Lesson Plans

The following lessons have been created by educators from cultural heritage institutions and schools around Colorado, using digitized collections that are available through Heritage Colorado and other on-line databases of primary source materials. Many of these lessons are aligned with Colorado Model Content Standards and have been piloted in the classroom. Lessons are available on a range of subjects.

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169 matching lessons

Title Subject Grade Level
Art
English as a Second Language
Math
9-12
Students will use newspaper articles and photos from the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection databases to inform them of events and places in their town at the turn of the 20th century in order to generate images for a poster illustrating things that happened during these years. Students will develop their research skills using these databases and analyze the articles for subjects for drawings.
 
Business/Marketing
9-12
This lesson will focus on the use of demographic, psychographic and cultural characteristics in the development of marketing messages. Students will compare and contrast specific marketing campaigns from the 1970's and today (2003) in order to identify key factors that influenced the design of commercials for similar products in different eras.
 
Civics
History
Media Literacy
Multi-age
In this lesson students will compare and contrast through technological exploration the Constitutional Amendments challenged within the last 20th century. They will develop skills to search two primary sources for a historical perspective from within Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection, and current news in The Denver Post. Students will create meaning by asking critical questions about current legislation in litigation over civil liberties. Students will synthesize their newspaper exploration onto a newspaper front page cooperative group project.
 
Earth Science
9-12
Students will use a variety of sources including historic photographs to research the extent of "tree line" alteration in response to climate change in Rocky Mountain National Park (or another location). Students will examine "then and now" photos, determine if trees are growing at a different elevation between the two photos, and calculate the difference in average ambient temperature between the two time periods.
 
Economics
Geography
Physical Science
9-12
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a series of irrigation ditches was constructed along the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers to provide farmers with sufficient water to meet their agricultural needs in an arid environment. Kansas claimed that the amount of water withdrawn from the Arkansas reduced the flow of water sufficient to affect their rights to that water. The Colorado-Kansas dispute was settled by the Supreme Court.
 
Economics
English Language Arts
Geography
History
Media Literacy
Multi-age
This lesson looks at advertising in Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and the products and services that met social, physical, and economic needs at the turn of the 20th century. Throughout the lesson, students will develop their skills in browsing entire newspaper issues by region, retrieving a variety of advertisements, analyzing and categorizing the advertisements, and asking critical questions of the content.
 
Economics
History
Social Studies
Multi-age
To study a complicated issue such as immigration in the newspaper, students must think critically and differentiate between facts and opinions, analyze the debate by comparing and contrasting arguments, evaluate the solutions, synthesize their own positions, and view the issue in the context of history. A. Students will study today's immigration issues using the electronic versions of the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News and yesterday's immigration issues using the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection (CHNC). This unit can be accomplished by either starting with the historical perspective or the contemporary one - the teacher is free to choose. B. Students will answer these questions: Who are immigrants? How are immigrants pictured in the news? Are they welcome here? What are the problems surrounding immigration now and in the past? What solutions to the immigration problem have been considered? What is your view of the immigration issues? What opinions have you formed over the course of this study? C. Students will analyze immigration issues and problems/solutions in categories: security economics legal cultural human rights issues
 
Art
English as a Second Language
Math
9-12
Students will use newspaper articles and photos from the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection databases to inform them of events and places in their town at the turn of the 20th century in order to generate images for a poster illustrating things that happened during these years. Students will develop their research skills using these databases and analyze the articles for subjects for drawings.
 
English as a Second Language
6-8
Purpose of the lesson is: - to read non-fiction texts using news and database sources. - to read for specific content (skimming/scanning). - to practice and use academic (higher level) vocabulary. - to write using content vocabulary. - to make conclusions based on readings about the past and the present. - to ask questions and find answers. - to repeat and practice geographical map skills. - to use the Internet for reading primary sources.
 
English Language Arts
History
6-8
Students will learn about life during the Great Depression through primary sources from the American Memory and Colorado Heritage collections, and secondary sources from select Internet sites and published texts . The students will use their knowledge about the Great Depression to help them understand the setting of the novel "A Long Way From Chicago". Reading the novel, however, is optional. The desired outcome is that students will learn about the Great Depression.
 
English Language Arts
Social Studies
Special Education
Multi-age
Students will learn how to research historic newspapers on the internet. Students will broaden their perception of what life was like over one-hundred by exploring this resource, and comparing and contrasting advertisements in historic newspapers to today's newspapers.
 
English Language Arts
Information Literacy
9-12
In this lesson students will identify and support examples of bias in print media.Students will learn to effectively and efficiently search the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection for articles, headlines and illustrations about Native Americans to locate and identify obvious, as well as subtle, examples of bias and prejudice.
 
English Language Arts
Information Literacy
Social Studies
6-8
Students will learn to recognize the historic themes and diction of the late 19th and early 20th centuries by analyzing newspaper articles from Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection database online. Students also will learn to understand identified aspects of a newspaper and journalistic writing.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will explore the history of the Ludlow Massacre through an online encyclopedia, through Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection, and the Collaborative Digitization Program. In particular, they will measure the impact of the strike on the miners, their families, Colorado and the nation. Students will develop their skills in using electronic databases and primary sources, both print and digitalized. They will critically analyze and question the content and the digitalized images.
 
English Language Arts
Social Studies
Technology
Multi-age
The students will research recipes from the past to compare and contrast the author's purpose, style and format, ingredients, measurements and the language usage to a similar modern recipe. This particular lesson is a component of a larger unit used to study the history of foods with the culminating project being a historical cookbook created by the students.
 
English Language Arts
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will explore Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and locate ghost stories published in the 1900s from different regions of Colorado. They will have the opportunity to develop skills in learning how to access and retrieve information in this primary source collection. Standards Assessed: Which standards will you be assessing in this lesson? Identify the content area, the standard number and any key components or benchmarks that are applicable.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will learn about Colorado from 1900-1910 through exploration of the history of trains and train travel during that time. Students will hypothesize, infer, summarize and synthesize as they read, and discuss and write about their reading. Throughout the lesson, students will develop their skills in searching history databases, evaluating importance of and recording new information, and applying their learning in writing.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will identify a historical event of their choice. Students will then investigate this character by researching the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection. After gathering three separate articles (sources), students will write a short historical fiction story. The story must contain references (quotations) from the articles used.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
Students will explore different components that most newspapers share. Students will learn how to find resources using the CHNC web site by keyword searches. Students will explore linguistic and sociological differences in different time periods.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
Students will use www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org, as well as other sources, to research a topic, create a timeline of the topic, and present their findings to the class. This 9-day unit project is ideal for 50-minute class periods at the secondary level.
 
Economics
English Language Arts
Geography
History
Media Literacy
Multi-age
This lesson looks at advertising in Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and the products and services that met social, physical, and economic needs at the turn of the 20th century. Throughout the lesson, students will develop their skills in browsing entire newspaper issues by region, retrieving a variety of advertisements, analyzing and categorizing the advertisements, and asking critical questions of the content.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will explore the rich history of the spelling bee in Colorado and the nation through Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and other primary sources related to the topic. In particular, they will investigate the ways in which newspaper accounts of spelling bees mirror the cultural values of their time. Throughout the lesson, students will develop their skills in searching historic databases, retrieving primary source information, and asking critical questions of the content.
 
English Language Arts
History
Media Literacy
6-8
This lesson will focus on articles in Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and an electronic edition of the Rocky Mountain News involving the significance of water in Weld County, Colorado. Students will be given an opportunity to develop their skills in searching historic databases, browsing articles, retrieving primary source information, analyzing past and current events, and asking critical questions of the content.
 
English Language Arts
6-8
Students are to have first hand experience culling information from primary documents (Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection), write a brief essay using this information, and use appropriate documentation and citation procedures.
 
English Language Arts
Social Studies
Technology
Multi-age
Students will learn about early immigration issues. They will compare/contrast with today's immigration issues with those of the past using primary sources (images & texts) from the American Memory and Colorado Heritage Collections. The students will practice how to develop questions about a topic and use that knowledge to product a multimedia presentation illustrating their opinion pro or con about immigration. The students will learn that the immigration issue is not a new issue in America.
 
English Language Arts
History
Science
Multi-age
This lesson examines Colorado employment prior to and after 1920. Students use skills with computer literacy and searching in historical records. They also use higher level thinking skills such as comparing, contrasting, and categorizing. Career literacy is emphasized. Students will ask and answer critical thinking questions, such as "Are there any jobs that have become obsolete in Colorado over time?" and "How has the improvement of travel and communication impacted the kinds of jobs that we have in Colorado today that we didn't have before 1920?" Dictionaries are utilized. Students practice reading for retention and oral expression exercises.
 
English Language Arts
History
9-12
Students will learn what issues and concerns were relevant from the 20th Century that may still be relevant in the 21st Century: Issues such as water, technology or invention/advancement, or environmental issues. (A sample of an invention issue has been provided from Telluride Journal (Telluride, San Miguel County); Date: Jan. 18, 1906): "Edison on the Future of Electricity" Students will have the opportunity to access the website: www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org and choose an article they feel strongly opposed to or an article they strongly agree with. They will write a letter to the editor in standard business format. Advanced students will have the opportunity to research and investigate issues that were relevant in the past and examine through comparison and contrast the relevancy of linked issues today. Resource students will have the option of choosing an article from the Denver Post and write a letter to the editor on an article of their choosing.
 
English Language Arts
Geography
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will focus and explore the progress of immigration for the last 100 years in the History of the United States. They will compare and make contrast of the immigration situation of the past to the immigration situation in the present. They will infer solutions and problems in making immigration bills so that the United States will benefit from immigration.
 
English Language Arts
1-5
During this lesson, students will be searching newspaper advertisements to locate Christmas toys which were popular during the years 1897 to 1922. They will use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast these toys with toys which are popular today. As a culminating activity, each student will choose a newspaper ad from the past to serve as the resource for a writing activity. In this writing activity, the child will assume the identity of a young child from the time of the date of their ad. They will then write a letter to Santa requesting toys listed in their ad.
 
English Language Arts
History
9-12
Students will learn how interview questions affect the quality of responses and perspectives in oral history interviews. Students will learn the difference between different interview techniques and learn to identify good interview questions.
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
English Language Arts
9-12
 
Geography
6-8
Students will learn to locate local, state and national landmarks on a map. Students will learn to identify national and state symbols.
 
Geography
History
6-8
Students will learn how to interpret primary source photographs and create and analyze a historical map. The map will have accurate map conventions and show change in the landscape of an area.
 
Geography
9-12
Students working in groups will spatially analyze a specific given Colorado city to understand the past, present, and future by determining the environmental, social-economic, political, transportation, and/or industrial factors that influenced the growth or decline of that particular city. Students will research and assess one of these particular factors that might have influenced the city's growth or decline. Students will use any primary and current research sources to discover the current concepts, issues, events, and themes from multiple, historical perspectives and resources.
 
Geography
9-12
Students will gather data/information about human activities in a local area (Denver) through analysis of historic photographs from different eras. Students will then apply knowledge about urbanization and industrialization to draw conclusions about change, patterns and trends during the past and present.
 
Economics
Geography
Physical Science
9-12
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a series of irrigation ditches was constructed along the Arkansas and South Platte Rivers to provide farmers with sufficient water to meet their agricultural needs in an arid environment. Kansas claimed that the amount of water withdrawn from the Arkansas reduced the flow of water sufficient to affect their rights to that water. The Colorado-Kansas dispute was settled by the Supreme Court.
 
Economics
English Language Arts
Geography
History
Media Literacy
Multi-age
This lesson looks at advertising in Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection and the products and services that met social, physical, and economic needs at the turn of the 20th century. Throughout the lesson, students will develop their skills in browsing entire newspaper issues by region, retrieving a variety of advertisements, analyzing and categorizing the advertisements, and asking critical questions of the content.
 
English Language Arts
Geography
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will focus and explore the progress of immigration for the last 100 years in the History of the United States. They will compare and make contrast of the immigration situation of the past to the immigration situation in the present. They will infer solutions and problems in making immigration bills so that the United States will benefit from immigration.
 
Geography
History
6-8
This lessons looks at the history of the Denver Mint, the transition from a private mint/assay office to being a Department of Treasury Mint. The lesson will give students the opportunity to learn about the Denver Mint, events that happened there and offer them a chance to learn how to create a timeline with Microsoft Word.
 
Geography
Multi-age
Audience: Educators interested in expanding their use of digitized maps with students. Participants working in groups will spatially analyze a specific given Colorado city to understand the past, present, and future by determining the environmental, , socioeconomic, political, transportation, and/or industrial factors that influenced the growth or decline of that particular city. Participants will research and assess one of these particular factors that might have influenced the city's growth or decline. Participants will use any primary and current research sources to discover the current concepts, issues, events, and themes from multiple, historical perspectives and resources.
 
Health
Multi-age
Students will explore Colorado's historic Newspapers to discover information related to healthy eating. They will compare and contrast common themes and claims from current resources with what they find in the historic collection and relate those themes to life today.
 
History
1-5
Students will use selected Internet sites to research an industry of a Colorado city today and compare and contrast it to times past.
 
History
1-5
Students will compare and contrast the lives of children from the 1800's with the children of today by analyzing historical photographs of schools, home life and recreation.
 
History
1-5
Students examine some of the components that make up a lifestyle and compare different lifestyles during different time periods and different geographic locations
 
History
1-5
The focus of the lesson is for fourth grade students to understand that Denver schools and their neighborhoods have changed over time, how they have changed, and why these changes occurred. Students will compare photos (acquired from a database and some that they take themselves) and information about the history of four Denver schools and their neighborhoods.
 
History
1-5
Students will be able to use historic photographs to gain perspective on the different modes of transportation available at the turn of the last century. Additionally, they will be able to explain why different methods of transportation were used during different time periods.
 
History
1-5
Students will learn to utilize both primary and secondary sources to examine the life of miners in different socioeconomic classes in the early 1900's in the Cripple Creek mining district (This includes the towns of Cripple Creek, Goldfield, and Victor, Colorado) to determine the differences there were in the lives of miners from high vs. low socioeconomic levels. An emphasis will be on the Portland Mine on Battle Mountain in Goldfield.
 
History
1-5
To discover petroglyphs as a primary source, to learn to describe petroglyphs and to identify what they are trying to communicate (the main idea), and to identify the unique way that different cultures record their history.
 
History
1-5
Students will learn how to evaluate and interpret primary documents on the Japanese internment and relocation to the Granada (Camp Amache) Relocation Center.
 
History
1-5
Students will be introduced to primary sources and learn to distinguish between primary and secondary sources. Then students will learn to "read" a photograph of the Colorado Gold Rush and use their analysis to write a narrative.
 
History
1-5
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the historical inquiry process, by having them examine photographs of the local community and think critically about them.
 
History
6-8
Students will learn how to search for and use primary source material as part of their research. Students will learn about settlement patterns and diversity of agricultural workers in Weld County over time.
 
History
6-8
Students will gain a greater understanding of the ways that society changes over time. Students will come up with questions about how baseball in Denver has changed from the early 1900s to the present day and then seek answers through investigating historical resources. Areas to explore through questioning might include: How have the participants of baseball changed over the last 100 years (race, gender, etc.)?, How have the uniforms/equipment/safety precautions been altered? How have the playing fields changed over the last 100 years?
 
History
Math
6-8
Students will learn the importance of researching and collecting historical and current data, for a larger project, the redesign and model building of a local bridge.
 
History
6-8
In this lesson students will find primary sources to support the Wright brothers claim to the first flight. Students will learn how to analyze and evaluate each source.
 
History
6-8
Through reading and viewing primary source materials, students will learn to evaluate and to draw conclusions about a period in history. Students will make connections to their own lives by reading letters written by other children during the Depression.
 
History
6-8
Students will learn to access and use several databases of primary sources that would be useful for their research
 
History
6-8
Students will learn: to read for information and understanding through the use of the Internet while finding research on cemeteries, to speak to a variety of audiences about grave markers and the meanings of their designs, to apply critical thinking in designing a grave marker that would be a representation of their life and to respond to a primary source and recognize it as a record of human experience by walking to a nearby graveyard and completing an activity at the site.
 
History
6-8
The purpose of this lesson is to allow students to analyze the expectations (instructions) of Thomas Jefferson of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and if Lewis and Clark met those expectations.
 
Geography
History
6-8
Students will learn how to interpret primary source photographs and create and analyze a historical map. The map will have accurate map conventions and show change in the landscape of an area.
 
History
6-8
The purpose of this lesson is for students to learn about Western Expansion through the study of primary and secondary sources of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
 
History
6-8
The purpose of this lesson is for students to become familiar with the art of analyzing and the process of researching for a purpose through the use of primary and secondary sources.
 
History
6-8
Students will examine primary source photographs and analyze the images to help them discover that societies are diverse and have changed over time.
 
History
6-8
Students will learn how to evaluate and interpret primary source materials, using photos as the focus. Students will learn how the photographer's perspecive affects the interpretation of the photo, by analyzing manipulated photos and by creating their own photos.
 
History
9-12
Students will be able to cite several different projects the Works Progress Administration completed during the New Deal and evaluate the economic, cultural, and social wealth of continuing such programs as the WPA. Students will be able to interpret, evaluate, and use primary sources on Specific WPA projects as the basis for their constructed arguments on the New Deal. Students will learn how to research primary sources from the Colorado Heritage and American Memory and place them in the political and economic context of the value of the New Deal programs, specifically the WPA to the depression economy. The alternative goal is to get the students into a research collection such as American Memory and discover the fun and excitement of historical research. I want them to find an online item or artifact of their choosing and get excited about their discovery.
 
English Language Arts
History
6-8
Students will learn about life during the Great Depression through primary sources from the American Memory and Colorado Heritage collections, and secondary sources from select Internet sites and published texts . The students will use their knowledge about the Great Depression to help them understand the setting of the novel "A Long Way From Chicago". Reading the novel, however, is optional. The desired outcome is that students will learn about the Great Depression.
 
History
9-12
The central idea of this unit is for students to discover how, throughout history, significant "change" has been brought about by people who have "communicated" problems. Students will be introduced to the history of reform movements in America focusing on the following topics: Slavery/civil rights, Environment, Women's rights, Urban Poverty, Working Conditions, and Big Business Corruption. The final four center mostly on the Industrial/Progressive Era in American History. Students will learn to analyze and evaluate primary and secondary sources of information that were instrumental in the development of the reform movements.
 
History
9-12
At the conclusion of this lesson, the learner will be able to: ï¿~ Observe and interpret print and photo primary sources. ï¿~ Identify and evaluate bias in primary sources. ï¿~ Research and gather both print and electronic secondary information on Relocation camps in the United States, 1942-1945. ï¿~ Hypothesize why Japanese and Japanese-Americans were sent to Relocation camps, 1942-1945. ï¿~ Describe aspects of everyday life at the Amache Relocation Camp, (Grenada, Colorado) 1942-1945.
 
History
9-12
Students will learn how to evaluate primary and secondary sources in order to complete a research project, creating a front page of a newspaper from the depression era. They will learn how to search Heritage Colorado as well as American Memory in locating the information they need to create their article.
 
History
9-12
Students will learn about analysis of primary sources--photos, maps, and documents through researching a local water project and its development--authorization, engineering, and funding for the project, and impacts of the project on the regions. This will help students learn about abstract historical concepts, expose them to multiple perspectives, help to personalize the past, and prompt students to question the past, interpret evidence, make reasoned inferences, and to shape informed opinions of their own.
 
History
9-12
Students learn to interpret and access primary source documents using primary sources of the Great Western Sugar Company, in Longmont Colorado. Students learn to distinguish between primary source and secondary source material by examining both types of sources. Students learn to recognize the uses and value of primary source documents in historical inquiry.
 
History
9-12
To introduce students to the Chicano Movement through pictures from the 1960s and 1970s. Students will acquire an understanding of what the Chicano Movement consisted of, the issues that sparked the Chicano Movement, the people who participated and the events that occurred during the Chicano Movement. Students will learn how to analyze and interpret photographs and make inferences. Students will demonstrate what they learned and express it in some form of writing.
 
History
Information Literacy
6-8
In this lesson students will learn to research and use information from historic newspapers to answer the following questions: what role did yellow journalism play in influencing the U.S. to enter into the Spanish-American War and how does the media influence its consumers? Students will learn the differences between "yellow journalism" and objective journalism practices.
 
History
Information Literacy
1-5
Through historic newspapers, students will learn about the output of gold, the methods of mining, the dangers of mining, and value of gold in the late 1800's/early 1900's in Colorado.
 
English Language Arts
History
Multi-age
In this lesson, students will explore the history of the Ludlow Massacre through an online encyclopedia, through Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection, and the Collaborative Digitization Program. In particular, they will measure the impact of the strike on the miners, their families, Colorado and the nation. Students will develop their skills in using electronic databases and primary sources, both print and digitalized. They will critically analyze and question the content and the digitalized images.
 
History
9-12
In this lesson, students will explore the tragedy of the coal miners camped outside the coal mines of Ludlow Colorado during the spring of 1914. Known as one of the most tragic events in the 14-month Colorado Coal Strike of 1913-1914, the miners strike placed them squarely between the United Mine Workers of America Union and J.D. Rockefeller, owner of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Throughout the lesson, students will organize the various newspaper accounts and piece together the chain of events as they unfolded. Students will develop their skills in searching historic databases, retrieving primary source information, and asking critical questions of the content.
 
Civics
History
Media Literacy
Multi-age
In this lesson students will compare and contrast through technological exploration the Constitutional Amendments challenged within the last 20th century. They will develop skills to search two primary sources for a historical perspective from within Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection, and current news in The Denver Post. Students will create meaning by asking critical questions about current legislation in litigation over civil liberties. Students will synthesize their newspaper exploration onto a newspaper front page cooperative group project.