Reference Shelf: Standards

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NEH Connections

NEH Connections offers a convenient path for discovering NEH-funded resources for teaching and learning both inside and outside the classroom. Please click on any header to start exploring the rich array of resources brought to you by the National Endowment for the Humanities!

Books and Articles

Be a Reader! Explore Humanities, the bimonthly magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities; sample award-winning NEH-supported books; catch up on K-12 reading from NEH's We the People Bookshelf.

Let your students fill the shoes of 14-year-old printer's apprentice Nat Wheeler... Immerse them in primary document exploration through online databases... Teach critical thinking skills, polish world language knowledge...

Teach the humanities through words, sounds, and images by going to an exhibition. The National Endowment for the Humanities funds both short- and long-term exhibitions nationwide, as well as abroad. Discover what's open in your area right now or visit a digital version anytime.

Professor David Palliser leading a lecture/visit to Fountains Abbey in North Yor

Each year the NEH’s Division of Education Programs offers teachers opportunities to study a variety of humanities topics during the summer. Teachers selected for the programs can receive stipends from $1200 to $4500 depending on program and duration.

Discover how NEH-funded documentary series, podcasts, radio shows, and classic films can enrich your students' knowledge and understanding of the humanities.

From American Journeys website: Lewis and Clark

The National Endowment for the Humanities has funded hundreds of projects with websites, many of them with teachers and students in mind. Check out this NEH state-by-state index to some of these projects.

Curr. Unit	Lesson Plan	Class Period(s)	Worksheets
No	A Story of Epic Proportions: What makes a Poem an Epic?	2	Yes
No	A Trip to Wonderland: The Nursery 'Alice'	2-3	No
No	Aesop and Ananse: Animal Fables and Trickster Tales	2	No
No	African-American Soldiers After World War I: Had Race Relations Changed?	3-4	Yes
No	Allegory in Painting	2	No
No	Angkor What? Angkor Wat!	2	Yes
No	Animals of the Chinese Zodiac	3-4	Yes
No	Anishinabe/Ojibwe/Chippewa: Culture of an Indian Nation	3	No
No	Australian Aboriginal Art and Storytelling	2	Yes
No	Aztecs Find a Home: The Eagle Has Landed	5	Yes
No	Benjamin Franklin's Many "Hats"	3	Yes
No	Birth of a Nation, the NAACP, and the Balancing of Rights	2	Yes
No	Cave Art: Discovering Prehistoric Humans through Pictures	3	No
No	Childhood Through the Looking-Glass	1-3	Yes
No	Cinderella Folk Tales: Variations in Character	2-3	Yes
No	Cinderella Folk Tales: Variations in Plot and Setting	2-4	Yes
No	Common Visions, Common Voices	2	No
No	Composition and Content in the Visual Arts	1-2	No
No	Couriers in the Inca Empire: Getting Your Message Across	3-4	No
No	Dramatizing History in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible"	10-12	Yes
No	Dust Bowl Days	5-7	No
No	Early Multi-National Influences in the United States	4	No
No	Edward Hopper's House by the Railroad: From Painting to Poem	3-6	Yes
No	Egypt's Pyramids: Monuments with a Message	2-3	Yes
No	Egyptian Symbols and Figures: Hieroglyphs	2	No
No	Egyptian Symbols and Figures: Scroll Paintings	2	No
No	Exploring Arthurian Legend	4-7	No
No	Fables and Trickster Tales Around the World	3-5	No
No	Fairy Tales Around the World	13-15	Yes
No	Family and Friendship in Quilts	4	No
No	Folklore in Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God"	7-8	Yes
No	Folktales and Ecology: Animals and Humans in Cooperation and Conflict	3	Yes
No	Following the Great Wall of China	1-2	Yes
No	Genre in the Visual Arts: Portraits, Pears, and Perfect Landscapes	3-5	Yes
No	Hamlet Meets Chushingura: Traditions of the Revenge Tragedy	8-10	No
No	Hammurabi's Code: What Does It Tell Us About Old Babylonia?	3	Yes
No	Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales	11-14	Yes
No	Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before? Samsara and karma in the Jataka Tales	2	No
No	Helpful Animals and Compassionate Humans in Folklore	3	Yes
No	History in Quilts	3	Yes
No	Homer's Civil War Veteran: Battlefield to Wheat Field	2-3	Yes
No	In Depth with the Full Spectrum	1-2	Yes
No	In My Other Life	2	No
No	In Old Pompeii	3	No
No	Investigating Jack London's White Fang: Nature and Culture Detectives	3-4	Yes
No	It Came From Greek Mythology	4	Yes
No	Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask	2-3	Yes
No	Jazz and World War II: A Rally to Resistance, A Catalyst for Victory	2	Yes
No	Lascaux: La Vie en Caverne!	4	No
No	Learning the Blues	4	No
No	Leonardo da Vinci: Creative Genius	4-7	Yes
Yes	Horse of a Different Color: An Introduction to Color in the Visual Arts Lesson 1: Color Me Happy: Color, Mood, and Tone	1	Yes
Yes	Composition in Painting: Everything in its right place Lesson 1: Composition Basics	1-2	No
Yes	What's In A Name? Lesson 1: How Did Surnames Come to Be?	2	Yes
Yes	From the White House of Yesterday to the White House of Today Lesson 1: How Was the White House Designed?	2	No
Yes	On the Road with Marco Polo Lesson 1: On the Road with Marco Polo: A Boy in 13th Century Venice	1-2	Yes
Yes	The Alphabet is Historic Lesson 1: The Phoenicians and the Beginnings of the Alphabet	3-4	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Teacher Version Lesson 1: Trekking to Timbuktu: The Geography of Mali (Teacher Version)	1	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Student Version Lesson 1: Trekking to Timbuktu: The Geography of Mali--Student Version	1	No
Yes	What Happens in the White House? Lesson 1: What Is the Purpose of the White House?	1	Yes
Yes	From the White House of Yesterday to the White House of Today Lesson 2: How and Why Has the White House Changed?	1-2	No
Yes	On the Road with Marco Polo Lesson 2: On the Road with Marco Polo: From Venice to Hormuz	1-2	Yes
Yes	Composition in Painting: Everything in its right place Lesson 2: Symmetry and Balance	1	No
Yes	The Alphabet is Historic Lesson 2: The Greek Alphabet: more familiar than you think!	4-5	Yes
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Teacher Version Lesson 2: Trekking to Timbuktu: Trade in Ancient West Africa (Teacher Version)	1	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Student Version Lesson 2: Trekking to Timbuktu: Trade in Ancient West Africa--Student Version	2	No
Yes	What Happens in the White House? Lesson 2: What Has Happened in the White House?	1	Yes
Yes	What's In A Name? Lesson 2: What's In A Name? British Surnames Derived from Places	1-2	Yes
Yes	From the White House of Yesterday to the White House of Today Lesson 3: A President's Home and the President's House	1-2	No
Yes	What's In A Name? Lesson 3: British Surnames Derived from Occupations or Professions	1-2	Yes
Yes	On the Road with Marco Polo Lesson 3: On the Road with Marco Polo: From Hormuz to Kashgar	1-2	Yes
Yes	Composition in Painting: Everything in its right place Lesson 3: Repetition in the Visual Arts	1-2	No
Yes	The Alphabet is Historic Lesson 3: The Roman Alphabet is our Alphabet	3	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Teacher Version Lesson 3: Trekking to Timbuktu: Timbuktu: A Center of Trade (Teacher Version)	2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Student Version Lesson 3: Trekking to Timbuktu: Timbuktu: A Center of Trade--Student Version	2	No
Yes	What Happens in the White House? Lesson 3: What Happens in the White House? A Timeline	1	Yes
Yes	Composition in Painting: Everything in its right place Lesson 4: Line in the Visual Arts	1-2	No
Yes	What's In A Name? Lesson 4: Non-British Surnames	1-2	Yes
Yes	On the Road with Marco Polo Lesson 4: On the Road with Marco Polo: Crossing the Deserts of China	1-2	No
Yes	The Alphabet is Historic Lesson 4: The Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Romans, and Us	2-3	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Student Version Lesson 4: Trekking to Timbuktu: Mansa Musa Takes a Trip (Student Version)	2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Teacher Version Lesson 4: Trekking to Timbuktu: Mansa Musa Takes a Trip--Teacher Version	2	No
Yes	On the Road with Marco Polo Lesson 5: On the Road with Marco Polo: Marco Polo in China	1-2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Student Version Lesson 5: Trekking to Timbuktu: Timbuktu's Golden Age of Scholarship (Student Version)	2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Teacher Version Lesson 5: Trekking to Timbuktu: Timbuktu's Golden Age of Scholarship--Teacher Version	2	No
Yes	On the Road with Marco Polo Lesson 6: On the Road with Marco Polo: Sea Voyage to India	1-2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Student Version Lesson 6: Trekking to Timbuktu: The Search for Timbuktu (Student Version)	2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Teacher Version Lesson 6: Trekking to Timbuktu: The Search for Timbuktu--Teacher Version	2	No
Yes	On the Road with Marco Polo Lesson 7: On the Road with Marco Polo: From Hormuz to Venice	1-2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Student Version Lesson 7: Trekking to Timbuktu: Restoring the Past (Student Version)	2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Teacher Version Lesson 7: Trekking to Timbuktu: Restoring the Past--Teacher Version	2	No
Yes	On the Road with Marco Polo Lesson 8: On the Road with Marco Polo: Homecoming	1-2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Student Version Lesson 8: Trekking to Timbuktu: Assessment of Lessons 1–7 (Student Version)	2	No
Yes	Trekking to Timbuktu—Teacher Version Lesson 8: Trekking to Timbuktu: Assessment of Lessons 1–7 (Teacher Version)	1	No
No	Lessons of the Indian Epics: Following the Dharma	3	Yes
No	Lessons of the Indian Epics: The Ramayana: Showing your Dharma	1	Yes
No	Life in the Floating World: Ukiyo-e Prints and the Rise of the Merchant Class in Edo Period Japan	2-3	Yes
No	Lions, Dragons, and Nian: Animals of the Chinese New Year	4	No
No	Live from Ancient Olympia!	2	Yes
No	Lu Shih—The Couplets of T’ang	3-4	Yes
No	Mapping the Past	2	No
No	Marco Polo Takes A Trip	9-12	Yes
No	Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Power of Nonviolence	2	No
No	Martin Puryear's Ladder for Booker T. Washington	3	Yes
No	Mexican Culture and History through Its National Holidays	1-2	No
No	Mission Nuestra Señora de la Concepción and the Spanish Mission in the New World	1	No
No	Morality "Tails" East and West: European Fables and Buddhist Jataka Tales	2	Yes
No	Music from Across America	2-3	Yes
No	My Piece of History	4	Yes
No	Native American Cultures Across the U.S.	2	Yes
No	Norman Rockwell, Freedom of Speech—Know It When You See It	3-4	Yes
No	Not "Indians," Many Tribes: Native American Diversity	5	Yes
No	Not Everyone Lived in Castles During the Middle Ages	6-8	Yes
No	Picture Lincoln	2-3	Yes
No	Picturing First Families	2-4	No
No	Picturing Freedom: Selma-to-Montgomery March, 1965	3-4	Yes
No	Poems of Tennyson and Noyes: Pictures in Words	5	Yes
No	Portrait of a Hero	2-3	Yes
No	Portraits: I've Just Seen a Face	4	Yes
No	Reading, Writing and 'Rithmetic in the One-Room Schoolhouse	4-6	No
No	Realistic Impressions: Investigating Movements in the Visual Arts	4-5	No
No	Romare Bearden's "The Dove"—A Meeting of Vision and Sound	2-3	Yes
No	Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing Fact and Fiction	2-3	Yes
No	Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing Words and Pictures	2-3	Yes
No	Scripting the Past: Exploring Women's History Through Film	4-6	No
No	Seeing Sense in Photographs & Poems	1-3	Yes
No	Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources	3	Yes
No	Socrates and the Law: Argument in an Athenian Jail	1	No
No	Sophocles' Antigone: Ancient Greek Theatre, Live From Antiquity!	2-3	No
No	Spirituals	1-2	No
No	Stars and Stripes Forever: Flag Facts for Flag Day	2	No
No	Stories in Quilts	4	No
No	Symmetry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight	3-4	Yes
No	Tales of King Arthur	7-9	Yes
No	Tales of the Supernatural	UNKNOWN	No
No	The Aztecs — Mighty Warriors of Mexico	5-7	Yes
No	The Beauty of Anglo-Saxon Poetry: A Prelude to Beowulf	2-3	Yes
No	The Legend of Sleepy Hollow	4-5	No
No	The Magical World of Russian Fairy Tales	2-5	Yes
No	The Massachusetts 54th Regiment: Honoring the Heroes	2-3	Yes
No	The Meaning Behind the Mask	3	No
No	The Olympic Medal: It's All Greek to Us!	2-3	Yes
No	The Royal Art of Benin	3	No
No	The Statue of Liberty: The Meaning and Use of a National Symbol	4-6	Yes
No	The Victor's Virtue: A Cultural History of Sport	2	Yes
No	The World of Haiku	3-4	No
No	Thomas Hart Benton — The Sources of Country Music	3-4	Yes
No	Traces: Historic Archaeology	2	No
No	Traditions and Languages of Three Native Cultures: Tlingit, Lakota, & Cherokee	8-9	Yes
No	Under the Deep Blue Sea	4-6	No
No	Unicorns, Dragons, and Other Magical Creatures	5-6	No
No	Walt Whitman to Langston Hughes: Poems for a Democracy	3-4	Yes
No	What Masks Reveal	2	No
No	What Presidential Portraits Reveal	2-3	No
No	What Should a House Do?	6	No
No	What's in a Picture? An Introduction to Subject in the Visual Arts	3	Yes

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