Author: Daniel Shogan, Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History Students will learn about the 1883 Massacre in Danville, Virginia as an example of violence against African Americans. Within the context of the massacre, they will be shown primary documents from the event. These documents will provide the students with not only a lens into the Danville of the nineteenth century, but also provide them with an opportunity to think critically about the documents. After careful discussion of the events and outcomes of the massacre, the students will be given vocabulary worksheets that help to define and underline the most important elements of the narrative.

This instructional plan combined Virgina Studies SOL 4.5b and WIDA English Language Development Standards. The lesson includes several activity options. Note: Some images may not appear in the "Overview". To view all images in this instructional plan, click "download" at the bottom of the overview.

In this learning experience, the students will analyze multiple primary source documents as well as secondary information sources to understand this watershed event in Virginia and US History. The three men who will be studied in this experience ran away from their slave-holding captors and made their way to Fort Monroe. Upon arrival, military leadership at the fort claimed that the run-aways were enemy contraband and therefore could be confiscated by the Union forces. They were declared free through this war-time loophole and when the news spread, many other African Americans would soon start coming to Fort Monroe to claim their freedom as well.  Students begin by examining the records of enslaved people who ran away “to the enemy” (Union forces). Finally, students will use a Cost/Benefit analysis chart to guide their analysis of secondary information sources and develop an understanding of the concepts of resistance and a working knowledge of the event of Mallory, Baker, and Townsend sparking one of the first blows to the system of slavery.

In this learning experience, the students will complete a primary source inquiry into the impacts of Reconstruction on Black experiences in Virginia and the South. The students will use the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning structure to defend one of two claims.Students will analyze sources that depict/detail Black experiences and perspectives before, during, and after the Reconstruction. This learning experience will be most effective after students have been introduced to the what and when of Reconstruction.

The online resources featured below were curated by the Dr. Carter G. Woodson Collaborative in order to support the approved edits to the SOL curriculum framework made by the Governor’s Commission on African American History Education. The SOL standard and the approved edits appear in the first two columns of the spreadsheet followed by correlating links and a contextual overview of each resource. The final column identifies each link as open educational resources (OER) vs. copyrighted materials that cannot be edited. As there are few resources that are entirely free of cultural bias, we suggest that you refer to the Collaborative’s Support and Guidance in Selecting and Enacting Resources document in order to consider how these materials can best be utilized.

Making and eating fry bread is a special event for many Native American people. People began to make fry bread because sometimes in the past they only had a few things to make meals with. This lesson leads students through the history and heritage of fry bread with the book Fry Bread– A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble and consider the similies and metaphors within the story, and then reflect on family traditions in their own culture and household through a flowchart of pseudocode. This lesson was created through a partnership between CodeVA and the Virginia Tribal Education Consortium (VTEC). 

Author: Katie Frazier, Museums at W&LStudents will examine a ceramic object made by David Drake (about 1800-about 1870), an enslaved person who lived on a plantation in Edgefield, South Carolina. As an enslaved individual, Drake was denied the basic rights of learning how to read and write. Despite writing being illegal for enslaved people, David Drake was known for writing his name and poetry on the ceramics he made. He wanted to express his feelings about life, religion and his own identity as an enslaved person.  

Students will read a passage about the Virginia economy after the Civil War. They will follow the instructions in the passage to code Ozobot to do a series of different things based on the economy. 

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.

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.

Students will be able to describe Jamestown's relative location at different scales (local, state, regional). They analyze the patterns and effects of Virginia Indian and English colonist settlement between 1607 and 1634. GeoInquiries are short, standards-based inquiry activities for teaching map-based content found in commonly used textbooks.

Investigate the location and population of Virginia's counties, independent cities, towns, and census designed places. Explore the population of Virginia's counties, independent cites through time. Students will distinguish between a county, independent city, and town and describe how population in Virginia has changed over time. GeoInquiries are short, standards-based inquiry activities for teaching map-based content found in commonly used textbooks.

Students describe contributions of Virginians during the Revolutionary War. They analyze the impact of geography on people and opinions toward independence in colonial Virginia. GeoInquiries are short, standards-based inquiry activities for teaching map-based content found in commonly used textbooks.

Students identify Virginia's major agricultural products and where they are grown with an online GIS. The They will explain the effects of agriculture on Virginia's economy. Contains links for primary source data related to Virginia agriculture. GeoInquiries are short, standards-based inquiry activities for teaching map-based content found in commonly used textbooks.

Students explore ways that everyday Virginians challenged Jim Crow in the Commonwealth by identifying different types of segregation during Jim Crow Virginia and analyze how the Green Book and other Virginians stood up to segregation. GeoInquiries are short, standards-based inquiry activities for teaching map-based content found in commonly used textbooks.

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 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.

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.