Maine Contemporary Archives Lesson Plans

Title

Maine Contemporary Archives Lesson Plans

Description

Parents and educators, check out these lesson plansfor ideas on how to involve your students in learning about primary sources and documenting their experiences for the future.
  • Lessons incorporate creative projects, are compatible with distance learning, and align with Maine Learning Results.
  • Completed projects can be contributed to a Maine Contemporary Archives project to share with your community.
  • The photos, artwork, sound recordings, writing, and interviews that your students create today will become the historical record of tomorrow.

Creator

Maine Contemporary Archives Collaborative

Collection Items

Collect Your Community's Stories
What was life like in your neighborhood, town or community before you were born? How is it different now? This lesson plan will help you learn more about your community by conducting interviews with your neighbors, friends, and family.

My COVID-19 Experience
How was your COVID-19 experience? The pandemic changed our lives in many ways. In this project, students will reflect on their own experience of the pandemic and interview three other people to learn what the pandemic was like for them. Students can…

Listening to the Present, Sounds of the Past
Why study sound? And who studies sound? Historians, geographers, scientists, conservationists, and architects do. Historians think about how the past sounded. Geographers consider how sounds define a sense of place. Scientists and conservationists…

#COVIDStories: Creating Primary Sources for the Future
Where do primary sources come from? This activity will have students document an aspect of their COVID-19 experience in the form of a social media post, donate it to their community archive, and then think about how that resource will inform people…

Reading a Photograph (or, Being a History Detective)
What can an old photograph tell us about history? Plenty! Photographs hold a wealth of information about what life was like in the past. In this lesson, students must act like sleuths and uncover the clues!Photographs can be “read” just like any…

Exploring Portraits: Pictures That Tell a Story
What can a portrait tell us about a person, their experiences, and the world they live in? In this lesson, students will learn strategies for engaging with a portrait by identifying its elements and uncovering its layers of meaning. Students will…
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