Lesson Plans

With Tenement Museum resources, students become historians. Using our teacher-designed, teacher-tested lesson plans, students engage in inquiry and learn to use critical thinking to interpret objects, oral histories, and primary sources, while making history relevant to today. Our classroom resources support multi-state History-Social Studies and English Language Arts curricula and can be used with or without a museum visit.

We currently offer four kinds of resources for teachers, including unit plans, lesson plans, and family stories. Whichever resource you select, you will find primary sources such as video stories, oral histories, documents, and photos in each. Educators can sort by grade level, unit plan, lesson plan, family stories, or primary source type below.

Be sure to check out our new comprehensive suite of virtual field trips and sign up for our monthly teacher’s newsletter for tips from other teachers, event and webinar information, new resources, and more!

Video-halo-shampoo
All Grades

Halo Shampoo Ad

Watch a TV shampoo advertisement from the 1950’s and consider the messages.

Video-Jose-spanish
All Grades

José discusses Spanish channels On TV

Watch a migrant from Puerto Rico, José Velez, tell us how he maintained his Spanish in...

Oral-History-Jose
All Grades

Memory from José About Helping His Mom

Listen to a migrant from Puerto Rico, José Velez, remember an important rule he had to...

Document-1870-census
All Grades

1870 Census

Students find 8-10 facts about the people in this building 150 years ago. Who is the...

Document-1910-census
All Grades

1910 Census

See the type of work an immigrant family from the early 20th century, The Rogarshevksys,...

Photo-Kastoria-postcard
All Grades

Kastoria Postcard c. 1900

Postcard of the city of Kastoria, Greece in 1900.

Photo-1898-orchard-street
All Grades

1898 Photograph of Orchard Street

Imagine the sights, smells, and sounds of the lower east side in 1898.

Photo-confino-family-1913
All Grades

Confino Family Photograph, 1913

See portrait of the Confino family shortly after they were reunited in New York City after...

Document-1900-census
All Grades

1900 Census

Gather information about the Levines, a family who immigrated from the Russian Empire in...

Document-1923-ship-manifest
All Grades

1923 Ship Passenger Manifest

Find Adolfo Baldizzi, an immigrant from Italy, on this 1923 Ship Manifest.

Oral-History-Allison-Wong
All Grades

Alison Talks About Watching TV

Hear Alison Wong, who came to the United States from China as a baby, talk about...

Oral-History-Bella
All Grades

Bella Discusses Paul Anka

Listen to Bella Epstein, a child of refugees, discuss the music heard in her 1950’s...

Tools for Educators

Visit our Teacher Resources page for more tools, programs and information that can enrich learning and understanding about immigration and migration.

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