LESSON PLANS ON AGING ISSUES:
          Creative Ways to Meet Social Studies Standards


U.S. History

Overview of Lesson Plans

The lessons work well as a series or each can stand alone. For a complete lesson plan and set of overheads and/or student handouts, click on the appropriate link.

Lesson Plans
Description
Recent history comes alive in this semester-long project that integrates oral history into high school U.S. history studies from the time of the Great Depression to the 1960s. Students work in pairs to interview an older adult about two of these historical periods, support their interview with internet research, and present written and oral analysis. Interviewing guides are provided for various topics, including the Depression, WWII, and labor/management struggles.
The 1930s take on depth and color when described by someone who lived through this complex period. Middle school history students use the internet to learn about the crucial and fascinating role of oral history in historical inquiry and develop listening skills as they learn to conduct one-on-one interviews with an older adult who lived through the Great Depression. In oral and written form, students share their experience with classmates and reflect on its relevance to their own lives today.
Students become historians investigating the conditions of older people at the turn of the 21st Century. News items they collect in their research illustrate the relevance of aging to current economic and political events. Working in groups, they create a bulletin board that serves as a jumping off point for discussion of how aging issues impact younger people both now and as they grow older.
Students use library research to recognize the achievements of a well-known older person and discover that people have goals throughout their lives. Students work in groups to chart the events of that person's life, relate the role of values and character traits to personal achievements, and discuss the importance of making choices. Student essays apply knowledge gained to their own experience.
This two-lesson unit offers a hands-on demonstration that youth and older adults have common issues, and how cooperative efforts can yield positive results. Student teams role-play two different age groups that create and present a proposal to the town council to fund a project benefiting their age group. Includes the handout "Similarities Between Young and Old."