Lesson Plans
Cesar Chavez & Good Citizenship
Using Cesar Chavez as an example, students read articles, analyze primary sources and create living pictures to consider how good citizens contribute to their communities and work together to affect change.
Pulling Down the Statue
Students analyze, then compare and contrast primary source images to investigate the historical removal of a monument. Next students read articles to to investigate contemporary events related to statue removals, then write an op-ed article that links their study of the past to the present situation.
The Art of Tribute
What can you learn about people by analyzing statues created to memorialize them? Who is worthy of a monument? Students consider these questions and more as they analyze primary sources. After, students research and evaluate the building of historical statues and monuments in the United States. Students then either create a drawing or small prototype of a statue of someone to be installed in the National Garden of American Heroes or write a short op-ed against the construction of the National Garden of American Heroes, sharing their work with their congressional representative.
Community Helpers
The importance of community helpers is a building block of civics understanding. Students investigate who community helpers are and how they have changed over time through primary source analysis, then match historical and contemporary images of community helpers. After, have students draw a picture of themselves as community helpers and/or a community helper in their community and share stories about those people.
Rosa Parks: A Proud Daughter
Students develop literacy skills as they analyze a greeting card to investigate families and the emotions they express and get introduced to civic activist and change maker Rosa Parks. The teacher's guide includes ideas for making connections to historical inquiry through further investigations of greeting cards in the Library's Rosa Parks Papers collection and applying what they learned by creating a card for a leader or relative who has done something unique or important for them.
Engine Company 54 lost 15 men, 9/11/01
Through analysis of a collage created post 9/11, students consider how art can help us to process and understand difficult events. After, they collect everyday materials to create a piece of art and an accompanying curator note that reflects on a contemporary event.
Illustrating America
Students explore the stories we tell when illustrating America through primary source analysis, reflection, and creation.
Capture the Flag
Students investigate primary sources to explore the various ways people use the United States flag to show characteristics such as pride, loyalty, and unity for the nation, then create a collage showing examples of celebration and remembrance. After, students can make connections by creating a collage, drawing, poem, video, etc., that shows how the flag makes them feel.
TB or Not TB: Disease Prevention
In this lesson, students use the example of tuberculosis to learn how scientists, the government, and public-interest organizations work together to ensure that the public has equal access to disease-prevention information and support. In Part I, students discuss the role of science in public health and play the role of “Disease Detectives” to learn more about tuberculosis from primary sources. In Part II, students participate in a gallery walk to analyze historic public health posters about disease prevention to learn about the people and groups responsible for fighting tuberculosis. In Part III, student groups apply what they have learned to create their own posters about disease prevention today.
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