Search | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Lesson Plan

Children on the Home Front

World History

2, 3, 4, 5

Overview While American soldiers were fighting abroad, those left at home, including children, contributed to the war effort in many ways. Background Although World War II wasn’t fought on US soil, its effects were deeply felt by all...

Lesson Plan

The Supreme Court, Title IX and Gender Equity

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Background The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the federal judicial system and has both original and appellate jurisdiction. Historically, the Supreme Court’s most influential role has been through the...

Lesson Plan

Traitors and Spies in the Time of War: How the Supreme Court Determined Who Would Live and Who Would Die

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview In April 1865 over 600,000 Americans lay dead from battle wounds and other causes directly related to their service in the armies of the Confederacy and Union during the four-year Civil War. If we adjusted the number of dead...

Lesson Plan

Travels Through Time: The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions on the Struggle for African American Equality

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview After the Civil War, African Americans were under attack as they struggled for equal rights in America. Laws were put in place during Reconstruction to assure Freedmen basic civil rights. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and...

Lesson Plan

Montgomery to the Supreme Court

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview Students will examine primary source documents and photographs to explain how local events lead to cases being presented before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upholds laws that protect the rights of all people and...

Lesson Plan

The Jungle

Literature

8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Overview The United States was transformed in the last decades of the nineteenth century by the industrial revolution. The rapid growth of cities, increase in immigration, expansion of a struggling working class, and concentration of...

Lesson Plan

Farewell to Manzanar: Japanese Internment Camps During World War II

Government and Civics, Literature, World History

6, 7, 8

Background In 1886, after the arrival of Commodore Perry, the Japanese government lifted its ban on emigration and allowed its citizens to move to other countries. In the years after that, however, the United States made it more...

Lesson Plan

Going to School, Then and Now: Education in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird

Literature

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Overview The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee are both written in the voices of children. While each book gives and unabashed commentary of the social mores of the time and place...

Lesson Plan

Theodore Roosevelt: A Bully Reformer

Economics

9, 10, 11, 12

Introduction Theodore Roosevelt was the twenty-sixth president of the United States. His presidency would become the symbol of strong leadership, reform, and a square deal for Americans in the new century. When Roosevelt was...

Lesson Plan

Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview In the early twentieth century, President Theodore Roosevelt was a dynamic force in a relatively new movement known as conservationism. During his presidency, Roosevelt made conservation a major part of his administration. As...