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Find lesson plans for all ages on a variety of topics built around collections featured in The People's Archive at DC Public Library.
How To Use The Library
Explore all the ways the library can support your students in their education with lessons on everything from how to begin the research process and efficiently taking notes, to accessing DC Public Library resources.
Elementary
What is Research?
Where should I do research?
How do I get started?
Taking notes to summarize information
Organizing information from different sources
Listing sources of information
Accessing DC Public Library Resources
Choosing the right resources
Researching at your local library
High School
What is research?
What are authoritative sources?
Where do I start?
How do I summarize research and avoid plagiarism?
How can I cite where I found information using a standard format?
What type of source should I use?
How can I use DC Public Library resources?
How can I use DC Public Library's research databases?
How can I use the collections on Dig DC?
Home Rule
Teach your students about DC self governance movements, including Home Rule and Statehood.
Grade 3
What makes Washington, D.C. unique?
Why is Washington, D.C. a District?
What is D.C. Home Rule?
Timeline of D.C. Home Rule history
Home Rule Day Rally
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and D.C. Home Rule
Statehood for Washington, D.C.
Leaders in Washington, D.C.'s Home Rule history
Leaders in Washington D.C.'s campaign for Statehood
United in the Home Rule movement
Grade 12
The Federal Government in Washington, D.C.
Taxation Without Representation
The Political Cartoons of Clifford Barryman
Timeline of D.C. Home Rule History
The 23rd Amendment and Home Rule
The Impact of Home Rule Day Rally
Early Leaders for D.C. Independence
The Impact of Statehood on Washington, D.C.
Retrocession as a Solution for Representation
Leaders in Washington D.C.'s Campaign for Statehood
Grade 12 - Ready For More
Seize the Moment: Home Rule Gains Support
Home Rule Coalition: Walter Fauntroy as an Agent of Change
Oral Histories: An Invaluable Resource
DC Commissioners Set the Stage
DC Elects a Mayor: Walter Washington
DC Appoints a City Council Chairperson: John Hechinger
Two Presidents Consult an Attorney: Charles Horsky
Paving the Pathway: Steps Forward in the Journey
How is Success Measured in a Nonlinear Journey?
Advocacy Moving Forward: DC Suffrage and You
Poor People's Campaign
Teach your students about protest and civil disobedience through the Poor People's Campaign, the movement that created Resurrection City on the National Mall in 1968.
Grade 3
Why Washington, D.C.?
Mules and the Poor People's Campaign
What was Resurrection City?
Life in Resurrection City
Children at Resurrection City
Role of the Newspaper in the Poor People's Campaign
Comparing the Solidarity Day Rally to Other Protests
Solidarity Day
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Poor People's Campaign
Leaders of the Poor People's Campaign
Grade 5
The Mule Train
Impact of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Poor People's Campaign
Give Me Shelter - Living in Resurrection City
Music in the Poor People's Campaign
"Hallelujah I'm A Traveling" Song
Hunger Wall Mural
What is Civil Disobedience?
Quaker Collaboration with the Poor People's Campaign
Quaker Protest at Capitol Steps
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales and the Poor People's Campaign
Grade 12
Action Bulletin No. 8
You and the Poor People's Campaign
What Role, What Sacrifice?
Give Us Our Daily Bread Campaign
Economic Bill of Rights
Coretta Scott King's Mother's Day Speech
Evicting Resurrection City
Was the Poor People's Campaign March as Success or a Failure?
Poor People's Campaign Today
Arts in DC
Show your students how to study art, and along the way teach them about the DC art community including Richard Dempsey, Lois Mailou Jones, and Alma Thomas.
Grade 2
Why do we create art?
Who was Alma Thomas?
Artists Take a Stand
Closely Reading Art
A Closer Look: The Artwork of Alma Thomas
Who as Lois Mailou Jones?
A Closer Look: The Artwork of Lois Mailou Jones
Who was Richard Dempsey?
A Closer Look: The Artwork of Richard Dempsey
Remembering and Honoring D.C. Artists
Grade 5
The Early Life of Alma Thomas
Alma Thomas and the Great Migration
Alma Thomas as an Artist and Teacher
The Little Paris Group: A Response to Discrimination
Alma Thomas and the Fight for Equal Rights
Alma Thomas and the African American Abstractionist Movement
Alma Thomas and the Space Race
Alma Thomas: A Leader in the World of Art
"The Important This is for Us to Create"
Grade 11
Alma Thomas: Educator, Artist, Visionary
Alma Thomas and the Value of Community
Seeking a More Perfect Union: The Civil Rights Movement
Alma Thomas and the March on Washington
Vertical Proliferation: The Cold War
Alma Thomas and the Space Race
Art Imitating Life Through the Lens of the Cold War
"I Wanted Something Beautiful": Alma Thomas' Worldview