Lessons & Activities
Lesson Plans
Suffrage Strategies: Voices for Votes
Students in grades 3-8 identify different methods people used to change attitudes about suffrage for women and create original documents encouraging citizens to vote in current elections.
Oral History and Social History
This oral history lesson for grades 5-12 includes a section of primary sources on working women in the 1930s.
Women’s History Month Word Clouds (PDF, 205 KB, 2 pgs.) Students (K-12) create "word clouds" using excerpts of letters and speeches by famous women.
Women and Congress Students (K-12) explore the benefits of increasing women’s congressional representation.
March is National Women's History Month Students (grades 3-12) explore the accomplishments of women in U.S. history with your class by creating a scrapbook that highlights the accomplishments of famous American women.
In the Shadows, Agents of Change (PDF, 131 KB, 3 pgs.) Students (grades 6-8, adaptable for 4-5) explore the role played by gender during an era of expanding political rights and personal liberties.
Nineteenth Century Women: Struggle and Triumph Students (grades 6-12) examine journals, letters, narratives and other primary sources and write about women who helped shape the history of the United States.
Actions That Changed The Law The story behind the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, students (grades 6-12) examine the lawmaking process, consider how Supreme Court decisions can prompt better laws, and learn about the rights and responsibilities they will have as workers.
Women's Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs Students (9-12) examine attitudes and beliefs for and against the Women's Rights Movement and evaluate the reliability and accuracy of sources used to represent competing perspectives.
Women Writers and Dissent in 20th and 21st Century American Literature
In this unit, students in grade 10 learn of the contributions to literature made by women of various ethnic and racial backgrounds.
Eleanor Roosevelt and the Rise of Social Reform in the 1930s Students (grades 9-12) explore Eleanor Roosevelt's role during and after the New Deal as well as examine the lives and works of influential women who were part of her political network.
Women's History Month Lessons and activities from the Center for Civics Education.
Sets of Additional Lessons
New York Times’ Lesson of the Day: ‘Kamala Harris Will Make History. So Will Her ‘Big, Blended’ Family.’
In this lesson, students will learn about Kamala Harris and her extended family, and how together they may broaden the nation’s ideas about family dynamics and gender roles. (grades 9-12)
Women with Character, Women Who Inspire
Use this lesson plan from PBS NewsHour to guide students as they identify and write a brief description about an inspiring woman of character in their lives.
Women's History Month A collection of galleries, lesson plans, documents, and videos for grades 6-12 from PBS's Independent Lens series.
Women's History Lesson Plan for Teachers
Biographies and lessons examining the contributions of women in settling the West, wartime, politics, government, arts, literature, music, sports, sciences, mathematics, and technology.
Teaching with Historic Places: Women's History Lesson Plans
Lessons for K-12 students use historic places – such as Clara Barton’s House, a Virginia Plantation and a female aviator’s home in Brooklyn – to explore aspects of women’s history
