Browse lesson plans

Analyzing children's letters to Mrs. Roosevelt

Students will analyze letters that children wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

Format: lesson plan (grade 11–12 Social Studies)

By Angie Panel Holthausen.

Canning for country and community

In this lesson plan, students will use primary source documents to evaluate the technological challenges of food preservation in the 30s and 40s, compare food preservation in the first half of the twentieth century with today, and consider the political role of food in the community.

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Melissa Thibault.

The Great Depression: Impact over time

In this lesson students listen to oral history excerpts from Stan Hyatt from Madison County and evaluate how the Great Depression affected one North Carolina family over time.

Format: lesson plan (multiple pages)

Live-at-Home in North Carolina

In this lesson students will examine pictures and documents relating to the Live at Home program started in North Carolina by Governor O. Max Gardner to help North Carolina farmers refocus on food crops rather than cash crops during the Depression. These photographs, from the Green 'N' Growing collection at the North Carolina State University, will help students draw conclusions about the culture of North Carolina in the early 1930s and understand how they overcame the hardships of the Depression.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

By Loretta Wilson.

Mountain dialect: Reading between the spoken lines

This lesson plan uses Chapter 13 of Our Southern Highlanders as a jumping-off point to help students achieve social studies and English language arts objectives while developing an appreciation of the uniqueness of regional speech patterns, the complexities of ethnographic encounter, and the need to interrogate primary sources carefully to identify potential biases and misinformation in them. Historical content includes American slavery, the turn of the century, and the Great Depression.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Kathryn Walbert.

Paired writing: Hoover and FDR

Taking on the persona of FDR and Hoover, students will write responses to citizens seeking help with real world problems.

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 Social Studies)

By Angie Panel Holthausen.

Tobacco bag stringing: Educator's guide

Elementary lesson plans Elementary lesson plans based upon Tobacco Bag Stringing: Life and Labor in the Depression will help students understand what tobacco bag stringing was, study primary source documents and visuals,...

Format: lesson plan

Tobacco bag stringing: Elementary activity four

In this activity for grades 3–5, students will read and evaluate a primary source letter from the Tobacco Bag Stringing collection. This should be done after Activity one, which is the introductory activity about tobacco bag stringing. Students will investigate the influence of technology, and its lack, on the tobacco bag stringers. They will do a role play/debate in which they will assume the roles of owners of companies and other people that were involved in the issue.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 Social Studies)

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Tobacco bag stringing: Elementary activity one

This activity for grades 3–6 will help students understand what tobacco bag stringing was and why it was important to communities in North Carolina and Virginia. Students will read and analyze an adapted introductory article about tobacco bag stringing.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 Social Studies)

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Tobacco bag stringing: Elementary activity three

In this activity for grades 3–6, students will read and evaluate primary source letters from the Tobacco Bag Stringing collection. This should be done after Activity one, which is the introductory activity about tobacco bag stringing.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3–5 Social Studies)

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Tobacco bag stringing: Secondary activity five

In this activity for grades 7–12, students will evaluate primary source photographs from the tobacco bag stringing collection and some of Lewis Hine's photographs.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 Social Studies)

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Tobacco bag stringing: Secondary activity four

In this activity for grades 7–12, students will examine primary source photographs and biographical information that were collected for the Virginia-Carolina Service Corporation to set up a data record.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 Social Studies)

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Tobacco bag stringing: Secondary activity one

This activity for grades 7–12 will help students understand what tobacco bag stringing was and why it was important to communities in North Carolina and Virginia. Students will read and analyze an introductory article about tobacco bag stringing.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–10 Social Studies)

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Tobacco bag stringing: Secondary activity seven

In this activity for grades 7–12, students take on the role of legislators who must make a decision concerning the passage of an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Students will evaluate the impact of emotional appeal in persuasion. This activity builds on information learned in activities one through six.

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

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Tobacco bag stringing: Secondary activity three

In this activity for grades 7–12, students will evaluate primary source photographs from the Tobacco Bag Stringing collection.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8–12 Social Studies)

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Resources on the web

Designing museum exhibits for “The Grapes of Wrath”: A multigenre project

This lesson asks students to focus on one issue from the Depression as it applies to the novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Working alone or with a partner, students create artifacts in a variety of genres for a museum exhibit that... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11 English Language Arts)

Provided by: ReadWriteThink

The Digital Classroom

Resources and guides to using the primary history materials of the United States in research and teaching. Links to the wealth of materials held in the National Archives and Records Administration collection. (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: The National Archives and Records Administration

EDSITEment - Lesson Plans for History and Social Studies

The lesson plans available on this site are organized into U.S. History and World History, with subcategories within each group. The main History and Social Studies page is divided into two content area tabs: Lesson pLans and Websites. The Subject Navigator... (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: National Endowment for the Humanities

The Great Depression and the 1990s

Students frequently echo sentiments such as, “The government is too big,” or “The government should make welfare mothers pay for their own needs.” It seems that many citizens, high schoolers included, have begun to believe in reduced... (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 11 Social Studies)

Provided by: Library of Congress

History Matters - The U.S. Survey Course on the Web

A gateway to U.S. History Web resources. Teaching materials, first-person primary documents and discussions on teaching U.S. history. (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: George Mason University