Lesson Plans

523 Result(s)
Grade Range
K-5
Cave Art: Discovering Prehistoric Humans through Pictures

By studying paintings from the Cave of Lascaux (France) and the Blombos Cave (South Africa), students will discover that pictures can be a way of communicating beliefs and ideas and can give us clues today about what life was like long ago.

Grade Range
6-8
On the Oregon Trail

Work with primary documents and latter-day photographs to recapture the experience of traveling on the Oregon Trail.

Grade Range
6-8
Poems that Tell a Story: Narrative and Persona in the Poetry of Robert Frost

Behind many of the apparently simple stories of Robert Frost's poems are unexpected questions and mysteries. In this lesson, students analyze what speakers include or omit from their narrative accounts, make inferences about speakers' motivations, and find evidence for their inferences in the words of the poem.

Grade Range
6-8
Not Only Paul Revere: Other Riders of the American Revolution

While Paul Revere's ride is the most famous event of its kind in American history, other Americans made similar rides during the Revolutionary period.  After learning about some less well known but no less colorful rides that occurred in other locations, students gather evidence to support an argument about why at least one of these "other riders" does or does not deserve to be better known.

Grade Range
K-5
Oh, Say, Can You See What the Star-Spangled Banner Means?

Using archival material, students will associate Francis Scott Key's Star Spangled Banner with historic events and recognize the sentiments those words inspired. Students will explore the symbolic nature of the American flag.

Grade Range
6-12
Not “Indians,” Many Tribes: Native American Diversity

Students study the interaction between environment and culture as they learn about three vastly different indigenous groups in a game-like activity that uses vintage photographs, traditional stories, photos of artifacts, and recipes.

Grade Range
6-8
Revolutionary Tea Parties and the Reasons for Revolution

This lesson explores tea party protests other than the Boston Tea Party, and includes activities to help students analyze the reasons behind the tea protests as well as their consequences for the American Revolution.

Grade Range
9-12
Jazz and World War II: A Rally to Resistance, A Catalyst for Victory

Learn about the effects that the Second World War had on jazz music as well as the contributions that jazz musicians made to the war effort. This lesson will help students explore the role of jazz in American society and the ways that jazz functioned as an export of American culture and a means of resistance to the Nazis.

Grade Range
9-12
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: ‘You Kiss by the Book’

As one of literature's most iconic figures, both Shakespeare's plays and poetry provide an interesting glimpse into a variety of essential themes. In this lesson, students will examine how Shakespeare used the sonnet tradition to enhance his stagecraft by performing a scene from his play Romeo and Juliet.