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100 Years Ago in History

Subjects

  • Arts & Humanities
    --Language Arts
  • Educational Technology
  • Social Studies
    --History

Grade

  • 3-5
  • 6-8
  • 9-12

Brief Description

Students

  • use library and/or Internet resources to track down important events that occurred 100 years ago this year.
  • evaluate events for their importance in history/the importance of including them.
  • create a timeline of events for their assigned month/topic (optional).

Keywords

timeline, century, 100 years ago, new year, events

Materials Needed

Students

  • library and/or Internet resources (Internet resources provided below)
  • writing materials

Lesson Plan

The start of a new year is a perfect time for taking a look back in time. Why not start this year by having students research events that occurred exactly 100 years ago this year? This activity can take many forms

  • Students might develop a timeline or a book of events that happened "100 Years Ago in History."
  • You might have students work in pairs. Each pair of students might research events that happened in a different month 100 years ago.
  • Instead of assigning students a month, you might assign a topic (for example, inventions, politics/laws, people, sports, entertainment...) Students will look for events related to their topic of focus.

Students might use book sources to compile their lists. An even better idea would be to take students into the computer lab and give them time to do online research. The Web resources listed below could be helpful with this project.

This Day in History Web Sites
If students are assigned a month in history, they might research historic events for each day in the month they are assigned. These resources will be of value:

Assessment

Which students/student pairs did the best job of research? Which put in less effort? You might assess students by comparing their results. Or create a rubric to grade students' research efforts. You might adapt for your purposes this Timeline Rubric, or you might use one of these rubrics:

Lesson Plan Source

EducationWorld.com

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.1 Reading for Perspective
NL-ENG.K-12.3 Evaluation Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.8 Developing Research Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

SOCIAL SCIENCES: U.S. History
GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-USH.5-12.7 Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

SOCIAL SCIENCES: World History
GRADES 5 - 12
NSS-WH.5-12.8 The 20th Century

TECHNOLOGY
GRADES K - 12
NT.K-12.1 Basic Operations and Concepts
NT.K-12.5 Technology Research Tools

See more Lesson Plans of the Day in our Lesson Plan of the Day Archive. (There you can search for lessons by subject too.)

For additional history lesson plans, see these Education World resources:

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