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Four soldiers working on a transmitter. Caption of black and white photo says code talkers

Native American Veterans Research Project

Standards

This project specifically addresses historical inquiry, as defined by the C3 Framework and quoted in the California Department of Education History Social Science Framework.

“Historical inquiry involves acquiring knowledge about significant events, developments, individuals, groups, documents, places, and ideas to support investigations about the past. Acquiring relevant knowledge requires assembling information from a wide variety of sources in an integrative process. Students might begin with key events or individuals introduced by the teacher or identified by educational leaders at the state level, and then investigate them further.”

Technology required

Device with a browser for Warrior Vets game and to create slide presentation.

Time

2 – 3 hours of class time. Out of class time varies by student.

Lesson Summary

Students hear a presentation on the assignment, play a game introducing several Native American veterans and then conduct their own on-line research with the help of the provided research guides.

I’ve used a similar assignment with my eleventh-grade students but I am considering revising it for use in ninth-grade as well.

Lesson

Day 1: In-class

Day 2: In-class

Day 3: Student presentations (optional)

Teachers may elect to have students present in class as either a requirement or for extra credit. Alternatively, depending on class time and students’ level, teachers may elect to simply have the presentations submitted for a grade.

Four soldiers working on a transmitter. Caption of black and white photo says code talkers
African-American girl churning butter

Rural Artifact Project

Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9
Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

Technology required

Students will need a device to search the Internet. This lesson assumes students submit assignments on Google classroom but that is not a requirement.

Time

2 hours, including time for presentation, student research and completing assignment sheet.

Lesson Summary

Students learn definitions of artifacts and their use in understanding every day life during a historical period. Students conduct research on sites such as the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institute to find images of four artifacts and write a discussion of each.

Lesson

Begin with this presentation explaining what is an artifact, the steps in completing the artifact assignment. The assignment requires finding four artifacts and writing a discussion of each. An example of a completed artifact assignment for one artifact, a butter churn, can be found here.

Allow students 30-60 minutes for research and an additional 30-60 minutes for completing the written assignment for each artifact. To maximize time on task, we recommend having students turn in their draft for at least one artifact by the end of the first class period. A second class period can be used for finding and describing additional artifacts.

Differentiated Instruction

For AP U.S. History and other advanced students, we recommend assigning this web-based lesson on artifacts from the Smithsonian Institute.

Students with writing or language difficulties may be assigned fewer artifacts to research and discuss.