Students consider how we learn about the past and discuss how the framing of history is always done by the person who is telling it. They construct a personal and class timelines, compare two or more accounts of the same event and record...

Fifth graders travel along exploring the expeditions of John F. Fremont. For this Westward expansion lesson, 5th graders gain understanding of the events that shaped the west through the use of maps. Students use mapping skills to...

Students examine reasons that led people to explore, identify "West" as defined following Revolutionary War, explain importance of finding natural resources, develop time line of dates and events leading up to Lewis and Clark Expedition,...

Students investigate the cultures of Native Americans and Euro-Americans through their clothing.  In this photograph analysis lesson, students observe historic photographs and analyze the style of clothes people wore and how it...

Students research the differences between traveling on a stagecoach and wagon trail in the 19th century. In this historical lesson, students discover the uses of stagecoaches and wagon trails in the 19th century, then decide which one...

How was December 31, 1959 different than December 31, 2009? Young historians explore the political, social, and musical forces in the world made New Year's Eve a different experience during each decade of the 20th century. After groups...

Sixth graders demonstrate the musical and historical context of a given folk song by notating the melody, creating an accompaniment, and displaying it on the web for assessment.

Students examine events of historical significance in music. In groups, they are given pieces of sheet music and work together to try to determine the social and political conditions of the time based on the lyrics. They write their own...

Learners examine documents to reconstruct the past, employ processes of critical historical inquiry to reconstruct the past, analyze aspects of the Northern Iereland conflict through perspectives of documents, and write a short position...

Young scholars distinguish between primary and secondary sources when researching on the Internet and evaluating historical records. They recognize important features of a primary source such as the type of document, who created it, what...

Middle schoolers create dictionary of terms for citizens of a democracy, using events and biographies from both their state's history and U.S. history.

Fifth graders participate in various activities related to the Civil War. In this Civil War instructional activity students understand the events and feelings of people during the Civil War by studying primary sources, journal writing,...

Young scholars research and learn about the Underground Railroad. In this Underground Railroad lesson plan, students take 2 weeks to research an individual, complete journal writings, read passages in small groups, list major events, and...

Young scholars explore the interaction and consequences of contact among different ethnic groups. Students examine a timeline and the important historical events in American History. They discuss immigration and migration.

Learners create a journal that includes historic events that occurred in Illinois in the 1700's that features entries on the same topics from different perspectives.

Students relate musical styles with US historical context through research and presentation.

Seventh graders research styles, construction, fabrics, colors, and cost of Colonial era clothing. They create a life-sized model of themselves wearing Colonial period clothing and write a report about the clothes they designed.

The era after the Civil War saw a flourishing of African Americans exercising their rights. Using graphic organizers and Internet research, pupils consider the legacy of Benjamin Sterling Turner, who sat in Congress. Afterward, they...

In part one, your astronomers read an interview dialogue between a reporter and Dr. Maria Ocasio, the chair of the group that assigns names to celestial objects. The topic in question is Pluto's status. Learners research Plutinos and...

Examine human resilience across two texts with a detailed unit. Over the course of a week, learners will conduct a close reading of excerpts from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar. The resource includes clear procedures for reading and...

After analyzing newspaper articles portraying different perspectives of the explosion of the Battleship USS Maine, your young historians will take a stand on which position is the most believable in both discussion and writing.

Young scholars use the processes of oral history and the latest technology to engage in historical inquiry and the preservation of the past. The work in cooperative groups or individually to discover and capture the past by interviewing...

Students are introduced to the topic of civil disobedience. Using a historical event, they identify the disobedience act in the event. They explain the significance that civil disobendience played in the events of the 1960s. They write a...

Eighth graders are read excerpts of "A Modern Proposal" by Jonathon Swift. Using a map, the locate the country of Ireland and discuss the type of writing and how it is important to historical events. They practice writing about...