The National Endowment for the Humanities EDSITEment website offers teachers activities and lesson plans that will enhance students understanding of the themes that weave "A Tapestry of Freedom" online and at the Gail Borden Library.

 

Black History

Grades 3-5

• Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources

Grades 6-8

• African-American Communities in the North Before the Civil War

Grades 9-12

• Families in Bondage
• The Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom's First Steps
• Spirituals
• Competing Voices of the Civil Rights Movement

 

Women's History

• One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview

Grades 9-12

• Cultural Change

 

Cultural Diversity

Grades 3-5

• Where I Come From

Grades 6-8

• Esperanza Rising: Learning Not to Be Afraid to Start Over

Grades 9-12

• The Monroe Doctrine: Origin and Early American Foreign Policy
• Pioneer Values in Willa Cather's My Antonia

 

Abraham Lincoln & the Civil War

Grades 3-5

• We Must Not Be Enemies: Lincoln's First Inaugural Address

Grades 6-8

• Factory vs. Plantation in the North and South
• People and Places in the North and South

• Before Brother Fought Brother: Life in the North and South — 1847-1861

Grades 9-12

• Civil War Era Lesson Plans
• Civil War Era Downloadable Songs

• Lincoln/Net: Lesson Plans

 

Other helpful sites for educators:

• 19th Century Amusements: Games & Toys
• Illinois Learning Standards