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

Did Charles Sumner Deserve It?

C3 Teachers Development

C3 Inquiry
3-5
Civics and Government, History
C3 Framework
Charles Sumner, Preston Brooks, Slavery

Did the Attack on Pearl Harbor Unify America?

C3 Teachers Development

C3 Inquiry
9-12
Civics and Government, History
C3 Framework
America, Pearl Harbor, World War II, WWII

Did the Founders Want Government to Work?

C3 Teachers Development

C3 Inquiry
9-12
Civics and Government, History
C3 Framework
Founders, Government, Liberties, Power, Separation of Powers

Did We Overcome Racism Yet?

John Lee

C3 Inquiry
9-12
Cultural Studies, History
C3 Framework
Civil Rights, Civil Rights Movement, Racism

Did We Overcome?

Holt, Bailey

C3 Inquiry
6-8
Civics and Government, Cultural Studies, History
African Americans' Rights, Discrimination, Jim Crow Laws, Protests, Racism

Digging Into the Constitution

Buzzard, Daniel; Fields, Timothy; Faust, Laura; Pugh, Mollie

Unit
9-12
Civics and Government, English/Language Arts, Geography
PA State
Bill of Rights, Constitution, Economics, Franklin, Government, Unit, Washington

Discovering Primary Sources

Dorgan, Edward

PD Plan
9-12
History
21st Century Learner, ISTE
Cartoon, Culture, Inquiry, Primary Sources

Discovering Primary Sources

Klein, Miriam

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Advanced, Civil War, Gettysburg Address, Google, Inquiry, Lincoln, Primary Source

Do our parks do what they are supposed to do?

C3 Teachers Development

C3 Inquiry
6-8
Civics and Government, History
C3 Framework
Frederick Olmsted, Parks

Dust Bowl: What Do You See and What Do You Hear?

Creamer, Deborah

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner
Audio, Drought, Dust Bowl, Farmer, Great Depression, Migrant, Music, Recording, Roosevelt, Song

Eagle Eye Citizen

George Mason University

External link
Curriculum
Any Grade
Civics and Government, History
App, Civics, Create, History, Solve, Teach

Early America - Thirteen Colonies

Hubsch, Steve

Unit
6-8
History
PA State
Age of Exploration, Chesapeake Bay, Colonies, Colonization, Europeans, Middle, New England, New World, Southern

Early Exploration of Florida: Elementary Primary Source Analysis

LaValle, Carol

PD Plan
3-5
Cultural Studies, History
21st Century Learner, ISTE, Learning Forward
Florida , Maps

Easy, Peasy Lesson Plans and Your School Library

Weisser, Shawn

PD Plan
3-5
Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
Common Core, 21st Century Learner
Book, Library, Literacy, Past, Present, Primary Source, Words

Eddie Rickenbacker: Survival at Sea for 24 Days and Visual Discovery

Binford, Paul E

PD Plan
9-12
Civics and Government, History
Common Core, MS State
Primary Sources, Rickenbacker, South Pacific, Visual Discovery, World War II

Effects of Human Interaction on the Environment

Thistle, Gay

Lesson Plan
9-12
Geography, History, Science and Technology
PA State
Chronology, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Human Interaction

Ellis Island - Who Came and How did the Think/Feel?

Mohler, Rebecca

Lesson Plan
Pre K-2
Cultural Studies, English/Language Arts, History
PA State
Ellis Island, Experience, Immigrant, Immigration, Pull Factors, Push Factors, Statue of Liberty

Ellis Island Christmas

Mohler, Rebecca

Activity
Pre K-2
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Christmas, Diversity, Ellis Island, Immigrant, Immigrate, New York, Statue of Liberty

Emancipation: Effects on Individuals

Smith, Jennifer; Thornton, Amy

Lesson Plan
6-8
History
MD State
Civil War, Emancipation, Emancipation Procolamation, Individuals, Lincoln, Reconstruction, Slavery

Emily Dickinson Among Her Contemporaries: Transcendentalist or Modern Poet?

Peloquin-Burns, Denise

Activity
9-12
English/Language Arts
Common Core
Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Modern, Poem, Poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Romanticism, Transcendentalist, Walt Whitman

Engaging Congress

Center on Representative Government

External link
Curriculum
Any Grade
Civics and Government, History
App, Civics, Congress, History

Engaging Students With Primary Sources

Darland, Ashley

PD Plan
6-8
History
21st Century Learner
Primary Sources, South Carolina Historical Society

Engaging Young Learners Using Inquiry Based Learning and Primary Sources

Beazell, Makalah

PD Plan
3-5
Arts and Music, Bilingual/ESL, English/Language Arts
ISTE
Analysis, Inquiry, Primary Sources, US Mail

Enhancing Historical Thinking Strategies Using Primary Sources

Carter, Julie

PD Plan
6-8
Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner
Analyze, Contextualize, Historical, Jim Crow, Primary Sources, Reconstruction, Segregation, Soldier, South, Thinking, Troop

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