Teacher Lesson Plans

Students will apply new knowledge of technology as well as review prior knowledge of previous time periods by compare/contrasting images of total war from multiple eras.

By analyzing and conceptualizing the Treaty of Versailles and the major players in the peace process, students can begin to delve into the complexities of the underlying issues of the peace treaty.

This is a document-based-question assignment that requires the students to construct a coherent essay that integrates their interpretation of primary source documents and their knowledge of the time period referenced in the question.

Students will predict why Truman decided to desegregate the military. Students will then work in groups to analyze relevant primary documents to seek clarification for Truman's decision. Finally, each student will use evidence from the documents to write an essay arguing why Truman decided to desegregate the military.

The lesson is for use in an IB 20th Century World History class, made up of High School juniors and seniors. It is a cooperative learning assignment which uses key primary source documents from the Truman administration.

Formulate a deeper level of understanding of Truman and Executive Order 9981 by allowing students to construct their own opinion based upon evidence from primary sources.

Through a close reading of historic documents from the Truman Library each class will be divided into teams and "translate" and summarize the meaning of their document

Document analysis and DBQ Essay on the Cold War.

Document analysis focused on the Holocaust and the Truman Administration

The development of the state of Israel

This lesson uses primary documents to support an examination of the use of subpoenas by legislative bodies to demand testimony and the power of presidents when refusing to cooperate.  The lesson can be done as individual or pair work initially and finishes with group and class discussion.

The students will listen to an audio recording of President Truman's address to Congress, which requests that Congress appropriate financial aid to Greece and Turkey.

Students will study Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan as it relates to the early Cold War and U.S. policy of containment.

This activity will employ selected primary documents to explore Truman's views on the race question, from his days of courting Bess Wallace through his post-Presidential years.

Students will read correspondence from Truman about desegregating the military as well as primary document background material about his experiences with minority groups during WWI. They will work in groups to create a mini-presentation.

Students will read a section from To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President’s Committee on Civil Rights and analyze the directions under the executive order and the interpretation by the committee of what they were supposed to accomplish.

Students need to develop an understanding of foreign relations between the United States and the rest of the world, especially the Middle East.

Students will be exploring the impact of road building and how that affected future American urbanization and prosperity. Students will conduct research cooperatively in groups of 3-4 while turning in individual papers

The students will read background material on civil rights movement relating to the armed services. They will analyze and discuss Executive Order 9981 and learn how the blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodward affected President Truman. After reading and class discussion, the students will express their thoughts in a writing activity.

A variety of primary sources reveal the complexity of historical interpretation and memory from the point of view of President Truman and his contemporaries.

This lesson will require students to examine the primary sources of personal letters and conduct biographical research on either President or first lady Truman. They will then use their information to determine the influence and relationship of the first lady and her presidential husband and examine her influence on the issues of the time.

Students will be analyzing two political cartoons featuring the United Nations (one from the Korean War-Truman administration and one from the War in the Persian Gulf-circa Bush 41 administration). After independent analysis, students will pair up or join small groups and share analysis and then discuss two questions about U.S. foreign policy decisions concerning the two events and the Presidential choices made about when and how to involve the U.S. in war. 

A broad overview of U.S. foreign policy from Truman to Bush 43.

In this activity, students will use primary source posters and other documents from the World War I era to learn about the ways in which the United States mobilized for war.

The students will read primary documents, participate in seminar discussions about the documents, and ultimately write a persuasive essay about their findings.

This lesson was designed to provide the students with the exact articles found in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the opportunity to analyze each article.

Cooperative learning activity containing small classroom groups and ending with entire class, student-led discussion. Primary sources and maps will form basis for discussion of Korean War.

Students will be comparing a) FDR and Truman’s use of executive orders and b) the Supreme Court’s decisions on those executive orders.

Using Photographs and Cartoons to teach Eleanor Roosevelt's Role as First Lady and Adviser to the President

Lesson Plan Using Primary Sources to Start ELA Writing Journal/Storytelling.

Help students see the Vietnam War in the larger context of the Cold War.

This series of activities will incorporate individual work in interpreting primary sources, cooperative group learning in the form of class debates, and cross-curricular learning with language arts as students read and discuss famous civil-rights era lite.

Students will do online and offline research to determine the historical, cultural, and economic aspects of a county in the Ozarks.

This is a cumulative lesson on the Holocaust. This lesson will be used towards the end of the Holocaust Unit. Students will have a thorough knowledge of the Holocaust. This lesson may be used before or after the lesson on the Nuremberg trials.

Students have to decide if WWI is worth fighting for and put themselves in that time period and figure out what they are willing to fight for.

This lesson will allow advanced middle school or high school students to analyze primary source documents concerning the women's rights movement in the United States to end suffrage and propose a constitutional amendment for the right to vote.

This lesson is designed for a high school level United States History Class but can be modified for a middle level classroom as well. This lesson combines partner/group work with an individual assignment. The students will be examining both primary and secondary sources in this lesson.

Students will analysis and evaluate primary documents, videos, excerpts from newspapers and books, and then in groups will create a persuasive essay supporting their point of view, including quotations from the provided sources.

Students will develop a deeper comprehension of the strife between Israel and the Palestinians and will be able to apply their own synthesis to their own lives through their own role-playing creation.

I want the students to grasp what the soldiers on both sides of the Civil War used to fight the war. As we continue on in history, we will compare these weapons to weapons used in WWI and WWII. Students will look into the technology of the war and gain an understanding of what a soldier had to use during a battle.

Students will work individually or in pairs to analyze Norman Rockwell's Family Squabble.

Class discussion on the end of the war in the pacific.

Discuss and Research Emergency Powers of the President

Students will analyze primary documents, make decisions in the role of Harry S. Truman, and participate in group discussion and debate to understand the complex decision making that went into Truman's decision to desegregate the U.S. military.

Students will take part in a lesson where they are shown pictures of certain leaders. When the students see the picture they will be asked to describe the person and any characteristics they can make out about that person.

This lesson will help students understand how Americans felt about WWI before we entered it and understand that it was not necessarily widely supported like WWII.

Students will compare and contrast First Ladies

Students will use primary documents to determine the views and dreams of freedmen in the Exoduster migration to Kansas using a photo of an Exoduster family in NE, the Kansas Emigrant Song, and NARAs document analysis form.

Students will analyze primary documents concerning Truman and MacArthur's professional relationship to help them discover appropriate aspects of relationships between employees and their bosses.

Through cooperative learning and interaction students will examine how our past can have a real impact on our existence. This lesson will incorporate technology (the use of the internet) and various primary and secondary sources.