This work has been generously supported by the Colorado Historical Society-State Historical Fund.

Coal Field Lesson Plans
Lesson plans created by attendees of the Colorado Endowment for Humanities Teacher's Institute.

• Work and Culture of the Southern Colorado Coal Fields - 4th Grade Lesson Plan by Evelyn M. Heikes PDF (34k)
  
  
• Fourth Grade Lesson Plans on the Ludlow Massacre
  by Mike Sciortino PDF (20k)

• Sixteen Tons: A Thematic Unit on the Music of the
  Coal Mining Industry
  4th & 5th Grade General Music Lesson Plan
  by Anna Marie Tobey PDF (27k)
  

• The Progressive Era
  Lesson Plans Grades 8-12
  by Deborah Kortekaas (Golden Public Schools)
  with Revisions by Dean Saitta (University of Denver) PDF (48k)

Getting Started
Below are selected links to online lesson plans and resources on using and integrating primary sources in the classroom:

Lesson Framework
Developed by the Library of Congress for the "Learning Pages" of the American Memory Project, this lesson framwork aids teachers in incorporating and using primary sources in different parts of a lesson.

Lesson Ideas
Strategies and lesson plans developed by educators to help integrate primary sources into the classroom, drawing significantly upon American Memory collections.

Using Primary Sources
Also by the Library of Congress.

Lesson Plans and Top Humanities Websites from Edsitement

Decoding the Past: The Work of Archaeologists
One of the many lesson plans found on the Smithsonian Institution website.

Gateway to Educational Materials
This site provides a wealth of sample lesson plans on a variety of subjects. Of particular interest might be the areas of social studies, US history, and anthropology.

"I Started Filling Rifles..."
A Woman strike supporter remembers the 1914 Ludlow Massacre. This is an interview with Mary Thomas, one of the women participating in the coal strike. The site also links to an audio version of the interview in RealAudio format. This is an example of a resource that could be integrated into a lesson.