Lesson Plans

198 Result(s)
Grade Range
9-12
The Path of the Black Death

The Black Death ravaged Europe during 14th century and left a lasting impression on the surviving population. In this lesson, students analyze maps, firsthand accounts, and archival documents to trace the path and aftermath of the Black Death, the most devastating public health crisis of the Middle Ages.

Grade Range
9-12
Voices of the American Revolution

This lesson helps students "hear" some of the diverse colonial voices that, in the course of time and under the pressure of novel ideas and events, contributed to the American Revolution. Students analyze a variety of primary documents illustrating the diversity of religious, political, social, and economic motives behind competing perspectives on questions of independence and rebellion.

Grade Range
9-12
Empire and Identity in the American Colonies

In this lesson students will examine the various visions of three active agents in the creation and management of Great Britain’s empire in North America: British colonial leaders and administrators, North American British colonists, and Native Americans.

Grade Range
9-12
Introducing Jane Eyre: An Unlikely Victorian Heroine

Through their interpretation of primary documents that reflect Victorian ideals, students can learn the cultural expectations for and limitations placed on Victorian women and then contemplate the writer Charlotte Brontë's position in that context. Then, through an examination of the opening chapters of Jane Eyre, students will evaluate Jane's status as an unconventional Victorian heroine.

Grade Range
9-12
The Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom's First Steps

Why was the Emancipation Proclamation important? While the Civil War began as a war to restore the Union, not to end slavery, by 1862 President Abraham Lincoln came to believe that he could save the Union only by broadening the goals of the war. Students can explore the obstacles and alternatives America faced in making the journey toward "a more perfect Union."

Grade Range
9-12
Native Americans and the American Revolution: Choosing Sides

Native American groups had to choose the loyalist or patriot cause—or somehow maintain a neutral stance during the Revolutionary War. Students will analyze maps, treaties, congressional records, first-hand accounts, and correspondence to determine the different roles assumed by Native Americans in the American Revolution and understand why the various groups formed the alliances they did.

Grade Range
9-12
Kennewick Man: Science and Sacred Rights

This lesson plan explores the controversy surrounding "Kennewick Man," the name given to a skeleton discovered near Kennewick, Washington, in July 1996.