Each lesson contains teacher material and teaching activities. Teacher material includes an Introduction and then lists information about where it fits into the curriculum, objectives for students, included materials for students, and visiting the site. Teaching activities consist of the following sections: Getting Started (inquiry question), Setting the Stage (historical background), Locating the Site (maps), Determining the Facts (readings, documents, charts), Visual Evidence (photographs and other graphic documents), and Putting It All Together (activities).
The lesson plan format was designed to allow flexibility but works best if the material in each lesson plan is presented to students as described below.
Rather than serving merely as illustrations for the text, images are documents that play an integral role in helping students achieve the lesson's objectives. To assist students in learning how to "read" visual materials, you may want to begin this section by having them complete the Photo Analysis Worksheet for one or more of the photos. The worksheet is appropriate for analyzing both historical and modern photographs and will help students develop a valuable skill.
Then provide students with copies of the readings, documents, and/or charts included in Determining the Facts. Again, allow students to work individually or in small groups. The series of questions that accompanies each of these sections is designed to ensure that students have gathered the appropriate facts from the material.
Distribute the lesson's visual materials among students. You can print these images straight from the Web or display them on a computer screen. Have the students examine the photographs and answer the related questions. Note that in some of the lessons two or more images are studied together in order to complete the questions. Extended captions may be included to provide students with important information.
The images are not decorations to illustrate the lessons; they are documents that play an integral role in helping students achieve the lesson's objectives. To assist students in learning how to "read" visual materials, you may want to begin this section by having them complete the Photo Analysis Worksheet for one or more of the photos. The worksheet is appropriate for analyzing both historical and modern photographs and will help students develop a valuable skill.
Last updated: June 28, 2021