Lesson 4: Victory in the Pacific, 1943–1945

The U.S. victory over the Japanese Navy at Midway succeeded in stopping the Axis advance in the Pacific, and by early 1943 the Marines had driven the Japanese from Guadalcanal. This lesson will guide students through the military campaigns of the Pacific theater, tracing the path of the Allied offensives.

The Olympic Medal: It's All Greek to Us!

Students are bound to be curious to know what all that Greek writing means. This lesson plan uses an EDSITEment created Greek alphabet animation

to help students "decode" the inscription on the Olympic medal. Because the Olympic medal is both a familiar and mysterious object for students, it presents an ideal prompt to build basic literacy in the Greek alphabet. Thus, this lesson uses the Athens 2004 medal inscription as an elementary "text" to help students practice reading Greek and to help reinforce the link between ancient Greek culture and the Olympic games.

The Victor's Virtue: A Cultural History of Sport

Students may know that there are two components of a modern education that are closely associated with ancient Greek culture: philosophy and sports. To what extent does the role and value of sports in modern high schools resemble the role and value of sports in an ancient Greek education?

Thoreau's Circle: Who's Who in Transcendentalism

This resource is intended to assist students in drawing interconnections between members of the small group of American literati that made up Thoreau’s circle based in Concord, Massachusetts, and who spawned the transcendentalist movement.