Web Content Display
Curriculum Guides
The written material for these guides is fully available for downloading on this page. Film materials are available on the Library's YouTube channel.
If you are unable to access YouTube or would like a copy of the film material on DVD, please contact the Education Specialist. Lesson plans and online resources for teaching with primary sources are also available through the Digital Classroom on the National Archives website.
Eleanor Roosevelt Curriculum Guide
Civics Curriculum Guide
Investigating the Holocaust
Japanese American Internment
The Great Depression
World War II
Our Plain Duty
Franklin D. Roosevelt and World War II
The Presidency and the Supreme Court
Sights and Sounds of the Farm Security Administration 1935-1943
Red Tailed Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen
Eleanor Roosevelt Curriculum Guide 
Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Curriculum Guide
This curriculum guide and accompanying materials contains a set of twelve activities that you can use with your students to develop skills for analyzing primary source documents, explore Eleanor. Roosevelt’s work in helping to create the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and identify and practice using diplomatic skills.
The curriculum guide can be accessed here»
Civics Curriculum Guide
Twenty-eight activities for the 2019-2020 Goodman Initiative for American Youth Civics Program, presented in ten sections centered on key civic themes and topics. The activities can be used in any order and at any time throughout the year. Feel free to modify them, and the extension activity ideas, to best suit your style of teaching and the needs of your students.
The Curriculum Guide can be accessed here»
Investigating the Holocaust
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum has developed curriculum material for teaching about the Holocaust and Nazi aggression during WWII. This guide uses historical materials drawn from the Library’s archives, and a recently remastered documentary first produced in 1946, Nuremburg: Its Lesson for Today. It consists of six sections, each focused on a particular aspect of the Holocaust and Nazi aggression. The sections can be used with your students individually or collectively.
The purpose of this guide is to introduce students to the Holocaust through primary sources so that they may better understand the forces and factors that led to this horrendous period in world history and still lurk in the world today. Only by learning the lessons of the Holocaust can we hope to prevent these dark forces and factors from rising up once more.
The Curriculum Guide can be accessed here»
Teachable Moments: The Great Depression, World War II
Combining Documents and Documentaries for Use in the Classroom
The Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum’s Education Department is proud to present two fourteen-part curriculum guides titled Teachable Moments: The Great Depression and Teachable Moments: World War II. These guides have been developed for teachers as multi-purpose teaching tools. They contain material appropriate for students in all grade levels from 4th-12th grade, and beyond.
The guides are each centered on fourteen short film segments which are the core of the “teachable moments.” These were created by the Pare Lorentz Center from archival film footage and still photographs culled from the holdings of the Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum; part of the National Archives and Records Administration. With more than 17 million pages of documents, it is the world’s premier research center for the study of the Roosevelt era.
The segments are suitable for classroom viewing and are designed to provide a short, concise presentation of an historic topic or event. Each is supported with a transcript of the segment’s script and is accompanied by a set of short answer questions. Copies of historic primary source documents, each with its own set of in-depth questions, are provided to give students experience gathering and interpreting information from a variety of primary sources.
When viewed in sequence the teachable moments’ segments tell the story of the nation’s most severe economic crisis, and of the world's most deadly and destructive conflict. When viewed selectively, they can be used as points of departure to highlight the current connections between the issues and concerns we face in our own times and those that were faced in the times of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
All videos are available for streaming and download through YouTube. If you are unable to access YouTube or would like a copy of the film material on DVD, please contact the Education Specialist.
The Great Depression |  Video Segment Playlist (also available with closed captioning) |
World War II |  Video Segment Playlist (also available with closed captioning) |
"Our Plain Duty" FDR and America's Social Security
The guide includes copies of primary source documents, an overview of the Tuskegee Experiment and and a series of teaching activities for you to adapt to your classroom and curriculum needs.
To download the curriculum guide materials, please select a portion from the outline below or contact the Education Specialist to obtain a printed copy by mail.
- Curriculum Guide
- List of Related Archival Documents
- Download the Related Documents:
- Statement of the President Upon Signing the
Social Security Act - Political Cartoon on Social Security
- Report of Unemployment Insurance Committee to the Industrial Advisory Board (large file)
- The Problem of Economic Security - Outline Report
- Letter and Outline from the Committee on Economic Security
- Social Security Administration Information Poster
- Address of the President (Fireside Chat) April 28, 1935
- Statement of the President Upon Signing the
Video: Our Plain Duty FDR and America's Social Security
Franklin D. Roosevelt and World War II
This guide includes an overview of Franklin D. Roosevelt's leadership during World War II, a selection of historical documents on this topic, and a series of teaching activities for you to adapt to your classroom and curriculum needs.
Because it contains many large digital image files featuring archival documents, this curriculum guide is available for download in 9 distinct parts. Please select a portion from the outline below or contact the Education Specialist to obtain a printed copy by mail.
- Introduction and Overview
- Commander and Chief Exhibit Guide
- Documents Related to Significant Issues:
- Vocabulary
- Teaching Activities & Assignments
Link to YouTube for the film material that accompanies this curriculum guide. If you are unable to access YouTube or would like a copy of the film material on DVD, please contact the Education Specialist.
The Presidency and the Supreme Court
This package includes a brief overview of the Presidency and the Supreme Court since the Hoover Administration, a set of topical documents, and a series of teaching activities for you to adapt to your classroom and curriculum needs.
Because it contains many large digital image files featuring archival documents, this curriculum guide is available for download in 9 distinct parts. Please select a portion from the outline below or contact the Education Specialist to obtain a printed copy by mail.
- Related Documents:
Link to YouTube for the film material that accompanies this curriculum guide. If you are unable to access YouTube or would like a copy of the film material on DVD, please contact the Education Specialist.
Sights and Sounds of the Farm Security Administration 1935-1943
The guide includes an overview of the Great Depression, the New Deal Programs developed to combat it, and a series of teaching activities for you to adapt to your classroom and curriculum needs.
To download the curriculum guide materials, please select a portion from the outline below or contact the Education Specialist to obtain a printed copy by mail.
- Introduction
- Overviews
- Exhibit Guide: This Great Nation Will Endure
- Thumbnails: FSA Photographs
- Related Documents
- Vocabulary, Teaching Activities & Assignments
Link to YouTube for the film material that accompanies this curriculum guide.
Red Tailed Angels: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen
The guide includes copies of primary source documents, an overview of the Tuskegee Experiment and and a series of teaching activities for you to adapt to your classroom and curriculum needs.
To download the curriculum guide materials, please select a portion from the outline below or contact the Education Specialist to obtain a printed copy by mail.
- Introduction
- Overviews
- Suggested Readings and Related Documents
- Related Documents:
- Vocabulary, Teaching Activities & Assignments
Link to YouTube for the film material that accompanies this curriculum guide.
For more information or to request printed copies of the curriculum guide materials above, please contact the Education Specialist.
