History Online for Middle School Students

Searching for Sources on U.S. Presidents:

Washington & Lincoln

Evelyn  E, Smith

George Washington 

Lesson Plans

Lesson Plans. Middle School. George Washington’s Mount Vernon. (2013). Mount Vernon’s Ladies Association. Retrieved from http://www.mountvernon.org/educational-resources/teachers-and-students/lessons-amp-resources/middle-school 

The Mount Vernon Ladies Association  provides thirteen lesson plans units that can either serve as the basis for history fair projects or else personalize the American Revolutionary War and Washington’s Presidency.  Lessons require young researchers to either work with reproductions of primary documents—such as when they look at the young Washington’s draft of “rules for civility” or his 1799 slave schedule—or else use their imagination; for example, this activity requires students to look at four major events in Washington’s life and then put them into a graphic novel format.

George Washington’s life. (2012). Schoolhouse. Educational Designers, L.L. C. Retrieved from http://www.myschoolhouse.com/courses/O/1/105.asp

Simplified, multiple-choice, self-correcting worksheet about George Washington’s life perhaps best paired with a mini-video biography on Washington.

George Washington: A national treasure. (2013). 

Retrieved from http://georgewashington.si.edu/kids/activity3.html

Project that combines American history and art uses various portraits of George Washington as well as his own writings and speeches to capture the “real” Washington. 

George 

Washington

 Videos

George Washington videos. (2013). Biography.com. Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/georgewashington-95247861videos

Site includes links to eight biographical videos on George Washington including a 4.45 minute mini biography as well as links to videos about Washington’s contemporaries—Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Benedict Arnold, and Patrick Henry as well as Napoleon (by way of contrast). 

George Washington.  (Part 1, 8:58 minutes).   (2008). The 

Greatest Heroes in History.  Retrieved from 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHxKPPkpXSM

Short videos presents George Washington as a great hero and military commander. 

Searching for George Washington (9:54 minutes). (2008).
History Channel.  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzxOXjF5f1k

Video presents George Washington as an eighteenth-century action hero, who redefined greatness by walking away from power.

George Washington’s Mount Vernon.  (2013). Catalog & Library Holdings. Retrieved from  http://www.mountvernon.org/library

George Washington finally has a presidential library, and potential users can view its digital collections Online.

 

Abraham Lincoln  

Lesson Plans

 

Abraham Lincoln Lesson Plans. (2012). Chicago History Museum. Retrieved from http://www.chicagohs.org/education/resources/lincoln

Set of four lesson plans that can be adapted to either middle school or high school students presents material in both English and Spanish using primary sources to elicit original thinking.  For instance, a lesson discussing slavery asks students to analyze two contrasting broadsides advertising a slavery auction and an abolitionist meeting; student researchers look at primary sources that detail information about Lincoln’s first election campaign; thus, students can analyze the contribution of African American troops in the Union Army following the Emancipation Proclamation, or use primary sources to understand the search for John Wilkes Booth.

Abraham Lincoln Papers of the Library of Congress. (2002). Library of Congress.  Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html

Links provide special presentations of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Lincoln assassination, again using primary documents.

Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom’s first steps.  (n. d.).  National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved from
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/emancipation-proclamation-freedoms-first-steps

Lesson plans require students to make a careful reading of President Lincoln’s original document and then to determine steps that lead to Lincoln’s issuing it as an executive order. This requires looking at other primary sources that eventually led to this final step in the manumission of the slaves.  

Preview & Summary Activities

Abraham Lincoln printables. (n. d.).  About.com. Home 

schooling. Retrieved from

http://homeschooling.about.com/od/freeprintables/ss/lincolnprint.htm

Download word searches, cross words, and vocabulary quizzes all dealing with Abraham Lincoln.

Westvang, D. (2013).  A to Z Teacher Stuff.  Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  Presidents Venn diagram.  Retrieved from
http://themes.atozteacherstuff.com/505/presidents-day-activities-lesson-plans-printables-teaching-ideas/

Downloadable PDF that teaches Venn diagram skills to middle school or ESL students works well when paired with videos on Washington and Lincoln. 

Abraham Lincoln Videos

Abraham Lincoln videos.  (2013). Biography.  History Channel.  Documentary.  Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/abraham-lincoln-9382540

Biography.com/History Channel Web page provides links to ten videos including a mini(3:45 minute) biography as well as to a full-length biography and film shorts discussing the Emancipation Proclamation, the Second Inaugural Address, and the Gettysburg Address. 

The Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln (9 minutes).  (2009). 

Youtube. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqiQSw4VLIk

This video serves as a wonderful warm-up or introductory activities for either a language arts or history class: After class views videos of quotes, reproduce individual quotations and have students work in groups to explain the meaning of each quotation.

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Fun & Educational Reads

Recent Young Adult Books on George Washington

Allen, Thomas B. (2007 reprint).  George Washington, spymaster:  How the Americans out spied the British and won the Revolutionary war.  Des Moines, Iowa: National Geographic Children’s Book. 

This chronological narrative aimed at grades 6 through 9, explains how spying played a major role in the American Revolutionary War for both the colonial and British forces.

Levin, Jack E.  (2013). George Washington: The crossing.  New York: Threshold Editions.

This New York Times Bestseller explores a turning point in the American War for Independence, the crossing and the Delaware River and the Battle of Trenton.

Recent Young Adult Books on Abraham Lincoln

*Bolden, Tonya. (2013). Emancipation Proclamation:  Lincoln on the dawn of liberty.   New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers. 

Bolden uses primary sources, such as photographs, engravings, maps, and newspaper articles to transport middle school and high school readers beyond the history textbook.  However, the reader should be aware that this book only concentrates on this aspect of Lincoln’s life. 

*Fleming, Candace. (2008). The Lincolns: A scrapbook look at Abraham and Mary.  New York: Wade Books (Random House). 

Using a scrapbook format, Fleming tells the life histories of Abraham Lincoln and his First Lady, Mary Todd.  A wide variety of graphics and primary documents coupled with an easy-to-read format should fascinate young historians and their parents.

Holzer, Harold. (2012). Lincoln: How Abraham Lincoln ended slavery in America: A companion book for young readers to the Steven Spielberg film.  New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Holzer intersperses photographs and paintings with a well-rounded narrative that gives the background that spurred Lincoln to free the slaves.

*O’Reilly, Bill & Zimmerman, Dwight Jon. (2012). Lincoln’s last days: The shocking assassination that changed America forever.  New York:  Henry Holt and Company.

An easy-to-read kid-friendly version of O’Reilly’s Killing Kennedy, with the sex and the violence removed, this book contains lists of the key players surrounding Lincoln’s assassination, photographs and prints, and battle maps that detail the final campaigns of the American Civil War as well as the details surrounding Lincoln’s assassination.

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*Available at the Waco-McLennnan County Library

Social Studies 

Online  Games

US President Games. (2013). Learning Games for Kids. Retrieved from http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/social_studies_games.html

Users can spell, match, and identify U.S. Presidents.

Geography & history games. (n. d.). Disney.  Retrieved from http://funschool.kaboose.com/arcade/history-geography/index.html

Children can review history and geography by playing games like History Quest.

Subscription-based

Middle School History-Help

McGregor residents who are also Waco-McLennan County Public Library card holders can turn to Middlesearch Plus, the Lincoln Library of Essential Information, and the Texas Reference Center to access subscription-based databases.  Texas residents who hold library cards from other TexServe member libraries can also find similar databases Online by simply entering their library card number and password on the library’s Website.

For Online Homework help go to Infoplease's Homework Center: 
 http://www.infoplease.com/homework/