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

Discovering Primary Sources

Dorgan, Edward

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

Developing Inquiry Based Lessons with Digital Primary Sources

Martindell, Toni

PD Plan
6-8
History, Science and Technology
Learning Forward
Digital, Inquiry, Library, Literacy, Media, Primary Source, Technology

Death in the Afternoon

Dille, Sarah

Activity
9-12
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Bullfighting, Ernest Hemingway, Pamplona, Seville, Spanish

Days of Future Past: Making Cross Curricular Connections with Primary Sources

Gershman, Eric

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History, Science and Technology
21st Century Learner
Analysis, Future, Past, Present, Primary Source, Resource

Cumberland, Maryland: Exploration, Encounter and Exchange

Leatherman, Grace

PD Plan
9-12
Bilingual/ESL, English/Language Arts, History
Learning Forward Standards
Cumberland, Encounter, Exchange, Exploration, Maryland, Primary Source, Railroads

Courage to Remember

Lee, Gorman

PD Plan
9-12
Civics and Government, History
Common Core, MA State
Bigotry, Bystander, Courage, Discrimination, Hate, Holocaust, Jewish, Nazi, Remember, World War II, Anti-semitism

Connecting Local to Global: Primary Sources and Place-Based Learning

Lindboe, Theresa

PD Plan
6-8
Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
Learning Forward
Community, Global, Inquiry, Local, Narrative, Primary Source

Columbus: Hero or Villain?

Johnson, Angela

PD Plan
6-8
21st Century Learner
Columbus, Hero, Europe, Exploration, North America, New World, Villain

Civil War Recruitment in the Mid-Atlantic Region

Dahlstrom, Susan

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Civil War, Draft, Enlist, Lincoln, Recruitment, Mid-Atlantic, Poster, Region, Slavery, Soldier, War

Civil Rights Movement

de Steuben, Marcia

PD Plan
3-5
Cultural Studies, English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
African American, Civil Rights Movement, Discrimination, Equality, Segregation, Struggle

Citing Evidence to Support Claims with Sources from the Library of Congress

Miller, Grant

PD Plan
3-5
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core, IL State
Claim, Evidence, Source

Change-Gin For The Better?

Wheeler-Toppin, Jodi

PD Plan
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Cotton Gin, Innovation, Inquiry, Technology, Whitney

Challenges: Education for African Americans After the Civil War

Obrochta, William

PD Plan
Any Grade
History
Common Core, VA State
African American, Civil Rights, Civil War, Education, Equality, Freedman, Jim Croq, Race, Reconstruction, Segregation, Sharecropper

Captain John Smith: Fact or Fiction?

Huber, Janet

PD Plan
3-5
Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
21st Century Learner
Colonist, Colony, Disney, Fact, Fiction, Inquiry, John Smith, Native American, New World, Pocahontas, Settlement

Built Environment and Popular Imagination: Learning to Integrate Library of Congress Primary Sources in Instruction

LaManga, Michael

PD Plan
Any Grade
Historic Site, Revolutionary War, Valley Forge, Washington

Building Literacy Across the Curriculum Using Primary Sources

Lomax, Tomeka

PD Plan
9-12
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Analysis Tool, Book, Building, Literacy, Literature, Primary Source

Book Backdrops and the American Revolution

Walker, Ann

PD Plan
Any Grade
Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
Common Core, ISTE
American Revolution, Book Backdrop, Music, Primary Source, Soldier, War, World War I

Blending Primary Sources and Literacy

Barrett, Mike

PD Plan
3-5
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
Civil War, Lincoln, Literacy, Literature, Primary Source

Battles, Bends and Breastworks: A Map Analysis From the Creek War

Elfer, Charles

PD Plan
9-12
History
ISTE
Analysis, Battles, Creek War, Geography, Horseshoe Bend, Military

Analyzing Sherman’s March to the Sea via Inquiry-Based Learning and Close Reading Strategy

Landers, Lisa

PD Plan
Any Grade
Civil War, Georgia, March to the Sea, Sherman's March to the Sea

Art of War

Hawks, Jeff

PD Plan
6-8
Arts and Music, History
21st Century Learner, Common Core
Art, Analyze, Battlefield, Experience, Photographs, Soldiers, War

Creating Lincoln

Smith, Laurelin

Lesson Plan
3-5
History
NCSS, PA State
Lincoln, Primary Sources, Personality, Life

Countdown

Keruskin, Kelly

Activity
6-8
English/Language Arts, History
Common Core
1960s, Cold War, Communism, Countdown, Cuban Missile Crisis, Duck and Cover, Fidel Castro, Library, John F Kennedy, Nuclear War, Read Aloud, Soviet Union

Constitution

Colamartino, Mara; Morrow, Nicole; Wishner, Brittany

Unit
6-8
Arts and Music, English/Language Arts, History
PA State
Art, Articles, Constitution, Convention, Federalist Papers, Government, Media, Quilt, Ratification, States Rights

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