Popular TV as a Historical Medium

This lesson is designed for high school students and seeks to help students gain an understanding on how popular TV can be used as a primary source. Furthermore, the lesson will also demonstrate to the students how societal discussions often find themselves in popular media. Students will have background on the 1960s including Civil Rights, 2nd Wave Feminism, and the Cold War with an emphasis on the escalation in Vietnam.

Students will be grouped up and given an episode from Star Trek the Original Series to analyze in relation to the context they already have on the 1960s. The class will then come back together to share their findings and have a broader discussion on using TV as historical sources.

Sources

“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”

“Turnabout Intruder”

“Private Little War”

Colonial Life: Through Multiple Perspective

Colonial Life Comparison chart Answers

Colonial Perspective lesson plan

Comparison Chart

Colonial Life Presentation

Standards:

  1. Cite textual Evidence to Support Analysis of Primary and Secondary Sources
  2. Describe how a text presents information (e.g sequentially, comparatively, casually)
  3. Analyze and interpret historical material from a variety of historical perspectives in United States History

Objectives

  1. By the end of this lesson, students should be able to describe and evaluate the quality of life in the colonies from the perspectives of various groups, including city dwellers, farmers, women, children, and different social classes.
  2. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to understand what it meant to be an “American” during the 1750s through discussion of different perspectives of colonist.
  • Attached is my lesson plan, that goes into depth about the lesson
  • Attached is the compare worksheet

Lessons Modified from:

Colonies: Different Perspectives

 

 

 

The US Enters WWI

High school students will be guided through a lesson exploring the United States’ shift from neutrality in WWI to the declaration of war. This lesson will occur within our WWI unit. Students will have a background on WWI in general, but limited background on the United States’ involvement. This lesson will serve as a bit of an introduction to this aspect of WWI.

Students will be asked to work their way through this collaborative google document in pairs (or individually, if that is preferred). Students will explore a variety of primary sources, and answer guiding questions, all while responding and commenting on each other’s responses.

Additionally, students will be asked to find a primary source that shows the shifting attitude from neutrality to support of the allies in WWI. Students will explain whether that source would have been convincing to them, had they been American citizens during this time.

This activity is adapted from DPLA’s WWI activity.

A plank more sacred than an entire ship: Martial and Imperial Rome

Life and thought in Imperial Rome:
10th Grade Social Studies

Essential Question:
Did classical Romans approach life and thought in a different or similar manner to our contemporary culture?

Past Knowledge:
Students have been studying the geography and general historical sweep of Rome from the Republic to the Empire. A broad knowledge of daily life, social classes, and material culture shall also be included within this survey.

Process:
Class will begin with a series of bad jokes. This shall set the stage to talk about context, and how humor can be utilized to pull back the curtain on thought within an age. Student shall be asked to give a one sentence description of what they think when they think of classical Rome. Following this, we shall go over a brief power point this shall be a survey to introduce the material, and build further context for learners. Following this, students shall be placed in groups of two. Each group shall be given a different set of primary sources and be asked to analyze the documents focusing on a certain aspect of SOAPSTone while considering guiding questions. The groups will reconvene in a circle, each group shall present their favorite epigram and report back what they learned of Roman daily life and their general conclusions. We will have each student as an exit ticket write and epigram of their own, either as an Ancient Roman, or from their own stand point.

Sources

Wealth

Slavery

Patronage