Teacher Lesson Plans

Students will learn about the First Ladies of the United States and the social causes they championed. Using primary and secondary sources, students will research a First Lady and then share their findings with others.

The students will be putting together a series of “interviews” they conducted about the first ladies. Their objective will be to answer a series of questions about a specific First Lady.

The students are instructed that they will select a president of the United States and have to research who had a great deal of influence on the policy that was supported and put into place by that president.

Students research and learn about the fashion of a certain time period and identify with the personal convictions and tastes of the famous First Ladies of the past.

Students will research the impact of World War II on Major League Baseball and create a trading card using a draw program.

Students will study the Berlin Airlift and the role Gail Halverson played in shaping this famous Cold War event. The lesson includes a lecture on the Berlin Airlift, a video presentation by Gail Halvorsen, a critical thinking worksheet, and a PowerPoint.

Students will work collaboratively (or individually) to produce a presentation that addresses the demographics of the slave population and contributions by a freed slave from students home region

Students will study excerpts from FDR's fireside chat about changing the supreme court and study editorial cartoons about reactions to it. They will discuss and evaluate the plan and analyze editorial cartoons.

Using the primary sources provided, students will work in groups to evaluate six different presidential campaigns from 1952 - 2008.

In a cooperative learning project, students will participate in a mock trial, arguing the facts and constitutional ramifications of the 1938 Supreme Court case Gaines v. Canada [Univ. of Missouri].

Collect and use statistical data from news sources

Given a map of Korea, student teams will label the map showing location of mountains, average high and low temperatures, names of neighboring countries, population centers, and location of cities.

Poster analysis and production focusing on George Marshall and The Marshall Plan

The student will be able to analyze and determine central themes in George Orwell’s Animal Farm as these themes relate to the novel’s role as an allegory of Communism in Russia during WWII.

This activity incorporates the study of primary sources and cooperative learning.

Students will evaluate primary sources such as documents and political cartoons related to decisions made by President Ford's administration during the final days of the Vietnam War.

Students will listen to the American radio broadcast of Germany's surrender and answer questions relating to the broadcast

Close read of Gettysburg Address activity

Analysis of primary documents relating to US involvement in the Middle East.

Finding primary sources, students will work together as a class to create a master "deck of cards" for 13 first ladies. Students will work together in pairs (or alone - teacher choice) to research assigned first ladies(s)

Students will explore the Rwandan Genocide and the Western response to the genocide

Students will work in groups and do research to identify the reasons for fighting in The Great War by the primary combatants in December of 1914.

Determine the role of a specific person affected by the Great War and describe how their life was altered as a result of the fighting

To help students understand life on the Missouri/Kansas border during the "Bleeding Kansas" time period.

An examination of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, its intent and impact, its ultimate repeal and its relationship to the War Powers Resolution.

Students will complete a geography book report/project based on the book.

Students, working in teams, will analyze the rapid rise in automobiles and the growing need for a stable road system in the United States/Missouri

A series of activities to help students gain understanding and appreciation for Truman.

Students will take a position on one of the many topics listed and create an argument that is supported with the use of primary sources found on the Truman Presidential Library website.

Students develop problem solving skills learning about Harry Truman

Students will work in pairs, using primary documents and readings from secondary sources to discover how Harry Truman was a forward thinking individual as shown in road building for Jackson County.

President Truman recalls many of the successes and problems of the Potsdam Conference and the postwar world in his diary entries and letters to his wife, Bess Wallace Truman. Students are given the opportunity to examine these unique documents and argue about their validity as primary sources while learning about the Potsdam Conference.

Students will learn about the conditions in Greece and Turkey during the Cold War and learn about Truman's response through the Truman Doctrine

Analyze and compare the presidency of Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson.

This will be an introductory paired learning activity. The students, working in teams, analyze the rapid rise in automobiles and the growing need for a stable road system in the United States/Missouri.

The student will examine the choices of the Einsatzgruppen leadership from the Holocaust, and that of General Romeo Dallaire, from the Rwandan genocide, and compare and contrast the moral and ethical consequences.

Students will be researching and analyzing the internment of Japanese Americans on the west coast of the US during WWII.

Cooperative learning through document analysis and discussion

Students will read through the Bill of Rghts and put into their own words what those rights mean today. They will then prioritize those rights as they apply to students.

To gain a wider understanding of the Flu Epidemic and how it affected America.

Students will be developing a CD with a compilation of jazz songs that best exemplifies the Jazz Era (1920s-1930s). They will create a CD cover, an insert with each song title, its lyrics, and justification for why the song was included in the album.

To assist students in developing analytical skills that will enable them to evaluate primary sources and images such as documents, photographs, political cartoons and posters related to the Lincoln conspirators.

To show students that the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the effects of John Brown's raid and other raids along the border.

This lesson will allow students to evaluate the use of propaganda during presidential election years.

In this lesson, the students will apply their knowledge of the tactics and strategies used during the Civil Rights Movement to the movements for women's rights and Native American rights. The students will use both primary and secondary sources.

Students will analyze eyewitness descriptions of the firebombing of Tokyo and respond to it in a method of (mostly) their choosing.

Students will review primary source documents, secondary resources and related news articles and current events relating to the events and impact of the test of the atomic bomb at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

Technology based, individual or partner analysis of a primary source, or use as a station on an Interactive board if students are doing several different activities at the same time.