Lesson Plans
Explore MDAH’s Lesson Plan materials for teachers of grades K–12. All lesson plans are standards based with appropriate curriculum for the subject areas covered.
Kindergarten–Grade 5
These lessons are adaptable for multiple grade levels and specific subject matter.
Note: all files are in PDF format.
Using digitized historic Mississippi maps, students will gain an understanding of changing Mississippi geography, how to use historic maps to plot forgotten towns on current state maps, how to write brief histories on these towns, and create their own museum exhibit.
Grades 6-8
These lessons are adaptable for multiple grade levels and specific subject matter.
Note: all files are in PDF format.
Grades 9-12
These lessons are adaptable for multiple grade levels and specific subject matter.
Note: all files are in PDF format.
Looking at structures in Tishomingo State Park built by the CCC in 1939, students will learn about the CCC in Mississippi, gain a basic knowledge of the forces torque and stress on a bridge, and how to counteract them through the proper bridge design or engineering techniques.
Using the digital archives provided by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, along with other online sources provided, students will examine documents from the Civil War Pension Papers to understand what life was like after the Civil War for those who fought in it, as well as their families. Students will develop critical thinking skills using historical records and articles to analyze the significance that the Civil War had on the development and marketing of prosthetics for those injured in the war.
Using a letter written in 1799, students will learn about Mississippi’s territorial days, the role of a custom house, the role of development in their community, and how to write their own persuasive business letter.
Students will examine the role of everyday people in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement through the utilization of primary documents.
Using digitized historic Mississippi maps students will gain an understanding of changing Mississippi geography, how to use historic maps to plot forgotten towns on current state maps, how to write brief histories on these towns, and create their own museum exhibit.
Students will learn about the Great Flood of 1927, those affected by it, and the flood’s lasting impact on the Mississippi Delta as well as the importance of having an Emergency Plan of their own.
Through analysis of primary and secondary sources such as images and short stories, students will learn about the time period, causes and effects as well as lasting consequences of the Great Migration.
The students will learn and explore the connections between the oppressive conditions of the Jim Crow South, the Great Migration, and the music and literature which grew out of the movement from the South to the North.
Using primary sources from the personal papers of Medgar Evers, students will learn about Evers’ leadership and the risk African American Mississippians were willing to take on the road to achieve civil rights. Students will research biographical details of Evers's life and work to create a timeline; analyze documents to gain insight into Evers’ work with the NAACP and the repercussions African Americans faced as they challenged Mississippi’s segregation laws; and make connections between literature and history by reading Eudora Welty’s short story, “Where is the Voice Coming From?”
Using the Library of Congress Chronicling America website students will examine primary sources to understand the difference between opinions of American Southerners and Northerners about aspects of the Civil War.
Teaching Units
Students use a diverse array of educational tools to understand the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. This includes close readings of texts, the use of primary sources, different types of multi-media components, and research and writing projects of various lengths completed both as individuals and within groups. Throughout the unit students are encouraged to both analyze and question the persons and events of the civil rights era and make connections between the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s with those of minority groups today.
Grades 9-12
A wealth of primary sources including newspapers, images, ration and war bond booklets, museum artifacts, oral histories, maps, and posters are used to bring the World War II Home Front in Mississippi to life for students. Students analyze and interpret these materials through a variety of formats. While some topics such as rationing, Victory Gardens, and the GI Bill are issues that affected all Americans, others such as German POW camps, Ingalls Shipyard, and Jackson’s Tripps Crossing GI subdivision are topics unique to the state of Mississippi.
Grades 4 - 12