Lesson Plans

Students will interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents and photographs about dam designs. Students will gain the skills necessary for researching by locating credible and original sources, and determining if the sources are primary or secondary. Students will use technology to create a presentation, highlighting primary and secondary sources.

This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.

In this lesson, students will describe causes of involvement of the United States in Wold War I by defining yellow journalism, and its effect on the United States becoming involved in a war with Spain over its territories in the Caribbean Sea and the Philippine Islands. By viewing primary source documents of newspaper articles from Alabama, the students will make judgments as to the effectiveness of the newspaper articles.

This lesson was created as a part of the Alabama History Education Initiative, funded by a generous grant from the Malone Family Foundation in 2009.

AuthorInformation: Ronald Shephard (Cohort 2: 2010-2011)
Central High School Phenix City Schools Phenix City, AL

Students will explore two NCSS Notable Trade Books and a newspaper advertisement to develop an understanding of what life was like for slaves in the nineteenth century.  Students will use their understanding to write a narrative story about being a slave in the nineteenth century. Students will use the website MyStorybook to create and publish their stories.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Listening to narrative text offers students a chance to go beyond decoding and word meaning. Listening as the teacher reads a story gives students an opportunity to appreciate, and draw significance, and meaning as well as informal practice using story elements. Listening to read-alouds gives the teacher the opportunity to model "close" reading skills as well as model thinking.

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

In this lesson, students will define archaeology. Students will make inferences from observations by sorting through garbage to analyze clues about the people who left the garbage. Students will compare and contrast two artifacts looking for clues from the past. Students will write a narrative story of an artifact.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

This lesson will introduce students to an Alabama connection to World War I. The primary document that will be used is a letter to a father from a University of Alabama student, written on March 2, 1917, exactly one month before the United States declared war on Germany. The student discusses typical family topics before ending with his concerns about the possibility of war.

This lesson was created as a part of the Alabama History Education Initiative, funded by a generous grant from the Malone Family Foundation in 2009.

Author Information:Dr. Lesa Roberts (Cohort 1: 2009-2010) Hampton Road Middle School; Huntsville City School System; Huntsville, AL

In this lesson, students will research one Native American group from each of the six main biomes in North America. Students will use their developing technology and language arts skills to find reliable sources on the internet, evaluate and integrate information from these texts, select a suitable digital platform to share their findings, and create a cohesive presentation showcasing their mastery of the learning outcomes. Students will discover the climate, landforms, water, and other natural resources available within each region and how they were used by the natives living there. Students will explore the relationships between the cultures found within each region and its resources. 

This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.

Students will choose a topic that they think should be a law.  As a class, they will re-enact the steps necessary to make a new law.

James Reese Europe was an "accomplished orchestra conductor, bandleader, and composer of popular songs, marches and dance music during the early twentieth century...Europe was an effective champion of African-American musical performers and composers and helped to gain acceptance for them in the United States and abroad." Born in Mobile, Alabama, Europe accomplished much in his brief lifetime and deserves a place in every study of World War I.

Students will annotate a biography of James Reese Europe and analyze two photographs of the orchestra Reese led across France. Students will view a documentary film of Europe and his "Hellfighter" orchestra as they fought, performed, and received medals for their efforts during the war.

As a culminating activity on the second day, students will write a eulogy for Europe detailing his role as a leader in Jazz and as an African American officer.  

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Through this lesson, students will explore primary sources related to the buying and selling of human beings for the purpose of slavery. Students will analyze receipts from stores and discuss what they demonstrate about modern society. Students will then analyze the language and iconography used in bills of sale pertaining to the buying and selling of slaves in the 19th century. The students will write a paragraph to compare and contrast the items from both eras.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Students will analyze a primary document and read a secondary source about the Marquis de Lafayette's Grand Tour of the United States in 1825. The Marquis and his entourage toured lower Alabama for a few days in April.

Students will create an annotated timeline detailing his days and the events that occurred in Alabama as the country prepared to celebrate America's 50th birthday. The timeline will include dates and descriptions of the people, places, and events in informative summaries as well as appropriate illustrations.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

In this lesson, students will learn the characteristics of the five geographic regions of Alabama by researching the regions using maps, the Internet, and books. The students will also make a salt dough map depicting Alabama’s land regions.

This lesson was created as a part of the Alabama History Education Initiative, funded by a generous grant from the Malone Family Foundation in 2009.

Author Information: Ivy Murry and DeShaundra Johnson (Cohort 1: 2009-2010); Holly Hill Elementary and Hall-Kent; Elementary Enterprise City Schools and Homewood City Schools;  Enterprise, AL and Homewood, AL

Students will analyze a primary document that details items purchased to celebrate the Marquis de Lafayette's tour of Alabama in April 1825. Students will create an invitation to the celebration, including the What, Where, When, Why, What to Bring, and R.S.V.P. Students will include details from the secondary source, as well as the primary document, to include on the invitation. The event will be explained utilizing the format of the invitation.

This lesson is part of the SSC3 A+ College Ready training.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

In this lesson, students will watch a video on Miranda rights and the Bill of Rights.  Students will discuss rights they think should have been included in the Miranda.  Then students will rewrite the Miranda and create a presentation with VoiceThread.

This lesson will focus on creating timelines. Students will use important dates from their lives to create a personal 5 event timeline. Students will use rulers to measure equal spaces for their timelines. This lesson will require two one-hour sessions. The first lesson will include the lesson introduction, work on timelines, and time for formative assessments as students work. The second session will be used to complete timelines, share projects, and complete exit tickets.

This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.

In this lesson, students investigate cardinal directions and the compass rose through video and a directions game. Then, students will draw and label a map of the classroom using cardinal directions.

Imagine if the world as you know it never changed. Students will embark on a journey back in time and research what life in Alabama looked like in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Students will compare and contrast the information they research with their present-day lives. Students will then identify how technological advancements changed life for Alabamians and reflect on how they feel their life would be today if things never changed. Students will create an Adobe Express digital story to communicate their researched information and personal reflections.

This resource was created as a result of the Alabama Technology in Motion Partnership.

When we hear the words Civil Rights Movement, we have visions of Dr. Martin Luther King and a few others. Through pictures, students will identify ordinary leaders in the crowd. Students will have the opportunity to analyze those pictures by doing a picture walk.  Students will learn more about some of the people in the crowd, and how they made a difference in our beloved community.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Students will explore two different interpretations of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spanish, one in art and the other in literature. The perspectives of the same events as seen by the Spanish and the Aztecs will be explored. Students will highlight portions of both pieces of art to gain perspective of both sides.

This is a College- and Career-Ready Standards showcase lesson plan.

Students will read a description of the pine barrens by Basil Hall and analyze the text by using the 3-2-1 strategy. Students will discuss the life and work of Basil Hall, including his travels and journaling in North America. They will observe how a camera lucida functions and debate whether using a camera lucida is "cheating" in art. Next, students will venture outside to create a sketch of their environment while appropriately utilizing materials. They will compare and contrast their products to the sketches of Basil Hall and critique each other's work. 

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

This lesson will use primary sources to compare and contrast the perspectives of George C. Wallace at the beginning and in the latter part of his life as a political figure in Alabama. The students will develop a hypothesis about the effect that Wallace’s views and actions had on the image of Alabama and the changes in his character over time.

This lesson was created as a part of the Alabama History Education Initiative, funded by a generous grant from the Malone Family Foundation in 2009.

Author Information: Misty Freeman (Cohort 2: 2010-2011); Rehobeth Elementary; Houston County Schools; Dothan, AL

The lesson will focus on ordering common events by times, days, months, steps, or events. Students will work collaboratively in groups to organize five child-focused events, steps, or times. These titles, events, steps, days, and times will be cut apart so that students need to organize them into a logical sequence. Groups will rotate through the five events to practice daily schedules, holidays, school schedules, weekly events, and procedural texts. Groups may take a picture of completed events as a digital copy or the teacher may check each group for formative assessment.

This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.

In this lesson, students will learn the purpose of a timeline and how to create one. Students will also be able to apply timeline skills to reading comprehension.

At the turn of the 20th century, illiteracy was common across the United States. Percentages ranged from 10-30%, depending on location. Rural Alabama suffered from a high illiteracy rate. During this lesson, students will read and analyze primary documents that focus on the importance of literacy for Alabamian soldiers - LIT2010 (6-8)(2 & 7). Students will create a propaganda poster that asks citizens to do their part [SS2010 (6)(3)] in changing the culture of Alabama illiteracy and for teaching  Alabama soldiers that literacy is a powerful weapon [SS2010 (6)(1)].

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

In this lesson, students will define conflict as it relates to Native American land conflict during the early nineteenth century.  Students will compare Native Americans' and settlers' perspectives on land.  Students will write a narrative writing as a Creek Chief watching the settlers move into their territory, focusing on how this makes them feel and how these events will change the lives of his/her people. 

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

In this lesson, students will explore the invention of the steamboat and the role it played in the economy, transportation, and culture of the lifestyles of plantation owners, yeoman farmers, slaves, and townspeople of early nineteenth-century Alabama.  Students will compare and contrast steamboats, wagons, and stagecoaches as different modes of transportation for goods as well as people.  Students will create a steamboat advertisement to illustrate the importance of the invention of the steamboat in Alabama. 

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

In this lesson, the students will learn about the Boston Massacre and how this event led to the American Revolution. The students will understand that when governments are unjust, sometimes people revolt. The students will compare and contrast the two sides of the American colonists in the 1770’s, “Colonists Should Fight the British for Independence” versus “Colonists Should Not Fight the British for Independence.” In addition, the students will create a web video on one event that led to the American Revolution. This lesson is designed to integrate technology, such as WeVideo, with social studies.

Students will read from an Alabama newspaper about President James Monroe's surprise visit to Huntsville. The article discusses the purposes of the visit, the locals who welcomed and entertained the President, and his discussion of current (1819) events.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

In this lesson, students will analyze poetry and art from the Harlem Renaissance. Students will discuss major themes of the Harlem Renaissance. Then, students will write their own poems reflecting these themes through the website StoryJumper.

The lesson will focus on creating a timeline. The teacher and students will work together to collect data from teachers around the school. Using this data, students will work to complete a class timeline and formulate questions to ask others about their completed timeline. This lesson will require four 30-45 minute sessions to complete.

This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.

This lesson will help students determine the causes and events leading to the American Revolutionary War.  Students will participate in a whole class "game" to understand taxes and the phrase "taxation without representation".  Then students will illustrate their views of the causes of the Revolutionary War using comic strips.

Each student becomes an expert on a natural disaster, investigating and discovering how they can prepare for it.  Students initially create traditional motivational posters using paper, pencils, markers, and crayons.  Then, students create an electronic version to motivate others to prepare for natural disasters.  Next, students create storyboards/scripts and digital stories on a natural disaster of their choosing to inform others of ways to prepare for natural disasters. 

This lesson was created as part of a collaboration between Alabama Technology in Motion and ALEX.  

The lesson will explain why significant leaders of the Creek War disrupted the Alabama Creek Indian Headsmen and the government. The disruption would be solved through negotiation. The negotiating Creek Indians did not obtain full restoration of their land, however, they did accept a compromise.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

This is a group activity that allows students to use predictions to learn about the lifestyle of American colonists.

In this lesson, students will be able to describe cultural aspects of early nineteenth century townspeople by reading a newspaper article describing the opening of a new school. Students will also be able to discuss, infer, and write from a variety of perspectives when explaining the roles of various people mentioned in the article.

This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.