A "Gallery Walk" prompts students to write responses to an image, and build upon one another's comments anonymously as they write their responses. This strategy offers a silent form of classroom discussion. Click here to watch a video from Facing History where high school students respond to images of monuments and memorials as part of a larger project. (8:08 mins)
*** Before watching the video, you can download the "Viewing Guide" below.
Incorporating visual and performing arts into instruction helps students to relate personally to academic subject matter, broadens the range of modes of expression, and empowers student voice. Philadelphia's University of the Arts has posted many guides to using the arts in instruction with primary sources.
Selected guides - go to the University of the Arts website for more:
Emerging America's lesson plan template features a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) grid borrowed from Social Studies & Exceptional Learners (see below). It is designed to support teaching of Social Studies. Three columns call for strategies that support the UDL instructional framework (see description in Accessing Inquiry clearinghouse).
This lesson encourages students to visualize the journeys and lives of immigrant children in the early 20th century and also of immigrant children today. It features video interviews with kids who have recently immigrated and archival photos of child immigrants from the turn of the 20th century. The multi-day lesson is designed to help elementary school students learn from primary and secondary sources, and also uses historical fiction and imaginative prompts to develop understanding and empathy for the immigrant experience.
Who gets accepted as a citizen or as an immigrant? Who is considered a desirable immigrant? Students will work in small groups to examine a primary source text and image set about immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. They will use the sources to develop a deeper understanding of the hurdles and discrimination many immigrant groups faced. In addition to learning about race-based entry policies, students will observe that many types of disabilities were considered undesirable and would keep an immigrant out.
Performance assessments require students to demonstrate what they know and can do. Often expressed as “authentic”–mostly meaning as much like the real world as possible. In this performance task, fifth graders compare three pieces of evidence from a key event in American History.
This two day lesson uses the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention and the 19th Amendment to the Constitution to assess the efficacy of the Women’s Rights Movement of the 19th century. Using the grievances from the Declaration establishes some understanding of women’s rights prior to 1848. Students will engage in class discussion to determine the progress women made in gaining equal rights. Students will use specific examples to assess progress as of today.
This lesson is designed to expose students to the immigrant experience through primary and secondary sources. Students may focus more on the difference between primary and secondary sources through the lens of immigration. An extensive number of primary and secondary sources round out this lesson focused on skills that will carry students well into their middle and high school years.
The following unit plan highlights how patterns of immigration are both similar and different for immigrant groups coming to America. The cornerstone of the unit is a diagram and PowerPoint Presentation detailing the progression of the immigrant experience that serves as a model for a variety of immigrant groups. Included in the set is a Universal Design for Learning chart and an extensive annotated list of primary source documents from the Library of Congress provide a visual reinforcement of the immigrant journey both before, during, and after their arrival in the United States.
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