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Jigsaw

Jigsaw is a cooperative learning technique that was created with the goals of reducing conflict and enhancing positive educational outcomes. The jigsaw technique helps students realize they are essential components of a whole and encourages cooperation in...

Format: article

By Heather Coffey.

Career research and writing

In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 1.2

In this lesson for grade seven, students will learn about a career that interests them and then share what they learned in peer groups. Students will then write a letter to the Better Business Bureau stating why they should be given an internship in their chosen career.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts and Guidance)

By Michelle Kimel.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett, Anissia Jenkins, and Sonya Rexrode.

Exploring the church in the southern black community

Students explore the Documenting the American South Collection titled, the “Church in the Southern Black Community.” Beginning with a historian's interpretation of the primary sources that make up the collection, students search the collection for evidence to describe the experiences of African Americans living in the south during the Antebellum through the Reconstruction Period centering on their community churches. The activity culminates in student presentations of a digital scrap book.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 and 11–12 Social Studies)

By Meghan Mcglinn.

TV careers: Reality vs. fantasy

In CareerStart lessons: Grade seven, page 1.6

In this lesson for grade seven, students discuss compare television portrayals of careers with reality.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 English Language Arts and Guidance)

By Jen Presley.Adapted by Kenyatta Bennett and Sonya Rexrode.

Black American Leaders as Responsible Citizens: Their Roles, Their Contributions, Their Diversity

The focus of this lesson will be to help third grade students to clearly identify the need for having leaders arise from the citizenry of a given community. Students will review factual information to guide them in distinguishing the positive and negative qualities of leaders. Techniques will include guided reading of factual historical text during a Jigsaw, student note taking, student development of open-ended questions, and student engagement in a Socratic seminar.

Format: lesson plan (grade 3 Social Studies)

By Debbie Rollins.

Comparing creation stories

In Two worlds: Educator's guide, page 1.5

In this activity, students compare creation stories from three peoples -- Cherokee, European, and West African -- that met in colonial North Carolina.

Format: lesson plan (grade Social Studies)

By Pauline S. Johnson.

Eroded land, eroded lives: Agriculture and The Grapes of Wrath (lesson 1 of 10)

This description is of only the first lesson in the unit, to be taught before students read the novel; thus, its primary purpose is to put this novel in historical context. Toward that end, students will learn about the (unintentional) abuse of soil that allowed the Dust Bowl to be so devastating and extensive. They will also see photographs by Dorothea Lange and others depicting the wasted land and subsequent wasted dreams of thousands.

Format: lesson plan (grade 11–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Annie Henry.

Chuck Yeager and technological design

In CareerStart lessons: Grade six, page 3.2

Chuck Yeager's career in aviation spans over 60 years and includes such notable feats as becoming the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. This lesson for grade 6 introduces students to Yeager's accomplishments and to careers in aviation.

Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Science)

By April Galloway and Christine Scott.

North Carolina women and the Progressive Movement

This lesson includes primary sources from Documenting the American South specifically related to North Carolina women involved in reform movements characteristic of the Progressive era. For the most part, these documents detail women's work in education-related reform and describe the creation of schools for women in the state. They also demonstrate that, as was true in the rest of the nation, the progressive, female reformers of N.C. were segregated based on race and socio-economic status.

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

By Meghan Mcglinn.

Cooperative learning

Cooperative learning is an instructional method in which students work together in small, heterogeneous groups to complete a problem, project, or other instructional goal, while teachers act as guides or facilitators. This method works to reinforce a student's...

Format: article

By Heather Coffey.

A visit to colonial North Carolina

This lesson plan extends student learning about the colonial period in North Carolina history by incorporating primary sources from the Documenting the American South collection. After reading first-hand accounts of travelers to colonial America, students will create their own travel brochure advertising North Carolina.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

By Meghan Mcglinn.

Map of North Carolina river basins

A river basin encompasses all the land surface drained by many finger-like streams and creeks flowing downhill into one another and eventually into one river, which forms its artery and backbone. As a bathtub catches all the water that falls within its sides...

Format: image/map

The African American experience in NC after Reconstruction

The documents included in this lesson come from The North Carolina Experience collection of Documenting the American South and specifically focus on African Americans and race relations in the early 20th century. The lesson juxtaposes accounts that relate to both the positive improvements of black society and arguments against advancement. Combined, these primary sources and the accompanying lesson plan could be used as a Document Based Question (DBQ) in an AP US history or African American history course.

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

By Meghan Mcglinn.

Mending pottery

In Intrigue of the Past, page 2.9

Students will mend broken pottery to learn what archaeologists learn by mending pottery.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 Visual Arts Education and Social Studies)

The forest people

In Intrigue of the Past, page 3.3

Paleoindian culture died out across North America by 8000 BC. Archaeologists say this was bound to happen. The Ice Age had ended, the megafauna were extinct, and the boreal forests faded as deciduous ones spread across the East in the warmer climate. Faced with significant environmental changes, the Native Americans adapted. Archaeologists call their way of life and the time in which they lived Archaic.

Resources on the web

Jigsaw Classroom

A cooperative learning technique that reduces racial conflict among school children, promotes better learning, improves student motivation, and increases enjoyment of the learning experience. (Learn more)

Format: website/general

Provided by: Elliot Aronson

The Big Picture

Puzzle activities made from images found in the American Memory collections. (Learn more)

Format: website/activity

Provided by: Library of Congress

Gene puzzles

In this Science NetLinks lesson, students will examine a fictional pedigree and determine which gene is responsible for a given trait. This lesson will help students build an understanding of how offspring inherit genes from their parents. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 7 Science)

Provided by: American Association for the Advancement of Science

CoolMath

A huge resource for students, teachers, and parents that has over 5000 pages of math learning activities, games, information, and demonstrations. (Learn more)

Format: website/activity

Provided by: CoolMath

Education at the Getty - Lesson Plans

A variety of lesson plans are provided which are based on the artistic collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. Plans can be integrated into all core subject areas and are searchable by grade level and subject. (Learn more)

Format: website/lesson plan

Provided by: The Getty