Authored by Jasmine Dunbar (Virginia Beach History Museums)Students will examine the daily lives of enslaved individuals and the institution of slavery in early Virginian history and understand its connections to current societal issues of predjudice, racism, and white supremacy.

This Lithograph by Richie Dunnavant c. 1850, was likely an advertisement for Slash Cottage as a resort destination on the Richmond-Fredericksburg and Potomac (RF and P) railroad.  As trains passed through rural communities on its way from city to city, in this case, Richmond to The Potomac River, small "resort" towns were built to delight passengers.  

In this activity, students will compare and contrast the experiences and contributions of Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Van Lew, and Mary “Bowser” during the Civil War era. Students will conduct a gallery walk (in-person or virtually) to gather information about these three women using a graphic organizer.

The purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It focuses on spying and includes the Rosenbergs, Alger Hiss, and U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers.  Students will analyze primary and secondary sources while working in groups and individually.   

This primary source activity seeks to introduce and/or reinforce concepts of Virginia living in the Early American Republic by exploring the dichotomy of rural and urban life through the experiences of John Marshall and Patrick Henry between 1771 and 1795, and by extension, the realities of urban and rural slavery in the post-colonial era.

This teaching guide and activity seeks to introduce primary sources to students so that theyT can understand how to analyze and interpret them to make conclusions about the past. The primary sources the students will analyze are from the John Marshall House’s collection. All of the sources presented, both objects and written, focus on the theme of clothing during the Early Republic (1780-1820), the period in which John Marshall lived. This teaching guide and activity follow the Virginia Standards of Learning from 4th-6th grade, but may be applicable for other grades/ages.

This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843) focuses on expanding vocabulary, developing student understanding of imagery and other figurative language, strengthening reading comprehension, and strengthening expository and persuasive writing skills.

Concepts: Algorithms, Time Lines, Sequence of Events, Cause and EffectTerms: Sequence, AlgorithmMaterials: Paper, Pencil, List of Important Dates and EventsLesson Delivery: This lesson can be used as an ongoing project, or a review lesson for Historical Events.The learner will create a timeline that lists historical events and dates in US or Virginia History. Timeline_Algorithm.pdf

This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “To Helen” (1836) focuses on developing student understanding of imagery and other figurative language, strengthening reading comprehension, and strengthening expository and persuasive writing skills.

From Voices of Virginiia, edited by Jessica Taylor and Emily Stewart. Lesson Plan 1: Prohibition includes a lesson plan, audio, transcript, historical context, narrator biography, and discussion questions.   Objectives (VUS.8): Students will be able to analyze an oral history from the 1920’s and identify the key historical factors (e.g., cars, Prohibition, corruption) the speaker is describing. Students will be able to connect the oral history to the historical context of The Great Gatsby. Students will understand important historical and cultural elements of the 1920s.  About Voices of Virginia:   http://hdl.handle.net/10919/96912  Feedback welcome: https://bit.ly/VoicesOfVirginia

Lesson plan includes an audio clip, transcript, SCIM-C activity script, worksheets, and model student results. Students will be able to describe Massive Resistance in Virginia in response to the Brown v. Board of Education ​ruling (VUS.13). Requires map of U.S. and artifacts reflecting responses across the U.S. From Voices of Virginia http://hdl.handle.net/10919/96912  Feedback welcome https://bit.ly/VoicesOfVirginia

Through the process of acquiring geographic information, students learn the practice of asking geographic questions and developing reasoned responses. Using local geographies and/or taking students out into the community offer multipe strategies for doing geography. Ideas presented were mostly introduced in APHG Academies that have been sponsored by the VGA, NCGE meetings, AP Annual Conferences, workshops, and through collaboration with colleagues. This collection is intended to help get new teachers started or to move others to grow their curriculum and enhance the experiences of their students and build geographic skills by promoting the inclusion of local geographies into classrooms and through personal observation and data collection in local environments.

This is a playlist that contains 5 videos that are designed to help Middle and High School music teachers incorporate Appalachian music and dance into the curriculum. It was produced by Blue Ridge PBS in collaboration with staff from the VDOE.

This is a Power Point slideshow covering Virginia Studies SOL 2 a, b, & c

This article from the Virginia Geographer assists teachers to understand Virginia's physical geography and given overviews of each of its five natural regions. The main elemenst of physical geography (landform regions and drainage systems, climate, vegetation, and wildlife) are all interrelated and combine to make Virginia and each of its regions unique places. In addition they influence the human geography of the Commonwealth, past and present.

During this unit, students will take you on a virtual field trip through one of the regions of Virginia. Along the way, they will use CS concepts like events to switch scences and sprites and sensing (conditions) to add interactivity.

Students will explore the enduring legacy of the cultures of enslaved people in Virginia by examining primary sources, engaging the research of Black historians, and connecting to their own experiences, interests, and cultures. Students document their thinking in a graphic organizer for formative assessment.

Through the process of acquiring geographic information, students learn the practice of asking geographic questions and developing reasoned responses. Using local geographies and/or taking students out into the community offer multipe strategies for doing geography. Ideas presented were mostly introduced in APHG Academies that have been sponsored by the VGA, NCGE meetings, AP Annual Conferences, workshops, and through collaboration with colleagues. This collection is intended to help get new teachers started or to move others to grow their curriculum and enhance the experiences of their students and build geographic skills by promoting the inclusion of local geographies into classrooms and through personal observation and data collection in local environments.

Students will explore primary and secondary sources to investigate the origin, purposes, and vitality of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

In this lesson, students will organize and visualize data from indentured contract databases from virtualjamestown.org in order to come to some conclusions about the characteristics of indentured servants in early colonial America. They will make specific decisions about how to organize the data and how to best visualize the data. They will then use the data to draw conclusions about indentured servants in early colonial Virginia, culminating in a creative journal entry assignment. Additional lessons can have students search for and analyze data on the enslaved Africans of early colonial Virginia in order to compare and contrast the two forms of labor in colonial Virginia.