Lesson Plans
Digital Stories of Our Heroes
Students learn about U.S. history while adding to the collective American memory as they use interview and digital presentation skills to discover, elicit, and relate the stories of local veterans and others who contributed during times of conflict.
Alice Paul and Strong Women
Students analyze primary sources and the poem "Alice Paul" by Katharine Rolston Fisher to gain a deeper understanding of women suffragists and to make comparisons with a strong woman that they know. After, students might interview the woman or write a poem about her.
Children in Action
From recycling materials during World War II to wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, children have helped meet community goals during times of need. In this primary source inquiry, students explore how voluntarism and the civic action of children has been important to their communities in the past as well as today.
Primary Sources and Me
In this lesson geared towards kindergartners, students analyze primary sources to understand what primary sources are and how they help to tell the story of each unique member of a community.
Trade: Responsibility on the World Stage
In this lesson geared towards fifth graders, students analyze primary sources to understand the principles of fair trade and consider their responsibilities as global citizens.
Rules & Responsibilities
In this lesson geared towards kindergartners, students analyze primary sources to reinforce the definitions of rules and responsibilities and consider why rules matter and ways to be responsible at home and in the classroom as well as a ways to act as a responsible citizen of their local community and of the world.
Learning About (Dis)ability in History
Students—particularly young children learning about the world and their place in it—easily recognize common differences and (dis)abilities among classmates. This guided inquiry situates students to consider the (dis)abilities they see and do not see, both in history and today. The sources and strategies mix reading, writing, and thinking with history, civics, and social and emotional learning to spark, scaffold, and sustain students’ interests while providing students with opportunities for civic engagement.
One Today
Students analyze historical primary sources to deepen their understanding of presidential inaugurations, then read and listen to the inaugural poem, One Today, that Richard Blanco wrote and delivered at President Barack Obama's second inauguration in 2013. After, students consider their to hopes and dreams for the United States and create a poem to deliver at the next presidential inauguration.
This Is Not a Small Voice
Students analyze photographs from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and read the poem, This Is Not a Small Voice by Sonia Sanchez to consider the power of using one's voice. After, students consider how they could use their voices and create a poem inspired by the one they just read.
Prospects for Peace in the Middle East
Students analyze a set of political cartoons to deepen understanding of the conflict in the Middle East during the 1950s and 1960s and efforts made towards building peace. After, students conduct research to identify a major issue that is currently affecting efforts at brokering peace in the Middle East and create their own political cartoon illustrating the issue.