Lesson Plans

Share Your 1619 Curricula and Explore Lessons by Other Educators

A volunteer student helps the filmmakers demonstrate a scene breakdown. Image by Claire Seaton. Washington, D.C., 2018.

This page is a platform to share and archive activities, lesson plans, and unit plans designed by educators to support students’ explorations of The 1619 Project.

Contact [email protected] to share your lessons and your students’ work with our education team and community of educators. We welcome your voice and your students' voices in this space; help us grow this resource for all. Select lessons and student creations will appear here in the coming months. Check back here to see how other educators have been connecting to the story!

The Pulitzer Center has spent over a decade partnering with educators from all over the world to explore ways of increasing students’ critical thinking and communication skills by integrating news and global issues into curricula for all grades and subjects. The wisdom, creativity and ingenuity of our partner educators will always be a vital pillar of our education work. How will you connect The 1619 Project to your curricula? How will your students explore and process personal and curricular connections to the project? 

Not sure where to start? Click here for a list of activities designed to analyze and process The 1619 Project. For examples of how educators have used writing, discussion, visual art, performance, and community advocacy projects to explore reporting supported by the Pulitzer Center in the past, explore the links below:

Blended Photography for ELA, History, Spanish, and ELL Classrooms

By educators from R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, NC


Students from R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, NC present double-exposure portraits that they designed in their photography classes to visually communicate parts of their identities. The students created their portraits after participating in a hands-on photography workshop with Pulitzer Center grantee Daniella Zalcman, who uses double-exposure photography in her reporting. Image by Fareed Mostoufi. United States, 2018.

“Fractured Lands” 30ft. Timeline/Assessing Causes and Effects and Sourcing Our Stuff: Exploring Ethics in Clothing, Accessories and Food

By Anne-Michele Boyle, social studies educator at Whitney Young High School in Chicago, IL


Student Projects. Image courtesy of Anne-Michele Boyle.

Interpreting Global Issues Through Picasso’s Guernica

By Steven Hamann, visual arts educator in Wheeling, IL


Artist: Keelyn M.
Title: “Green Acid”

"My artwork connects to Picasso's Guernica because it has the broken mirror effect and uses a monochromatic color scheme. Also, there are different points of view shown in the shards of glass. I made this because I have always been interested in the topic of acid rain and I don't think people know how deadly acid rain can be to our homes and how we live. I wanted to show that in my art."

Photojournalism: Writing an Opinion Piece

By Pier Penic, Director and Founder of the Culture at Home support group for African American homeschooled students in DC, Maryland, and Virginia


Photojournalist Natalie Keyssar presents photography from her reporting on activism by youth in Venezuela to students from Culture at Home, a support group for homeschooled students in DC, Maryland and Virginia. After Keyssar's presentation, students wrote opinion pieces inspired by the reporting using the instructions below from their teacher Pier Penic. Image by Fareed Mostoufi. United States, 2017.

Piecing the Story Together: Visual Literacy Activity Using Photo Puzzles

By Carlyn Kouri, visual arts educator at Deal Middle School in Washington, DC


Women throw candy, clothes and furs to elders during the traditional blanket toss at the annual whaling feast in Point Hope, Alaska. Image by Katie Orlinsky. United States, 2015.

The People Behind the Stories

By Sharna Marcus, Middle East History and English teacher at the Walworth Barbour American International School in Israel


Projects by students in Sharna Marcus's class at Walworth Barbour American International School. Image by Sharna Marcus. Israel, 2019.

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