African American History and Culture in the United States

Our Teacher's Guide offers a collection of lessons and resources for K-12 social studies, literature, and arts classrooms that center around the achievements, perspectives, and experiences of African Americans across U.S. history. Below you will find materials for teaching and learning about the perspectives of slaves and free African Americans during the American Revolution, the work of the Freedman’s Bureau during and after Reconstruction, the artistry of Jacob Lawrence, the reality faced by African American soldiers returning home after fighting in WWI, the songs and efforts of the Freedom Riders during the long civil rights movements, and the works of Lorraine Hansberry, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Maya Angelou.

Material Type: Reading

African American Soldiers in World War I

This collection uses primary sources to explore the experiences of African American Soldiers in World War I. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

Material Type: Primary Source

Author: Jamie Lathan

Auschwitz-Birkenau and Anne Frank's Father

The German Nazis were responsible for the systematic killing of millions of Jews.  Hitler called it “The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.”  There were concentration camps set up throughout German controlled territories.  This project will focus on the largest and most notorious camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in German-controlled Poland. Anne Frank and her family were discovered and arrested in August 1944. In September 1944 they were sent from the Westerbork Camp in the Netherlands to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Anne’s father, Otto Frank, survived and was liberated from Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 1945. 

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Joan Upell

Politics and the Acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase

This Lesson will help instruct the student to compare and contrast arguments/ideas by Democratic-Republicans and Federalists about the acquisition of Louisiana Purchase through the use of graphic organizers, debates, written reports and/or videos.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Matthew Meyer

A Raisin in the Sun: Jim Crow, Home Ownership, and the American Dream

Learn how Jim Crow laws impacted home ownership and the pursuit of the American Dream in this series of videos from the American Masters film, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart. Lorraine Hansberry’s family was at the forefront of fighting segregation in Chicago in the 1940s, even taking the fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Hansberry’s famous play, A Raisin in the Sun, continues the legacy of her parents by using literature to take a stand against racial inequality and injustice. Support materials include discussion questions, teaching tips, and a student handout comparing the experience of Lorraine Hansberry’s family and the Younger family in A Raisin in the Sun.

Material Type: Lesson, Primary Source

Authors: American Masters, PBS Learning Media

Cause and Effect - Out Teach

STUDENT ACTIVITY - 5th - TX/NCThis is a distance-learning lesson students can complete at home.In this lesson, the student will formulate and interpret cause-and-effect relationships using a 3-column chart to organize their ideas. The student will apply the concept of "cause" as something that always happens first, and the effect as the resulting outcome (or what happens second).This activity was created by Out Teach (out-teach.org), a nonprofit providing outdoor experiential learning to transform Science education for students in under-served communities.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Author: Out Teach

Identifying Informational Text Structures

 The attached lesson is designed for Grade 5 English Language Arts students. Students will analyze and evaluate the elements of informational text, identify and apply knowledge of organizational patterns to comprehend informational texts. This lesson addresses the following NDE Standard: NE LA 5.1.6.jIt is expected that this lesson will take students 120 minutes to complete.

Material Type: Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Interactive, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Carrie Veal

What's a Genre?

 The attached Remote Lesson Plan is designed for Grade 7 English Language Arts students. Students will get an introduction to genre and the different characteristics of genre. They will gain information through a slide show and a video. Digital flashcards are provided to help with learning the terms and their definitions. A Check for Understanding is provided to assess how each student is understanding the characteristics of a variety of literary and informational. This Remote Lesson Plan addresses the following NDE Standard: NE LA 7.1.6.gIt is expected that this Remote Learning Plan will take students 90 minutes to complete.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Julie Tastad

Plot and Setting of a Story

When reading a narrative, there are some key story elements to pay close attention to. The two we are focusing on in this seminar are setting and plot. You will be able to describe in depth the setting and the plot using specific details from the text. First, you will be applying past knowledge to help you identify the parts of a plot as well as the setting. Using a graphic organizer, you will be listening to audiobooks and filling in these five elements of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. By looking closely at a story, you are learning how a story is written and how important these parts are.StandardsCC.1.3.4.C Describe in depth a character, setting or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Tracy Rains

Developing Dialogue

In this seminar, you will learn how to use quotation marks, punctuation, and capitalization correctly to enhance story. Adding dialogue to a narrative writing piece helps you develop characters, move the plot along, and keeps the reader interested and invested in reading the story until the end which is a goal of all authors. During this seminar, you will learn how to use quotations marks and punctuation correctly by learning the grammatical rules for dialogue and analyzing the errors in examples of dialogue. You will be comparing and classifying both narratives with and without dialogue and different ways dialogue can be written within text. You will also create your own dialogues within your narrative writing.StandardsCC.1.4.4.M/ 1.4.5.MWrite narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Tracy Rains

C.A.T.C.H. Annotation = 3-step process to Critical Thinking!

Students learn how to annotate texts through the process of C.A.T.C.H. Then, they will use their annotations to make meaning by inferring/interpreting and evaluating/making judgments. Through this 10 1/2 minute video instruction and three handouts students will learn and practice an easy to remember 3-step process to critical thinking that will make their learning visible and help them discover how and why they can make meaning out of everything they read, see, and hear. Now they will have ready answers for discussions, questions, essay-writing, and quizzes.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Author: Laura Harris

English Language Arts, Grade 11, American Dreamers, Setting the Stage, Defining the American Dream

In this lesson, you will begin to think about the idea of the American Dream, and you'll learn about the project and requirements for this unit.In this lesson, students will begin to think about the idea of the American Dream, and they'll learn about the project and requirements for this unit.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

English Language Arts, Grade 11, The American Short Story

In this unit, students will explore great works of American literature and consider how writers reflect the time period in which they write. They will write two literary analysis papers and also work in groups to research and develop anthologies of excellent American stories. ACCOMPLISHMENTS Students read and analyze stories from several 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century American authors. After researching a time period, they select stories from that period to create an anthology. The readings enhance their understanding of the short story, increase their exposure to well-known American authors, and allow them to examine the influence of social, cultural, and political context. Students examine elements of short stories and have an opportunity for close reading of several American short stories. During these close readings, they examine the ways that short story writers attempt to explore the greater truths of the American experience through their literature. GUIDING QUESTIONS These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts. If you were to write a short story about this decade, what issues might you focus on? What defines a short story? Just length? To what extent do these stories reflect the era or decade in which they were written? To what extent are the themes they address universal? CLASSROOM FILMS History.com has short videos on the Vietnam War (“Vietnam” and “A Soldier's Story”).

Material Type: Unit of Study

Identifying Media Bias in News Sources

Identifying Media Bias in News Sources through activites using relevant news sources to answer the following essential question:Why is this important and relevant today?Students are engaging with a growing number of news sources and must develop skills to interpret what they see and hear.Media tells stories with viewpoints and biases that shape our worldviews.Students must become critical consumers of media which is essential for being an informed citizen.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Reading, Student Guide, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Sandra Stroup, Heidi Morris, Greg Saum, Sally Drendel

Claim, Counterclaim, and Rebuttal

Students will be able to write claims, counterclaims and rebuttals.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Lesson Plan

Authors: Eric Lougee, Oregon Open Learning

Claim, Support, Question Activity for Persuasive Writing

These guides can be used as part of an anticipatory set to introduce persuasive writing and transition into claim evidence reasoning paragraphs. "Claim, Support, Question," is a "Visible Thinking Routine" developed by Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment

Author: Paige Junge

100 Word Memoir (OER Commons Version)

In this lesson, students will read and analyze a mentor text 100 Word Memoir. After studying the mentor text, students will create and evaluate their own 100 Word Memoir.

Material Type: Homework/Assignment

Author: Sarah Lyons