We often get requests from teachers who work with younger students for primary sources or activities to use with younger students. Here are a few resources and teaching ideas to help engage younger students and help them think about the impact of women in history and in our world.
As we enter this election year you may want to teach your students about voting and suffrage. The lesson plan Suffrage Strategies: Voices for Votes explores how suffragists convinced people to support allowing women the right to vote. Students can consider which techniques worked the best, use primary source as models to create their own materials in support of a cause of interest or see how the strategies used in the past are being used today.
Want to explore how women played a role in important events in the history of the United States? Women in the Civil War uses images and other resources to explore the impact women had during the Civil War and how the students might describe explain that role to others. One of the Library’s Free to Use and Reuse sets features African American women changemakers who were leaders in the civil rights movement and in other events in our history.
Looking for another way to engage younger students with primary sources? Try playing the question game using Free to Use and Reuse sets that feature women. There are sets featuring nurses, teachers and students, athletes, as well as a set created for women’s history month. You may also want to use the question game with our primary source set on women in science and technology to learn how women helped create resources that helped our country grow.
Women have played many roles in science and technology. Students can read about the woman who created external fire escapes, the hidden figures of the space race, and one of the most notable women of flight, who left behind a hand print that students can study today. Looking for activities to include in the study of these women? This blog post has some wonderful ideas.
What other ideas do you have for teaching younger students about women’s contributions during this special month? Let us know in the comments.
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