Lesson Plans
Lesson plans here are organized into themed units. Grade level appropriateness is noted although they can all be adapted to any age. Lessons include primary resources from our own collections, demonstrate relevance, and help bring the history of Rhode Island to life.
20th Century African Heritage Civil Rights in Rhode Island
These units, developed for grades three through high school, use primary documents, clips from oral histories, and video clips to guide students through the analysis of 20th century civil rights issues in Rhode Island. The units were developed as part of a project thanks to a grant from the National Park Service.
RI COVID-19 Archive Lesson Plans
These unit packets, designed for grades Pre-K through high school, guide students through a set of activities that will allow them to learn about archives and collecting, explore current entries in the RI COVID-19 Archive and provide them with prompts to create their own potential entries to contribute.
Underground Railroad in Rhode Island
This unit contains four high-school level lessons using primary and secondary sources about the Underground Railroad in Rhode Island. This unit is paired with our module of essays about the topic that can be found on our website under "EnCompass"
Slavery, Citizenship and Civil Rights Documenting Rhode Island's People of Color
The focus of these nine units, developed for grades five through high school, is the history of people of color in Rhode Island, primarily the story of peoples of African and Native American decent. These lesson units were developed as part of a project thanks to a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.
Rhode Island History Lesson Plans
These six units were developed using excerpts from our Rhode Island History journal to guide students through topics such as labor strikes, the Dorr Rebellion, and Slavery. They are best suited for grades 9-12, but can be adapted for use in the middle grades.
The Slave Ship Sally: Web of Complicity
This discrete lesson is intended to familiarize participants with many of the people and materials needed to prepare a ship for a slave trading voyage in the eighteenth century and to illustrate with a hands-on activity the web of complicity that stretched from farms to the sea in the global enterprise of the slave trade.
Going to Work Lesson Plans
These lesson plans address various issues relating to twentieth-century immigration in Rhode Island.