Lesson Plans

The Underground Railroad in Rhode Island

Underground Railroad in Rhode Island

This unit contains four high-school level lessons using primary and secondary sources about the Underground Railroad in Rhode Island. This unit is paired with our module of essays about the topic that can be found on our website under “EnCompass.”

Rhode Island, Slavery, and the Slave Trade

  Slavery, Citizenship, and Civil Rights: Documenting Rhode Island’s People of Color

The focus of these nine units, developed for grades five through high school, is the history of people of color in Rhode Island, primarily the story of peoples of African and Native American decent. These lesson units were developed as part of a project thanks to a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.

The Slave Ship Sally: Web of Complicity

The objective of this lesson is to (1) familiarize participants with many of the people and materials needed to prepare a ship for a slave trading voyage in the eighteenth century and (2) to illustrate in a physical way the web of complicity from farms to the sea in the global enterprise of the slave trade.

Rhode Island History journal lessons

In this page, we have two lessons using journal articles from Rhode Island History that complement this module, “Cato Pearce 1790 Census,” that uses the 1780 census to document slavery in Rhode Island, and “Building the College Edifice,” which looks at the enslaved labor used in building Brown University’s college edifice.

Rhode Island and the Industrial Revolution

Child Labor vs. Education

Child Labor

Child Labor vs. Education

Rhode Island History journal lessons

In this page, we have three lessons using journal articles from Rhode Island History that complement this module, “They Didn’t Shut Up: Women Labor Organizers,” in which Al Sisti, a retired steelworker, reminisces about Anne Burlak, a union activist, “A Call to Arms” about Thomas Wilson Dorr’s forceful effort to implement the People’s Constitution, and “The Dorriad,” in which students analyze a poem for further exploration of the Dorr Rebellion.

Narragansett History

Photograph from an August Meeting in the 1930s. Courtesy of Tomaquag Museum

Native Voices Series

The Tomaquag Museum partnered with PBS Learning Media to produce three episodes of Native Voices for grades . Each episode comes with support materials for teachers including lesson plans. The episodes are Native Voices: Social IssuesNative Voices: Tomaquag Museum, and Native Voices: Wampum.

This Land is Home: A Seasonal Round in Native New England

The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Brown University offers an online learning module with an educator’s guide for grades three to five. It is a self-paced, virtual learning module that explores how the seasons shape traditional and contemporary Indigenous lifeways in New England.

Immigration to Rhode Island

Going to Work lesson plans

This page contains ten unit plans pertaining to immigration in Rhode Island for grades K-12. Units that complement topics covered in this module include Cape Verdean ConnectionEastern European Jews: Freedom and Citizenship, and Early 20th Century Newspaper Project.

Italian Immigration to Providence

The Steamship Historical Society created this comprehensive lesson about Italian Immigration which includes interactive features!

African American Civil Rights in Rhode Island

Slavery, Citizenship, and Civil Rights: Documenting Rhode Island’s People of Color

The focus of these nine units, developed for grades five through high school, is the history of people of color in Rhode Island, primarily the story of peoples of African and Native American decent. These lesson units were developed as part of a project thanks to a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.

20th Century African Heritage Civil Rights in Rhode Island

These units, developed for grades three through high school, use primary documents, clips from oral histories, and video clips to guide students through the analysis of 20th century civil rights issues in Rhode Island. The units were developed as part of a project thanks to a grant from the National Park Service.