Browse lesson plans

Underground Railroad quilts: Fact or folklore?

In this lesson, students explore the controversy surrounding a book entitled Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad, which was published as a non-fiction account of fugitive slaves sending coded messages through quilt patterns. Students evaluate numerous sources and assess the validity of each in an attempt to determine if the quilt codes are fact or folklore.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 English Language Arts, Information Skills, and Social Studies)

By Abby Stotsenberg.

Resources on the web

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

The archives contain the most important public record documents in America. Users can find family history information, significant historical documents from America's past, and military personnel documents. (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: National Archives and Records Administration

National Constitution Center

This website features rich content that is broad in scope and depth with detailed information about the Constitution of the United States. Users can search the museum's interactive content by topic, keyword, and supreme court cases. A Constitution timeline... (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: National Constitution Center

The New Deal: North Carolina's Reconstruction?

Sponsored by North Carolina State University, this website is a "guide for teachers" to enable students to author imaginary WPA interviews similar to those found in the American Life Histories, 1936-1940 of the American Memory Collection of the Library of... (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: Deborah Pendleton andJackie Brooks

The NYPL Picture Collection Online

More than 30,000 digitized images from books, magazine, newspapers, original photographs, prints, and postcards from the 1700s through 1925. (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: The New York Public Library