Lesson Plans

91 Result(s)
Grade Range
9-12
Lesson One: Learning about Early Modern Era Empires

For the curriculum unit The Diplomacy Challenge. Lesson One. A key role of diplomats is to gather and analyze intelligence. In this lesson, students acting as diplomats, will prepare a short intelligence briefing on their assigned empire to present to the representatives of the other modern empires.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 3: García Márquez’s Nobel Prize Speech: “The Solitude of Latin America”

In this triumph of magical realism, "One Hundred Years of Solitude" chronicles a century of the remarkable Buendía family’s history in the fictional Colombian town of Macondo. The three lessons presented here explore the fantastic elements of this imaginary world, the real history that lies behind them, and García Márquez’s own philosophical musings on writing about Latin America.

Grade Range
9-12
Chinua Achebe’s 'New English' in Things Fall Apart

This lesson provides a Common Core application for high school students for Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart. Students will undertake close reading of passages in Things Fall Apart to evaluate the impact of Achebe’s literary techniques, the cultural significance of the work, and how this international text serves as a lens to discover the experiences of others.

Grade Range
6-8
Galileo: Revealing the Universe

In this lesson, students will practice close reading of passages from Galileo’s Starry Messenger concerning his observations of the stars and constellations through a telescope. They will develop an understanding of how he constructed his arguments to challenge the established views of his time using new technology and logical reasoning.

Grade Range
9-12
The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and Escalation of the Vietnam War

In August 1964, a small military engagement off the coast of North Vietnam helped escalate the involvement of the United States in Vietnam; the Vietnam War would become the longest military engagement in American history prior to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Grade Range
6-12
Lesson 3: The Matter of the Philippines

The treaty of peace ending the Spanish-American War resulted in the United States obtaining the Philippine Islands from Spain. Despite intense political opposition to the acquisition of the islands, the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty. The political impact of anti-imperialist arguments, the difficult experience of suppressing native Filipino resistance, and the lack of attractive opportunities for further territorial expansion, all effectively stalled the American imperialist/expansionist movement.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 2: The Spanish–American War

On April 11, 1898, two months after the battleship U.S.S. Maine was destroyed by an explosion in Havana harbor, President McKinley sent a message to Congress requesting authority to use the U.S. armed forces to end a brutal civil war in the Spanish colony of Cuba. This lesson plan, through the use of primary sources and a WebQuest Interactive, will focus on the causes of the war and the political debate in the United States over the advisability of intervening militarily in the affairs of countries.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 1: The Question of an American Empire

This lesson will introduce the students to the challenges of American foreign policy in the late 19th century and specifically to the political debate over whether the United States should acquire further territory and/or become a European-style empire.