Lesson Plans

DuSable Museum offers teachers the following lesson plans and worksheets for use in conjunction with a visit to the museum. We also offer suggested vocabulary lists for your students.

Lesson Plans and Worksheets

African Americans in the Civil War: Active Partners in the Fight for Liberation and Freedom

Curriculum Goals are listed as follows:

Engage young people in activities and experiences to investigate the role that African Americans played during the Civil War.
Provide opportunities for young people to reexamine history by examining the role that African Americans played in key events in US history.
Foster in young people an appreciation for those who came before us and fought to uphold the values of the United States (e.i., liberty, equality, justice, and opportunity).

Students will learn to understand the significance of African Americans in the Civil War. Appropriate for Grade Levels: 9-12 high school, can be adapted to middle school.

Download African Americans in the Civil War: Active Partners in the Fight for Liberation and Freedom (pdf)

African Civilization

Students will learn to understand the significance of African civilization. Appropriate for middle school through secondary school. Includes the Student Investigation Worksheet for Artifacts worksheet.

Download African Civilization Experience Lesson (pdf)

Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable

Students will learn about Chicago’s first non-Native American settler, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable. Appropriate for 4th grade through high school. Includes the Student Investigation Worksheet for Artifacts worksheet.

Download Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable Experience Lesson (pdf)

Historical Documents

Students will learn how to examine documents for information on historical purposes. Appropriate for middle school through secondary school. Includes the Student Investigation Worksheet for Documents worksheet.

Download Historical Documents Experience Lesson (pdf)

Suggested Vocabulary

The following suggested vocabulary lists can be introduced to students before visiting the museum.

Pre-Kindergarten

Africa
Community
Folktale
Kente Cloth
Kwanzaa
Village

Primary Grades

Artifact
Aviator
Authentic
Achievement
Biography
Document
Entrepreneur
Founder
Garments
Legislator
Masks
Mayor

Middle School & Secondary School

artifact
aviation
fraudulent
emancipation
legacy
mechanization
Primary resources
Secondary resources
authentic autobiography
Reconstruction Africa
segregation
Jim Crow laws
Civil Rights
Bronzeville
delta
Exodus
prosperity
Underground Railroad
research
fraudulent
Renaissance
enslavement
legislator
migration
testament
sharecropper