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.
What is Our Value?
Students analyze primary sources to investigate people whose lives may not have been adequately valued by their contemporaries and consider how those individuals could have been valued, and possibly assisted. After students create a song, diary entry, or podcast that addresses their historical investigations as well as their own contemporary viewpoints.
U.S. Constitution: Continuity and Change in the Governing of the United States
Students analyze primary sources to examine continuity and change in the governing of the United States, studying the Constitution and Bill of Rights, investigating important issues that confronted the first Congress, and examining current congressional debates over similar issues. After, students explore the historical effects of early Congressional decision-making in the establishment of national holidays, brainstorm reminiscent modern-day holidays, and consider why we commemorate special days.
Ancient Rome’s Veterans with Disabilities: Roman Accounts and U.S. Veteran Comparisons
Students compare how two societies separated by centuries think about and act toward veterans who live with a disability.
Who Should Care for America’s Veterans?
Students investigate the U.S. government’s role in the care of returning soldiers throughout history, then craft a proposal to the Veterans Affairs Department outlining how returning veterans today should be cared for that addresses medical care (both physical and mental health), job training/search, education, and housing.
Bonus Veterans
Students analyze primary sources to learn about the Bonus Army and to consider the question, How does informing ourselves about the past guide us in the future?