and Opinion
How can you tell when an author is expression an opinion or stating a fact? Use two short reading selections to emphasize the difference between a statement that you can prove and one that you can't. The first passage explains food...
Curated OER
Looking North Of The Greek World: The Slavic Folk Poetry of The Balkans
Showing how folk poetry keeps alive national heritage is the stated goal of this proposal for a unit on the poetry of the Balkans.
Curated OER
US Geography, The Blues
This lesson enables teachers to use blues styles and performers to think about various geographical regions of the United States. By studying different blues styles from the Mississippi Delta, Texas, and the Piedmont region of the...
Curated OER
Come Fly with Me . . . Open a Book: Travels through Literature
This detailed overview of a curriculum unit suggests using travel literature to engage and stimulate your third graders’ interest in reading. The suggested reading list includes fiction and non-fiction materials and offers urban children...
Curated OER
Trade Barriers
Students write an editorial piece which takes a position supporting or opposing the free trade policy during the 1790s. After identifying barriers to trade in the 1790s they analyze how their position on the free trade would fit into...
Yale University
The Harlem Renaissance: Black American Traditions
Aaron Douglas, Meta Warrick Fuller, Palmer Hayden, William Johnson, and James Lesesne Wells, the painters and sculptors of the Harlem Renaissance, are featured in a unit study of artists of the Harlem Renaissance.
Curated OER
The Immigrant Experience In America
Learners study immigration, Ellis Island, and tenement life from 1890 to 1924. Each student create an identity of an immigrant and write an essay in the first person. Essays describe what they found when they arrived in New York City.
Curated OER
Creating Community - A Function Of Design
Young scholars discuss the physical and human impacts of community design. They identify traditional neighborhood design elements and evaluate them with features of conventional suburban development.
Pulitzer Center
China's Rising Labor Movement
Young historians will explore the complex causes and effects of industrialization in China by perusing the numerous articles included in this webpage. Throughout the resource, there are many writing and discussion prompts to help direct...
Curated OER
Urban Concentration and Racial Violence
Students research one of the many urban race riots in U.S. history, from the New York City riots during the Civil War to the "Red Summer of 1919" or the hate-strikes of 1943. They present their findings in the form of a newspaper's front...
Global Oneness Project
Relocating Residents: The Impact of Housing on Community
Sama Maydani and Sarah Kuck's film, Even the Walls, that explores the benefits and drawbacks of gentrification in downtown Seattle, asks viewers to consider how houses, apartment buildings, and outdoor spaces can be designed to build a...
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Two: Why is Biodiversity Important?
Explore soil, genetic traits, natural resources, and pollution in a series of lessons that focus on biodiversity. Kids complete experiments to learn more about the importance of varied genes and organisms in an ecosystem.
Curated OER
Candidate Obama Support and President Obama's Agenda
Students research categories within President Obama's agenda and create a PowerPoint presentation. In this President Obama agenda lesson plan, students research a category within President Obama's agenda and present their topic in a...
Curated OER
Places in My World
Second graders explore where they are located on the globe. In this maps and globes lesson, 2nd graders use a map to show where they live and show the cardinal directions. Students identify characteristics of mountains, flat land,...