Lesson Plans

**Lessons from outstanding Arizona social studies teachers downloadable as pdf documents**

Tales From the Crypt: Learning About Geography and History From Your Local Cemetery - Click to downloadTales from the Crypt ( Teacher's Guide - pdf Document)
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This activity involves students performing tasks and analyzing information that adheres to the National Geographic Standards. This learning adventure incorporates an innovative teaching strategy, and contains elements that are gender and culturally sensitive.

Cemeteries are unique resources for studying the peoples of an area. In this activity, students will gather and evaluate information about cultural symbols, nationalities, lifespans, and gender issues in a specialized landscape, the cemetery.
Student Assignments, Nationalities, and Tombstone Tour information (select to download). Lesson authored by Gale Olp Ekiss.

GeoScrapbooking - Click to download (pdf Document)
(right click and choose "Save Target As..." if you need to save the document). The use of photography can serve as a valuable teaching strategy when asking students to apply the Five Themes of Geography during a field study. This lesson is an example of how using photographs to create Geoscrapbooks can be used to create memory books which enable students to demonstrate an understanding of the Five Themes. This lesson is an example of how one 6th grade team uses Geoscrapbooks on a field study of the riparian area at Red Rock State Park in Sedona, Arizona. Lesson authored by Diane Godfrey.

The Geography of Folk Tales - Click to download (pdf Document)
(right click and choose "Save Target As..." if you need to save the document). The use of engaging literature is a proven method of teaching many concepts in the curriculum. Foreign stories (folk tales, legends, etc.) can be both engaging and informative of the cultures and other geographic features of various lands throughout the world. The purpose of this activity is to give students practice in recognizing the Five Themes of Geography through the use of foreign stories. Lesson authored by Liz Hinde.

GeoLiteracy Project Unabashedly Successful!

The Arizona Geographic Alliance with support from the National Geographic Society, Arizona State University, and the state of Arizona, have created 85 lessons that integrate geography content with reading and writing skills. Based on Arizona state standards, these lessons include assessments that parallel state mandated tests. For more information, check http://alliance.la.asu.edu/azga/ under Outreach and Events--GeoLiteracy Project. At this site you will find: a sample lesson, a introduction to the project, and information on in-service workshops as well as how to order the CD ROM.

War & Wildlife - Click to download (pdf Document)
This lesson focuses on the unique behavior of deer along a stretch of the former Iron Curtain in Germany. Students will read and analyze a newspaper article about wildlife research tracking the migration of red deer between Germany and the Czech Republic. Students will then observe a map of similar research on elk taking place in Arizona and compare the two situations. This lesson provided by Arizona Game & Fish Department.

Previous lessons not yet updated to new ACSS format...

Citizens as Policy Makers - Click to download (pdf Document)
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Arizona's Constitutional History - Click to download (pdf Document)
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