Lesson Plans

461 Result(s)
Grade Range
K-5
Australian Aboriginal Art and Storytelling

Australian Aboriginal art is one of the oldest continuing art traditions in the world. Much of the most important knowledge of aboriginal society was conveyed through different kinds of storytelling.

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 1: The Campaign of 1840: The Whigs, the Democrats, and the Issues

Many accounts portray the campaign of 1840 as almost exclusively image-based. This lesson offers students the opportunity to reflect on the nature of the campaign. Though intended for the teacher, all or part of the following background information may be useful for some students.

Grade Range
9-12
Knowledge or Instinct? Jack London's “To Build a Fire”

As a man and his animal companion take a less-traveled path to their Yukon camp, they step into a tale of wilderness survival and dire circumstances in Jack London's "To Build a Fire". Throughout this short stories, students will have the opportunity to analytically read the short story while discussing major themes and American naturalism. 

Grade Range
9-12
Lesson 2: The Social Security Act

This lesson engages students in the debate over the Social Security Act that engrossed the nation during the 1930s.

Grade Range
6-12
Dust Bowl Days

Students will be introduced to this dramatic era in our nation's history through photographs, songs and interviews with people who lived through the Dust Bowl.

Grade Range
6-12
Visual Records of a Changing Nation

Students have multiple opportunities to analyze photographs captured during a national photography project about local history and changing places to create their own interpretations and exhibits. These materials were developed as part of a partnership between the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Grade Range
6-8
Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series: Removing the Mask

In this lesson, students analyze Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration of the Negro Panel no. 57 (1940-41), Helene Johnson’s Harlem Renaissance poem “Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem” (1927), and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s late-nineteenth-century poem “We Wear the Mask” (1896), considering how each work represents the life and changing roles of African Americans from the late nineteenth century to the Harlem Renaissance and The Great Migration.

Grade Range
6-8
In My Other Life

The world is made up of many different people, living in diverse places with a variety of perspectives, customs, and beliefs. In this lesson, examine the world through multiple perspectives to learn about examples of what it might be like to grow up in Asian, African, or Latin American countries.