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Historical Documents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Download Historical Documents Experience Lesson (pdf)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