This collection uses primary sources to explore Shays' Rebellion. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

Since 1885 the Shoshone people have been without buffalo on their land. After decades of effort beginning in the 1990’s a coalition of individuals and organizations have taken the first step in returning the North American Bison to their native lands. In the accompanying lesson plan (found in the Support Materials) students will understand that nowhere is this action more culturally and ecologically significant than on the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will explore the significance of the buffalo to the Shoshone people living on the Wind River Reservation.
Students will learn that through traditional concepts of understanding, the Shoshone people, as well as many other Plains tribes, were able to survive using the buffalo.
Students will research the controversial issue surrounding the return of the buffalo to the Wind River Reservation and understand how arguments against returning them almost derailed efforts by the Shoshone tribe.

In the accompanying lesson plan (found in the Support Materials) students will gain an understanding of the Shoshone tribe while learning about the Shoshone Parfleche from the WyomingPBS video.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

students will write 3-4 sentences stating/explaining how the Shoshone Parfleche is used.
Students will create an individual parfleche, designed with a line of symmetry, the use of a meter stick for specific measurements and the ability to use creativity to choose their own designs.

Student readings review the origins of the AK-47, the 10-year federal ban on assault weapons, President Obama's views on guns, and the NRA's political clout. Discussion questions and an inquiry-oriented plan for "constructive controversy" follow.

 This inquiry unit leads students through the different perspectives behind a decision to have a dam removed. This unit looks at similar Washington state dam removal decisions as well as the complex issue of having the Election dam removed near Puyallup, WA. Students will be introduced to the stories and traditional ways of knowing about salmon that the Puyallup Tribe has built their culture upon. Then they will explore the science behind hydroelectricity and build models to discover how carbon neutral energy is gathered through hydro dams. This inquiry unit ends with students researching different perspectives surrounding the current (2021) decision to remove the Electron dam including: the Tribe’s Fishery department, the ecosystem, the city council, the fishermen and the hydro-electrical company who currently owns the dam. With their research, students will do a socratic seminar to mimic the court case lawsuit that is ongoing against the Electron Dam. 

In this interactive Kindergarten through 2nd grade activity, literacy and exercise unite! Using sight word flashcards, students use their bodies to spell out simple sight words. The use of their creativity and imaginations is encouraged so students can also identify how to make their bodies long, round, wide and narrow. This lesson primarily focuses on the use of psychomotor, cognitive andaffective skills. ***Access to Teacher's Domain content now requires free login to PBS Learning Media.

This light activity deals with "silent letters" of English language which are encountered in a large number of English language words. Students read a fairly simple dialogue with the blanks for words containing silent letters. Silent letters, however, are listed while the rest of the letters are blanked. Students find the missing words and become aware of silent letters. Great activity for a warm-up.

This seminar will introduce three of eight types of figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification).  Through song lyrics, poems, videos, interactive activities, and collaboration, you will learn to recognize, determine meanings, and identify comparisons within similes, metaphors, and personification examples.StandardsCC.1.2.5.F  Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in grade-level text, including interpretation of figurative language.

This segment from American Experience: Simple Justice captures the legal issues and opening arguments in Brown v. Board of Education.

Construction of Simple Sentences using agricultural vocabulary and images to create simple sentences.  

Lessons about Thanksgiving in elementary classrooms have historically misrepresented the events and people involved in the “first Thanksgiving.” Teachers are looking for guidance in teaching culturally and historically accurate lessons to young children. Updated research and texts supported by primary documents and tribal oral histories allow us to present more accurate representation of the story behind this tradition. The lessons presented here invite students to share their own fall and harvest traditions, and teach students some of the cultural values and traditions of our country’s indigenous peoples. Lessons are designed to be integrated into existing curriculum on fall/autumn, food, harvest, celebrations, and/or salmon prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, but could be taught independently of other curriculum as well. Lessons 1-4 are written for k-3 and should be adapted for developmental appropriateness.

This lesson requires students to use their reading, comprehension, and analysis skills to analyze a poem and respond creatively to the selection.

TED Video: Leaps and bounds separate that which is ironic and that which many people simply say is ironic. Christopher Warner wants to set the record straight: Something is ironic if and only if it is the exact opposite of what you would expect.

While reading The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, it is necessary to discusss the methods used to control slaves. The presentation provides students with related publications, evidence from the narrative, and discusses the effects of dehumanization. The activity linked in the presentation asks students to mirror the use of animal imagery found in both Douglass' narrative and Spiegelman's graphic novel series "Mauss."

Investigate the path to become an astronaut with NASA learning about Joe Acaba and his journey.

Investigate the history of the International Space Station (ISS), and the lives of the people who have worked on it.