Lesson Plans

223 Result(s)
Grade Range
6-12
Afro Atlantic: Exploring Emancipation

This lesson plan uses A. A. Lamb's painting Emancipation Proclamation and resources from BlackPast to explore the successes and shortcomings of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Reconstruction amendments, as well as the roles played by Black people in securing their own freedom.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 2: The Federalist Defense of Diversity and "Extending the Sphere"

This lesson involves a detailed analysis of Alexander Hamilton’s and James Madison’s arguments in favor of the extended republic in The Federalist Nos. 9, 10 and 51. Students consider and understand in greater depth the problem of faction in a free republic and the difficulty of establishing a government that has enough power to fulfill its responsibilities, but which will not abuse that power and infringe on liberties of citizens.

Grade Range
6-12
Lesson 1. Upton Sinclair, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harvey W. Wiley

In this lesson, students learn how Progressive reformers in government used the public outrage over Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle as a catalyst for legislation. The story of how two progressives, Theodore Roosevelt and Harvey W. Wiley, worked together within the federal government is not as well-known as the role played by Sinclair’s The Jungle, but it provides the needed historical and political context for the passage of both the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in June 1906 which are considered the high point of Progressive era legislation.

Grade Range
6-8
Harriet Jacobs and Elizabeth Keckly: The Material and Emotional Realities of Childhood in Slavery

Harriet Jacobs was the first woman to write a slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). She was born a slave in 1813 in Edenton, North Carolina, and died free in Washington, D. C., at the age of eighty-four. Elizabeth Keckly was born into slavery in 1818 near Petersburg, Virginia. She learned to sew from her mother, an expert seamstress enslaved in the Burwell family.

Grade Range
9-12
Albert Sabin and Bioethics: Testing at the Chillicothe Federal Reformatory

In this lesson students will determine whether or not Albert Sabin acted ethically in his use of prisoners for experimentation; learn how to approach ethical questions using primary and secondary sources; and come to their own conclusions uses evidence-based logical reasoning.

Grade Range
9-12
In Her Shoes: Lois Weber and the Female Filmmakers Who Shaped Early Hollywood

Introduce students to the work of women filmmakers in early Hollywood with this comprehensive lesson plan developed by the American Film Institute. This curriculum has three objectives: for students to develop research skills by using the AFI catalog and other online databases; for students to critically analyze the film “Shoes” by Lois Weber (1916); and for students to explore the important role that women played in the development of the motion picture industry. 

Grade Range
K-5
The First Amendment: What's Fair in a Free Country?

After completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to summarize the contents of the First Amendment and give examples of speech that is protected by the Constitution and speech that is not protected by the Constitution.

Grade Range
6-8
Esperanza renace: Aprendiendo a no temer el comenzar de nuevo

En este plan de clase los estudiantes explorarán algunos de los contrastes a los que Esperanza se enfrenta cuando debe abandonar su cómoda vida como hija consentida de terrateniente poderoso, siempre rodeada de familia y de sirvientes, para convertirse en una sirvienta junto con los demás obreros agrícolas emigrantes. Este plan de clase también estudiará el trasfondo de la historia, considerando su marco histórico, social y cultural para descubrir los grandes contrastes y contradicciones que Esperanza descubre al llegar a los Estados Unidos. Y, finalmente, este plan de clase invitará a los estudiantes a prestar atención a algunos de los cambios a los que Esperanza se tiene que enfrentar para convertirse, tras ser una niña privilegiada y mimada, en una jovencita responsable y emprendedora.

Grade Range
K-12
Presidential Inaugurations: I Do Solemnly Swear

Presidential inaugurations have been solemn ceremonies and uninhibited celebrations. They are carefully scripted and they are unpredictable. They reflect tradition and they reflect the moment.