Lesson Plans

86 Result(s)
Grade Range
6-8
Why Do We Remember Revere? Paul Revere's Ride in History and Literature

After an overview of the events surrounding Paul Revere's famous ride, this lesson challenges students to think about the reasons for that fame.  Using both primary and secondhand accounts, students compare the account of Revere's ride in Longfellow's famous poem with actual historical events, in order to answer the question: why does Revere's ride occupy such a prominent place in the American consciousness?

Grade Range
6-8
Remember the Ladies: The First Ladies

Explore the ways in which First Ladies were able to influence the country while dealing with the expectations placed on them as women and as partners of powerful men.

Grade Range
6-8
Investigating Jack London's White Fang: Nature and Culture Detectives

In White Fang, Jack London sought to trace the “development of domesticity, faithfulness, love, morality, and all the amenities and virtues.” In this lesson, students explore images from the Klondike and read White Fang closely to learn how to define and differentiate the terms “nature” and “culture."

Grade Range
6-8
Lesson 3: Trekking to Timbuktu: Timbuktu: A Center of Trade (Teacher Version)

For many people, Timbuktu is a metaphor for the mysterious, the remote, or the unobtainable. But the Malian city of Timbuktu was, in fact, once a thriving center of commerce and intellectual activity.

In the lessons of this curriculum unit, students will learn about the geography of Mali and the early trade networks that flourished there. They will study how the spread of Islam influenced the cultures and economies along the Niger River. They will find out about the three kingdoms that evolved in ancient and medieval West Africa.

Grade Range
6-8
Life in Old Babylonia: The Importance of Trade

Trade was critical to Old Babylonia, where many highly prized natural resources were scarce but agricultural goods were in surplus. A vibrant trading system developed, bringing manufactured goods and raw materials from as far as Turkey, and even India, 1500 miles away. Trade became integral to the economy and the culture. In this lesson, students explore the trade industry in Old Babylonia and its far-flung influence.

Grade Range
6-8
Jefferson vs. Franklin: Revolutionary Philosophers

Explore the philosophical contributions that Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson made to the movement for American independence. The lesson introduces students to some of the important precursor documents, such as Franklin's Albany Plan of 1754 and Jefferson's Draft of the Virginia Constitution, that led to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Grade Range
6-8
The Argument of the Declaration of Independence

Long before the first shot was fired, the American Revolution began as a series of written complaints to colonial governors and representatives in England over the rights of the colonists.

Grade Range
6-8
David Walker vs. John Day: Two Nineteenth-Century Free Black Men

In this lesson, students examine the contrasting view of two free black men in nineteenth century America abolitionist David Walker and black nationalist John Day. After reviewing background information and primary sources about the two polices, students will argue for or against the most beneficial policy for nineteenth-century African Americans.