ALEX Classroom Resources

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] GHS (3) 11 :

11 ) Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

•  Comparing maps of the past to maps of the present

[SS2010] CWI (9-12) 6 :

6 ) Compare information presented through various media, including television, newspapers, magazines, journals, and the Internet.

•  Explaining the reliability of news stories and their sources

•  Describing the use, misuse, and meaning of different media materials, including photographs, artwork, and film clips

•  Critiquing viewpoints presented in editorial writing and political cartoons, including the use of symbols that represent viewpoints

•  Describing the role of intentional and unintentional bias and flawed samplings

This graphic organizer provides a structured method for students to analyze primary source visual image documents. By using this graphic organizer and the included guiding questions, students will analyze the source of the image, make observations about the image, contextualize the image within historical events, and corroborate the information they learn by identifying other sources of information. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] GHS (3) 11 :

11 ) Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

•  Comparing maps of the past to maps of the present

[SS2010] ALA (4) 1 :

1 ) Compare historical and current economic, political, and geographic information about Alabama on thematic maps, including weather and climate, physical-relief, waterway, transportation, political, economic development, land-use, and population maps.

•  Describing types of migrations as they affect the environment, agriculture, economic development, and population changes in Alabama

[SS2010] GEOG (7) 1 :

1 ) Describe the world in spatial terms using maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies.

•  Explaining the use of map essentials, including type, projections, scale, legend, distance, direction, grid, and symbols

Examples: type—reference, thematic, planimetric, topographic, globe and map projections, aerial photographs, satellite images

distance—fractional, graphic, and verbal scales

direction—lines of latitude and longitude, cardinal and intermediate directions

•  Identifying geospatial technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective

Examples: Google Earth, Global Positioning System (GPS), geographic information system (GIS), satellite-remote sensing, aerial photography

•  Utilizing maps to explain relationships and environments among people and places, including trade patterns, governmental alliances, and immigration patterns

•  Applying mental maps to answer geographic questions, including how experiences and cultures influence perceptions and decisions

•  Categorizing the geographic organization of people, places, and environments using spatial models

Examples: urban land-use patterns, distribution and linkages of cities, migration patterns, population-density patterns, spread of culture traits, spread of contagious diseases through a population

[SS2010] US11 (11) 5 :

5 ) Evaluate the impact of social changes and the influence of key figures in the United States from World War I through the 1920s, including Prohibition, the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Scopes Trial, limits on immigration, Ku Klux Klan activities, the Red Scare, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the Jazz Age, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, W. C. Handy, and Zelda Fitzgerald. (Alabama) [A.1.a., A.1.b., A.1.d., A.1.f., A.1.i., A.1.j., A.1.k.]

•  Analyzing radio, cinema, and print media for their impact on the creation of mass culture

•  Analyzing works of major American artists and writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and H. L. Mencken, to characterize the era of the 1920s

•  Determining the relationship between technological innovations and the creation of increased leisure time

[SS2010] CWI (9-12) 1 :

1 ) Describe current news stories from various perspectives, including geographical, historical, political, social, and cultural.

•  Evaluating the impact of current news stories on the individual and on local, state, national, and international communities (Alabama)

•  Comparing current news stories to related past events

•  Analyzing news stories for implications regarding nations of the world

•  Locating on a map areas affected by events described in news stories

•  Interpreting statistical data related to political, social, and economic issues in current events

[SS2010] CWI (9-12) 6 :

6 ) Compare information presented through various media, including television, newspapers, magazines, journals, and the Internet.

•  Explaining the reliability of news stories and their sources

•  Describing the use, misuse, and meaning of different media materials, including photographs, artwork, and film clips

•  Critiquing viewpoints presented in editorial writing and political cartoons, including the use of symbols that represent viewpoints

•  Describing the role of intentional and unintentional bias and flawed samplings

This graphic organizer will guide students through the process of analyzing a historical document such as a newspaper article, a report, a magazine article, a congressional record, a press release, a census report, an internet article, a map, an official memorandum, or an announcement. This worksheet includes guiding questions that will support students as they closely read and analyze a selected historical document.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] GHS (3) 11 :

11 ) Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

•  Comparing maps of the past to maps of the present

[SS2010] ALA (4) 6 :

6 ) Describe cultural, economic, and political aspects of the lifestyles of early nineteenth-century farmers, plantation owners, slaves, and townspeople.

Examples: cultural—housing, education, religion, recreation

economic—transportation, means of support

political—inequity of legal codes

•  Describing major areas of agricultural production in Alabama, including the Black Belt and fertile river valleys

In this learning activity, students analyze images of tools used on rice plantations to determine each tool's purpose.  Students will study these objects to learn about slavery and the lives of the slaves who worked on rice plantations. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] LWT2 (2) 3 :

3 ) Use various primary sources, including calendars and timelines, for reconstructing the past.

Examples: historical letters, stories, interviews with elders, photographs, maps, artifacts

[SS2010] GHS (3) 11 :

11 ) Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

•  Comparing maps of the past to maps of the present

In this learning activity, students learn about the methods and tools necessary to conduct a genealogical interview to research women's history in their family.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] LWT2 (2) 3 :

3 ) Use various primary sources, including calendars and timelines, for reconstructing the past.

Examples: historical letters, stories, interviews with elders, photographs, maps, artifacts

[SS2010] GHS (3) 11 :

11 ) Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

•  Comparing maps of the past to maps of the present

[SS2010] ALA (4) 6 :

6 ) Describe cultural, economic, and political aspects of the lifestyles of early nineteenth-century farmers, plantation owners, slaves, and townspeople.

Examples: cultural—housing, education, religion, recreation

economic—transportation, means of support

political—inequity of legal codes

•  Describing major areas of agricultural production in Alabama, including the Black Belt and fertile river valleys

In this activity, students learn about life in a sod house by looking at photographs (primary sources) and answering questions.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] LWT2 (2) 3 :

3 ) Use various primary sources, including calendars and timelines, for reconstructing the past.

Examples: historical letters, stories, interviews with elders, photographs, maps, artifacts

[SS2010] GHS (3) 11 :

11 ) Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

•  Comparing maps of the past to maps of the present

[SS2010] ALA (4) 6 :

6 ) Describe cultural, economic, and political aspects of the lifestyles of early nineteenth-century farmers, plantation owners, slaves, and townspeople.

Examples: cultural—housing, education, religion, recreation

economic—transportation, means of support

political—inequity of legal codes

•  Describing major areas of agricultural production in Alabama, including the Black Belt and fertile river valleys

In this learning activity, students analyze newspaper advertisements (primary source) regarding runaway slaves from the Charleston Mercury, a South Carolina newspaper, to learn about the Underground Railroad.

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] LWT1 (1) 5 :

5 ) Identify historical events and celebrations within the local community and throughout Alabama. (Alabama)

Examples: Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee, Mardi Gras, Boll Weevil Festival, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Black History Month (Alabama)

•  Differentiating between fact and fiction when sharing stories or retelling events using primary and secondary sources

Example: fictional version of Pocahontas compared to an authentic historical account

[SS2010] GHS (3) 11 :

11 ) Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

•  Comparing maps of the past to maps of the present

[ELA2021] (1) 4 :

4. Present information orally using complete sentences and appropriate volume.

a. Orally describe people, places, things, and events, expressing ideas with relevant details.

[ELA2021] (3) 33 :

33. Write personal or fictional narratives with a logical plot (sequence of events), characters, transitions, and a sense of closure.

In this lesson plan, students will analyze primary sources relating to Celia Cruz. Then, students will tell their own story using objects that are meaningful to them. 

   View Standards     Standard(s): [SS2010] GHS (3) 11 :

11 ) Interpret various primary sources for reconstructing the past, including documents, letters, diaries, maps, and photographs.

•  Comparing maps of the past to maps of the present

[SS2010] USS5 (5) 11 :

11 ) Identify causes of the Civil War, including states' rights and the issue of slavery.

•  Describing the importance of the Missouri Compromise, Nat Turner's insurrection, the Compromise of 1850, the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's rebellion, and the election of 1860

•  Recognizing key Northern and Southern personalities, including Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Joseph Wheeler (Alabama)

•  Describing social, economic, and political conditions that affected citizens during the Civil War

•  Identifying Alabama's role in the Civil War (Alabama)

Examples: Montgomery as the first capital of the Confederacy, Winston County's opposition to Alabama's secession (Alabama)

•  Locating on a map sites important to the Civil War

Examples: Mason-Dixon Line, Fort Sumter, Appomattox, Gettysburg, Confederate states, Union states (Alabama)

•  Explaining events that led to the conclusion of the Civil War

[ELA2021] (3) 23 :

23. Identify and use text features in informational passages to locate information.

Examples: headings, photographs, illustrations, labels, charts, graphs, legends

a. Explain how text features support details in the text.

b. Explain how illustrations contribute to meaning in a story.

c. Interpret text features used in written and digital formats.

[ELA2021] (5) 18 :

18. Explain the relationships among events, people, or concepts in informational texts, supported by textual evidence.

In this learning activity, students will analyze a famous letter written by Grace Badell to President Abraham Lincoln. Using hints about Grace's family from the letter, students will draw pictures of her family.