Ideas, Activities, and Plans

Lesson Plans, Units, PD Plans, Activities, and Book Backdrops to engage and empower your students.
This vetted searchable database of teacher-created resources is your source of inspiration for primary source driven teaching across the curriculum. Find just the right resource and then let us know how you used it:
Classroom Implementation Report
PD Activity Report

TPS Files

Types of Propaganda: WWI or The Great War

Black, Tracy

PD Plan
9-12
English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner, ISTE, Learning Forward
Propaganda, World War I, WWI

U.S. Presidents

Balogh, Meghan; Knaus, Tina; Skinner, Nicole

Unit
Pre K-2
Civics and Government, English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Campaign, Election, Executive, Government, President, Speech, Voting

Uncle Jed's Barbershop

Thistle, Gay

Activity
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Bank, Barbershop, Dreams, Failure, Family, Great Depression, Healthcare, Segregation, Sharecropper

Understanding Political Cartoons of the Civil War Period

Corwin, Karen

Lesson Plan
9-12
History
PA State
Analysis, Cartoon, Civil War, Copperhead, Lincoln, Uncle Sam, Slavery, States Rights, Symbolism

Unknown Civil War

Zewe, Debbie

Activity
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
PA State
Civil War, General Order, Grant, Jewish, Population, Slavery, South

Unlocking Your Inner Sherlock: Inquiry Learning With Primary Sources

Walker, Juan

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner
Captain, Detective, Inquiry, Interview, Jackson, Native American, Oral History, Sherlock, Walker

Uprising Pre-Reading Activity

Mourer, Peggy

Activity
9-12
English/Language Arts
Common Core
Garment Workers, Immigrant, Industrial Revolution, Laborers, New York City, Pre-Reading, Uprising

US Constitution and the Bill of Rights: Relevance to Today

Lail, Sara

PD Plan
9-12
Civics and Government, English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner, ISTE
Amendments, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Founding Father, Franklin, Government, Madison, Washington

Using a Score to Reach All Ages

Bennett, Carolyn

PD Plan
6-8
Arts and Music
ISTE
Analyze, Ensemble, Music, Score

Using Google Tools to Integrate Primary Sources in Classroom Activities

Duggins, Brene E.

PD Plan
6-8
Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner
Forms, Google, Integrate, Sheets, Tools

Using Library of Congress Primary Sources - Political Cartoons

Jackson, Andrea

PD Plan
6-8
Bilingual/ESL, English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Analysis, Cartoons, Library of Congress, Political

Using Library of Congress Resources to Study Westward Expansion

Marcus Feld, Lauren

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner
Art, Geography, Maps, Migrate, Painting, Westward Expansion

Using LOC Primary Sources to Explain the Guilded Age

Mottola Poole, Cyndi

PD Plan
9-12
History
C3, Common Core
Analyze, Guilded Age, Homestead, Industrial Revolution, Labor, Miner, Monongahela, Pittsburgh, River, Work

Using Maps as Primary Sources

Goodall, Shana

PD Plan
9-12
Geography, History
Common Core
Analyze, Geography, Inquiry, Maps, Waldseemuller, Zoom

Using Online Primary Sources from the Library of Congress

Kensill, Heather

PD Plan
9-12
English/Language Arts, History
ISTE
Critical Thinking, Inquiry

Using Primary Source Sets to Support NYS Social Studies C3 Toolkits

Schweizer, Tom

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner
American, Discrimination, Espionage, Framework, Homefront, Inquiry, Internment, Japanese, Pearl Harbor, Primary Source Set, Roosevelt, Toolkit, World War II, WWII

Using Primary Sources

Kennedy, Ann

PD Plan
3-5
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Analysis

Using Primary Sources in Argumentative Writing

Crouse, Courtney

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
ISTE Standards
Argument, Atomic Bomb, Japanese, Roosevelt, Truman, World War II, Writing, WWII

Using Primary Sources to Analyze Photographs

Meyers, Shanna

PD Plan
9-12
English/Language Arts, History, Science and Technology
21st Century Learner
Analyze, Drug, Health, Medicine, Photographs, Science

Using Primary Sources to Bring Middle School Science to Life

Almond, Sharon

PD Plan
6-8
Math, Science and Technology
21st Century Learner, ISTE
Alexander Graham Bell, Analysis, Wright Brothers

Using Primary Sources to tell the Story of Early American Immigrants

Al-Mateen, Ameerah

PD Plan
3-5
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Ellis Island, Experience, Immigration, Nativism, Statue of Liberty

Using Primary Sources With Historical Fiction

Rosenberger, Connie

PD Plan
9-12
English/Language Arts
Common Core, School Library
Analyze, Dorothea, Fiction, Inquiry, Lange

Using the Lewis and Clark Expedition as a Means for Cross Curricular Collaboration

Genovese, Vincent

PD Plan
9-12
21st Century Learner, PA State
Clark, Explore, Lewis, Manifest Destiny, Technology, Westward Expansion

Using the Library of Congress Website to Bring History to Life

Smith, Sharon

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Art, Arts, Band, Civil War, Library, Life, Literacy, Music, Perform

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